I'm working with a charitable organisation right now that is, among other things, collecting clothing and goods for refugees around Europe, whether on the move or in refugee/asylum centres.
We have been working on setting up efficient systems for managing collection including volunteer management, sorting and inventory. However our biggest problem is communicating our collection point. We have been donated storage space in a semi-industrial area.
We don't give out the drop-off location publicly, but give it out privately to individuals as they ask for it, usually by email or facebook PM but sometimes by phone. Publicly we list a nearby landmark so people have a reasonable idea of where we are. The reasons for this are:
* we want to be onsite when they drop off items so we can sort them and hand back anything we don't want/need/ask for;
* when we give out the location, we also confirm that they are bringing only the items we ask for, in good condition, etc;
* we don't want people coming outside of collection hours and leaving bags of goods outside the building.
It's also a loaned space and we don't want to damage our goodwill by having random people roaming the area whenever they want.
This works...fine, I guess. But we spend a lot of time responding to phone calls, emails or private messages on Facebook from people wanting the address. We have also had a couple of complaints from people implying that they wouldn't donate goods because of the inconvenience of waiting for someone to give them the location (because the occasional 15-minute wait between sending a message and having it responded to is unfathomable in the age of technology).
If anyone has been in a similar situation and has solutions which would a) free up volunteer time from responding to queries, and b) would get donors the information they want promptly, but c) keep people from trying to access the location outside of our collection times... it would be greatly appreciated.
We don't give out the drop-off location publicly, but give it out privately to individuals as they ask for it, usually by email or facebook PM but sometimes by phone. Publicly we list a nearby landmark so people have a reasonable idea of where we are. The reasons for this are:
* we want to be onsite when they drop off items so we can sort them and hand back anything we don't want/need/ask for;
* when we give out the location, we also confirm that they are bringing only the items we ask for, in good condition, etc;
* we don't want people coming outside of collection hours and leaving bags of goods outside the building.
It's also a loaned space and we don't want to damage our goodwill by having random people roaming the area whenever they want.
This works...fine, I guess. But we spend a lot of time responding to phone calls, emails or private messages on Facebook from people wanting the address. We have also had a couple of complaints from people implying that they wouldn't donate goods because of the inconvenience of waiting for someone to give them the location (because the occasional 15-minute wait between sending a message and having it responded to is unfathomable in the age of technology).
If anyone has been in a similar situation and has solutions which would a) free up volunteer time from responding to queries, and b) would get donors the information they want promptly, but c) keep people from trying to access the location outside of our collection times... it would be greatly appreciated.