How military charities get items donated

For letter structure and follow-up, see how to get silent auction donations and the donation request letter template.

Equip solicitors with numbers

A volunteer asking a business to support a military charity will meet the scepticism directly, sometimes bluntly. Without preparation they get defensive, which confirms it.

Give them a half-page instead: what the organization does, who it serves specifically, what a grant or a care package costs, how much of a dollar reaches programmes, and where to find the filings. A solicitor who answers a hard question with a figure has converted the objection into a reason.

The order

1. Veteran and spouse-owned businesses

Numerous around any installation, personally connected to the cause, and the warmest ask in the silo. Spouse-owned businesses in particular are under-asked and well networked with each other.

2. Employers with military hiring commitments

Companies with veteran hiring programmes have a stated commitment, a budget and frequently a veterans employee group that will engage directly.

3. Defence-adjacent businesses, carefully

Contractors and suppliers give readily. Where your organization has any relationship to procurement, contracting or an installation's decisions, screen them — a donation that looks like access is the category's other reputational problem.

4. Veterans service organizations locally

Posts, lodges and chapters are separate bodies with their own members, halls and auxiliaries. They will donate, promote and sometimes host — and they are under-approached because organizations assume they are competitors.

5. Service clubs and congregations

Both fund concrete assistance with a named cost, which is what you have.

6. Past beneficiaries who have opted in

Only where they initiated contact and only for what they offered. Never approach a family the organization has assisted.

7. The wider community

Standard, and last.

Do not lean on the flag

The sentimental register is the one the category's bad actors used and the one donors have learned to discount. Ask like any competent local charity: this is what we do, this is what it costs, this is what your donation buys, here is our accounting.

Timing

• Ten weeks — solicitor half-page written with current figures; any installation permissions started, because they are slow
• Eight weeks — veteran and spouse-owned businesses
• Six weeks — employers, veterans service organizations, service clubs
• Four weeks — community and gap-filling
• Two weeks — catalogue closed; anything carrying a service mark cleared

Avoid the fortnight around Veterans Day and Memorial Day for soliciting as well as for running — every business in town is being asked in those weeks.

General information, not legal advice for your organization. Rules on fundraising at installations, soliciting service members, and the use of unit names, insignia and service marks come from DoD and service regulation and from the installation itself — ask the installation and your own counsel before acting.

Committee structure: committee and volunteer roles.