How do I support charities with my vending Bis.

[Mr.Vendor5]

I am a newbie at this whole vending deal and have been reading basically all of this sites topics to get info. However; I still would like to understand how to I affiliate my new bis with a charity. Who do I call, talk to, where should I go and perhaps I could get some direction. I would very much appreciate any help, but it would be great if somebody could give me some numbers to call a charity in my state of Florida. Lastly I would just like to know if the charities help you folks place your vending machines? Is it better then offering them like 20%. Thnx and please help.

[BudLeiser]

Where in Florida? If your in Orlando keep me in mind when your ready to give up your route cheap. oh and id rather buy used doubles, i have enough triples.

[BnDVending]

In my opinion (I am fairly new to this whole thing myself), I think the National Children's Cancer Society (NCCS) is the HANDS DOWN BEST way to use a charity. They have lots of options outside of the stickers you place on your machines. Though I do NOT recommend getting the brochures (they promote the NCCS more than they promote your business and in my opinion can be NEGATIVE in regard to showing how to raise funds for NCCS through your business, it sucks...a lot). I ended up not using the brochures I purchased at all because of the wording.

I HIGHLY recommend buying a shirt, and possibly even a hat, for dropping off and servicing the machines. This makes you appear to be much more affiliated with NCCS and businesses like that. I purchased the $5 dollar identification card, also somewhat of a waste, as I never use it the shirt does that for me. The last thing I would like to recommend buying is the certificates! The certificates will create a lot of good will if you present them to businesses after 3 months of being placed, and are making X amount of dollars that makes it worth your while to have the machine there.

• Purchase Stickers
• Purchase a Shirt
• Purchase Certificates

Those are my opinions and I hope they help!!

Barry

[joebob051977]

National Children's Cancer Society IMHO has the best set-up for charity vending. I no longer affiliate myself with NCCS. I was told by a large company in my city that I could not locate an NCCS charity machine there because of this site. http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4168. NCCS got a poor rating. Charity Navigator rates most of the major charities. I have since then decided that I would use a local charity and start doing commission. Charity vending is a good starting point. I believe that to be successful in any business you need to be flexible. This includes the charities you use, or giving commission. Someplaces, giving into an employee fund might be the best way in. Sometimes, they don't like your charity and a different charity would be the way in. Other places want straight commission. You never know until you get in there and talk to them. As far as charities, NCCS wants $1/mo per sticker if you pay for the whole year. I donate about 10% to Citizens for Animal Rescue and Adoption (CARA) which is a local charity.  I can stand behind this charity! I adopted 2 rescued cats from them. Everyone seems to like animals. I know that a fair number of people here use their local Humane Society as a charity. Most of the vending charities want between $1-2/mo. Here is a good topic on charities for vending    http://vendiscuss.com/forum/index.php?topic=159.0 

[BudLeiser]

I dont really underatand those ratings. It lists the values of % but doesnt explain how it comes up with an efficiency rating nor does it address program effectiveness.

[G-man422]

Mr.Vendor5,

    Find a charity you are passionate about or one that you really like.  Do you like helping disabled veterans, building houses for the poor, or helping cancer patients?  The charity you choose will tell a lot about your business.  Look online or in the phone book, give the charity a call and see if you can donate a set $ amount per month to them for them allowing you to say/show you are supporting that charity.  Getting a charity isn't too hard because to them it's free money.

[joebob051977]

I dont really underatand those ratings. It lists the values of % but doesnt explain how it comes up with an efficiency rating nor does it address program effectiveness.

There is a section on the site called Methodology which explains how they come up with this number. Only 16% of it's revenue goes to the intended target (helping pay the bills for kids cancer treatments). 82.7% of the money goes towards paying bills for cancer treatments. I personally don't think that this is bad, but is is bad enough to get a poor rating. The company that had an issue with this also had a problem with the CEO making over $200,000/year.

[Jax Snacks]

NCCS is a fine charity, but everyone and his brother is using it now.  So as an area gets saturated, it possible that the location will say, "we already have one of your machines"!  I used to have that problem with my charity back when it was more popular with vendors and before NCCS became the number one choice.

Jax