TIP O’ THE…MOMENT

Tips on how to have a successful soccer ball drive from our team, ISC Arsenal Blue ’91, to yours.

Contributed by Katie and Emily

#1 PLAY AS A TEAM

First of all, you will need to designate some soccer ball drive leaders. We, Katie and Emily, are the leaders for the ISC Arsenal ’91 soccer ball drive, and we recommend having 2-3 leaders. Trying to coordinate everything with 16 people will be way too hard. But, a forewarning to team leaders, you will end up doing most of the work. Getting your entire team involved will take some time because everyone has different schedules. Send emails out in advance though, and you should be fine. Include your whole team in making signs, handing out flyers and manning the booth. You could also designate different jobs, but that will take some excellent leadership and coordination skills (you can do it!). At our donation station/booth, we gave girls 1-2 hour shifts depending on their schedules and how much they were willing to do. We had 2-3 girls per shift. Oh, and tell your team that this counts for community service hours. Good luck!

#2 SAVE THE DATE

The collection dates are very important and should be convenient to your donators. More convenience = more donations. My team chose to collect during the middle to end of September. I must say, this was a wise decision because the weather was still warm and it was during both the rec and select seasons. We collected for two weekends, again two weekends. Since teams have both home and away games, this gave all teams a chance to donate. It also gave those who didn’t know about our drive when they passed by our booth the first weekend, an opportunity to come back the next weekend. We began at 9 am and continued until 4 pm on both Saturday and Sunday. You should choose your times according to game schedules for the field or place you are collecting at.

#3 LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION

Remember, convenience = more donations. We strongly suggest setting up your collection table/booth/donation station at your club’s main practice and game field. That way, as teams shuffle to their games, you can catch them and ask them to donate. It makes it easy on people just to throw a few old soccer balls into their cars before driving down to the field for a game.

#4 GET THE WORD OUT

If nobody knows, then nobody will care. Don’t just set up your booth one random day because believe us, very few people will be willing to drive back to their houses and dig out those spider-webby soccer balls from the garage, then come back to your booth. Two to four weeks before your collection date, begin to spread the word. We recommend sending the manager of your club an email introducing yourselves, your project, what, when and where. Ask him or her to forward the email onto the entire club (both select/premiere and rec teams). Send little reminders out as the collection date draws nearer, too. Then contact your club’s website coordinator and ask if you can post a short blurb about your team and Get a Kick Out of Sharing on the site (don’t forget to bold the place and date!). Signs and flyers are great for communicating also. Paint and put up large signs at your planned collection area, your local fields, your school, everywhere! Local coffee shops are great too. Hand out flyers to your friends, neighbors, high schools teams, etc.

#5 CALL ME

Communication is very important. You need to make yourself available for questions, comments and suggestions. On your flyers and signs, don’t forget to leave contact information! We (Katie and Emily) were the leaders of the drive for our team and so we left both of our home numbers and an email address. We set up a separate email account just for our team’s community service efforts (iscsoccergirls@comcast.net) so that keeping track of things would be easier. Also, put World Vision’s Get a Kick Out of Sharing website (www.worldvision.org/soccerballs) on you flyers and signs to give people a chance to check out the program and pictures for themselves.

#6 ASK FOR DISCOUNTS

At a local soccer or sports store, ask if you can get a discount on soccer balls if you promise to buy all them from that store. Then return the favor by mentioning them in your flyers, emails and newspaper articles. We were able to buy about 70 brand new soccer balls from the Soccer Nation store for less than $10 each. And these were really nice balls. Our help from Soccer Nation was essential.

#7 YEAH! AN EXCUSE TO BE IN THE NEWSPAPER

Utilize the press as a way to tell your community about Get a Kick Out of Sharing. My team was in the Seattle Times newspaper twice (thanks Sherry Grindeland!) and the EYSA paper Play On (thanks Erin Freehan!) once for our efforts. Try to get an article in before your collection date so that you can circulate dates and times to donate, but after is okay too; it lets others know about the Get a Kick Out of Sharing program so that maybe they can start their own drive. Don’t know how to get into the newspaper? Well that was pretty easy for us because my (Emily’s) mom majored in journalism and was able to write press releases for us. Myself, I have no idea how to do it…but email us at iscsoccergirls91@comcast.net and my mom can help.

#8 THE DISPLAY IS KEY

It’s common sense — when you go shopping, are you more likely to buy from the store with clothes thrown everywhere, or the one with different items featured prettily among the others neatly hung up? It’s the same with donation stations. A brighter and bigger booth is better (whoa…tongue twister). We started with a plain grey table, then spruced it up a bit by taping large signs that we painted along the edges. We bought multicolored balloons and taped them to the table and the entrance to the field where we were collecting. World Vision gave us a big Get a Kick Out of Sharing display sign to put up next to our table. It definitely drew lots of attention. We placed World Vision and Get a Kick Out of Sharing flyers and brochures neatly on our table. And we used signage. The team painted long signs and hung them up near main roads and around the field we were collecting at. Last but not least, our soccer ball collection boxes were great. We got some big boxes from a nearby storage business and pasted butcher paper to the sides. We painted the sides with soccer balls, arrows, “World Vision’s Get a Kick Out of Sharing”, “Donate Soccer Ball’s Here”, and “ISC Arsenal”. Grabbing people’s attention was not a problem.

#9 MONEY IS GOOD TOO…

Don’t just stick to soccer balls. Cash donations are great! For those that didn’t hear about our drive, we left a jar out with a colorful flyer that said “Cash Donations” and had a little blurb about who we were, what we were doing and to where the proceeds would go. Those that forgot to bring their soccer balls could donate too. This actually proved to be about as rewarding as the collected soccer balls. The money you receive can go towards pumps (1 per 10 balls) and brand new balls. Also, ask local stores if you can leave jars with flyers asking for donations near their checkout registers.

#10 DEMONSTRATIONS ARE LIKE SAMPLES…WHICH ARE GOOD

Get people involved around you; it will get them excited about donating. A great way to do this is my giving people an opportunity to see what a soccer ball made by kids in Africa is like, and then let them make their own. How? Scrunch up and put together 42 plastic grocery bags, then wrap it up with twine or string…then try playing with it. If you are extreme, do it barefoot.

#11 DON’T BE LAZY

When the day of your precious drive finally arrives, step into salesperson mode. It’s easy just to sit back and relax behind your collection table, but soccer balls don’t collect themselves! You can chillax and chat with your friends, maybe listen to some music, but don’t forget to be welcoming and informational. Get up and hand out some brochures, ask for donations, and tell people about your cause. Don’t be afraid! We found that by telling passersby about Get a Kick Out of Sharing, giving them flyers and asking for a small cash donation, we received a lot more than by just sitting and waiting. The phrase, “$10 buys a brand new soccer ball for a child in Africa”, works too. If you have 2 or more people at a shift, have one of them take the cash donation jar around to the fields and ask parents watching their kid’s play to donate. Chances are they will donate; whether it’s because they really care, or they want you to shut up and leave so that they can watch their kid play, it doesn’t matter…as long as you get the money.

#12 DEAL OR NO DEAL

As we were manning our booth one day, a man from a pizza place (Round Table) nearby made a deal with us: he gives us coupons if we hand them out. That way, his pizza place is made familiar and we give donators yet another reason to give. Now we could use the phrase, “Donate soccer balls or cash and give kids in need around the world a chance to play the game you love…andreceive a free pizza!” So make some deals!!!

#13 THANK YOUS

Everybody hates writing thank yous. Well, every sane person. But thanking those that donated is essential to your soccer ball drive because it lets them know that their gift made a difference and will hopefully encourage them to donate next time. Hang up another sign down where you collected the balls and write down your results, people love results (and don’t forget to write “Thank You!” either).

Also send an email to your club manager with a thank you and the results so that he or she can forward it to the entire club. Send thank you notes to individuals or organizations that helped you out. For example, we sent thank yous to the owners of Soccer Nation, the people who wrote articles about our drive and the guys from BEST Camp who donated so many balls and new t-shirts. We also put up a BIG thank you poster with photos of the drive and a thermometer with our results down at the fields where we collected balls and money. We wanted everyone who contributed even $1.00 to know that they made a difference.

# 14 WHAT NOT TO WEAR SHIP (hahaha)

• When someone handed us a soccer ball, we accepted the ball and did the separating later.
• For the balls that didn’t make the cut, but were still in good playing condition, we donated them to the local food bank. This was the same for cleats and uniforms. **Please see the World Vision website for the condition the balls need to be in.
Also, prior to shipping or delivering them to World Vision, they need to be deflated.

• They should be in good condition and in groups of 8 or more (for a team). Keep the lonely ones just in case someone else donates more of the same kind.
• No tears or stains please. Our team inserted messages with each uniform donated. Here is an example of one: World Vision can only ship new cleats because of agricultural laws (grass/dirt on cleats cannot be transported).

#15 “WHAT HAPPENS TO THE BALLS?” YOU ASK, WELL…

1. The balls ship to one of two World Vision collection sites in Denver, CO or Sewickley, PA.
2. The balls are packed with other items into containers and shipped overseas to third world countries.
3. The balls and uniforms are handed out to kids and adults who love soccer, but don’t have a ball to play with.

#16 You know what comes next: PLAY IT FORWARD!!!!!