How to Run a Cell Phone Collection Drive For Your Charity Or Non-Profit

Every charity organization or non-profit seems tocellular phone collection drive and how their
be doing cell phone or computer collection drivesassociation or student body can help you. The
these days. Is it still worthwhile for yourunderlying message is that they're not merely
organization to collect old cell phones to help raiseassisting you collect old mobile phones but helping
funds? The answer, of course, is an unqualifiedyou feed the children, save rain forests, protect
yes.coral reefs, or whatever it is that your charity or
One hundred million cell phones are discardednon-profit does.
every year in the US - just about 30% of theseWorking with a cell phone recycling or trading
used phones are recycled or sent back to thecompany
manufacturers. The remaining 70% or so areSince they will be paying for the shipping costs,
reported as lost, given to friends, thrown in trashyou should contact the cell phone recycler or
bins, or hidden in drawers. There's a huge supplytrader beforehand, preferably before you start
of old cell phones out there and mobile phoneyour collection program. This the stage where you
trading companies, like Pacebutler Corporation ofcan negotiate special pricing with them, which isn't
Edmond, Oklahoma, are still paying top dollar (ashard to obtain if you tell them of the large
much as $75 per piece) for those old phones.number of phones you expect to collect and sell
Door to door collectionto them on a regular basis. You can also ask for
Along with placing drop boxes and pasting noticeshelp with the flyers, collection boxes, and posters
in strategic public places, door-to-door collection is- they will only be too happy providing you these
the traditional way of running cell phone collectionsupport materials since you're doing business with
drives. The advantage of this method is that youthem.
get to build relationships with the members ofSending your collected phones to the trading or
your community through person-to-personrecycling company
interaction and help spread your message (if thatMobile phone trading companies, like Pacebutler
is a goal) while doing your used phone collectionCorporation, have online price lists for you to
activities. Your results (total number of usedcheck before sending the phones in bulk to them.
cellular phones collected) using this method will beIf you have the time, I also suggest you find out
limited by the size of your community or thethe actual price of the cell phones that you have
available personnel doing the legwork.and come up with a rough estimate of the total
Working with students and social groupsworth of your collected used phones, to temper
Working with student groups or social clubs inexpectations and prevent any conflict in the
your city or community will yield better resultsfuture. While some models may fetch a buying
than the door-to-door method described above.price as high as $75 per piece, many old ones out
Here, you are leveraging the reach and networkthere are priced to just around a dollar or lower
of a larger group to help you collect used cellper piece. Traders will not pay for non-working
phones for your fund raising - more than whatphones or those that are too old to be of any
you can normally achieve going about it on youruse.
own.Done right and done regularly, cell phone collection
Arrange to speak before the student body or thedrives can be an important source of funds for
PTA in your local school and do a compellingyou. Millions of cell phone are thrown away and
presentation about your activities and advocacywasted every year, collecting just a fraction of
and how these are helping people better theirthese can make a significant difference in the
lives. Don't forget the call to action at the end offinances of any non-profit or charity.
your presentation, telling them about your planned