Shoes are a vital part of our lives as they not only accentuate our looks, but they also protect our feet from injury. Thousands of people around the world lack shoes due to financial reasons or lack access to appropriate footwear for their activities. While you may find your old shoes boring and unworthy or simply outgrown them, someone somewhere could benefit from them. Every time you do a clean out in your closet; intent on dumping shoes in the trash, think of how you can use them to fund a cause. Think of a shoe fundraiser.
Wondering how you can turn shoes into money? Well, your shoes could help a group, team, school board or club, to get funds towards a certain program. There are many ways of using your gently worn shoes to raise money. This is how you do it:
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Organize a Shoe Fundraiser
The best way you can contribute to society with your footwear is through a shoe fundraiser. From the collected shoes and subsequent shoe re-sells, you can raise thousands of dollars for charity organizations supporting vulnerable communities. You have to give shoes and mobilize for more if you want to have a successful shoe fundraiser. Organizing this is not easy, but doable. All you need is support and goodwill from your friends, family, colleagues, and the business community; but with good coordination.
There are several teams, schools or clubs that have programs that require funding but lack enough resources. While your shoe collection alone may not raise the required funds, working towards the cause with like-minded individuals and groups can make a difference. . Your shoe fundraiser might as well be a simple set up of donation bins in your estate, church or business. As long as you clearly communicate information about the cause to other people, you will definitely get some support to boost your initiative.
Sell Them
As the most obvious way of turning shoes into money, selling shoes can raise funds for a noble cause. Outgrown or out-of-style shoes may seem useless to you and ready for disposal but they can still make money. There are many ways of selling shoes; online or in person. The amount of money you can make online from shoe sales depends on the type of site and how well you advertise your shoes on them. Examples of online sites include eBay, craigslist and so on.
There are second hand stores worldwide and all you need to do is go to the nearest one in your neighborhood. Most second-hand stores for clothing equally accept moderately used shoes. After determining whether shoes are in a good enough condition to be re-sold, they will buy them from you. The buying price they offer you will however be lower than what they are truly worth. However, if you are selling shoes for a good cause, this is a great way to make some money instead of throwing them away. The proceeds from this can help your next door homeless shelter or charity programs.
Recycle
Recycling your shoes is a good way to contribute towards charity program funding. Shoes take decades or years to decompose in landfills, and with this comes environmental degradation due to poisonous gas emissions. When you recycle your shoes, you will not only save the environment from toxic waste, but you will also raise money for the needy. You can drop off your shoes or ship them to shoe recycling programs such as Nike Reuse-A-Shoe, Asics, TerraCycle, among others. These programs either repair or extract raw materials from used shoes to make cheaper ones. The re-purposed shoes are then given for free or sold at cheaper prices to support shoe fundraiser activities.
Partner With Shoe Drive Fundraising Companies
The good thing about a shoe fundraiser is that anyone can participate in it. It is an easy way to get support from people without asking them for money. All they have to do is give their shoes in good condition as a contribution. Once a sizable collection of shoes is reached, you can contact the shoe drive fundraising companies to give you a cheque in exchange for the shoes. It really is that simple. That is why it will be easy for you to partner with shoe drive fundraising companies. There will be less effort in achieving fundraising objectives with this option as opposed to raising money directly from people. If you are having a hard time finding partners, the internet has information on shoe fundraising initiatives.
Final Thoughts
Everyone can participate in a shoe fundraiser by donating gently worn shoes or new ones lying around their closets. In whatever capacity you serve the community, there is something you can do to change the livelihoods of people around you. A shoe fundraiser will give you a way of disposing of your shoes in a socially responsible manner. You could work with a community-based organization to jointly collect shoes for sale. Alternatively, recycling, yard sales, online selling and a collective shoe fundraiser would turn shoes into money. To join the bandwagon of raising funds to assist developing nations or vulnerable groups, this would be your go-to option.