Thread: Do you host charity events?

Tell us briefly about the charities you've contributed to and how your site has supported charitable events....
What rewards do these bring to you--personally and business-wise?

Sorry Drew, I can't answer briefly! I'm working on my book on the subject.

The rewards are tremendous, awesome, humbling, awe-inspiring, teary-eye causing, heart-warming, stress filled, controlled chaos that is worth every second of effort!

I hope people contribute information to this question. I will after the conference. For now, this danged small keyboard on the laptop is inhibiting my typing skills a bit.

Oh and working with the charitable causes... yes, they actually benefit the business too!

Hope to meet you here in Vegas.

Yes we do sponsor charitable events. This year we are focasing of pets as our sister stores are focasing on food and clothes for people We are having a Doggie Wash for the ASPCA here in a few months when it is warmer out. My daughter is a dog groomer in training so she will get some experience.
We also are working with the Big Cat Rescue here in Tampa.
We do donate water to the 3 day Breast Cancer walk.
Yes the events do help business and most important they help you and make this job worth it gives you a new look on people when you are done with an event and reminds you that not all people are rude
Just my 2 cents

How do I answer this query without sounding uppity?

When we opened 12 years ago, our City was basically a relatively rural area, but with some very expensive housing on the outskirts. We have seen tremendous growth since then.

We started off sponsoring a couple of organizations such as the Friday Night Music Series which was a live band and dancing in the streets during the summer months. That led to the 4th of July festivities, which led to more & more sponsorships.

With each sponsorship our tenant base grew from business owners and citizens alike thanking us for sponsoring the events, and telling us what fun they've had and that is why they chose to rent from us.

The rewards both professionally & personally have grown exponentially with each group we've become involved with. We sponsor by writing checks, hosting events on our site, or by putting on our own community events to raise funds for giving events we put on ourselves, mostly benefiting the children of our community.

I would advise anyone thinking of becoming involved in a charitable organization to make sure of a couple of things before diving in.

1. Be aware of any politics involved and make sure that involvement would not be detrimental to your business.

2. Make sure you believe in the cause and are willing to put forth some time and effort to support the cause.

3. Keep it fun and make sure all involved enjoy themselves, whether it be your staff, your volunteers or the recipients.

4. Always, always treat any recipient person with grace and as an equal.

Never treat your giving out as being anything other than one person helping out another.

If possible, invite the recipients as 'special guests' or as someone who was nominated for a special treat by someone in the community. While all may realize or know differently, the fact that you care enough and take the time & effort to respect someone who is down on their luck for one reason or another will be appreciated.

The return on your time, money and compassion will pay off with huge rewards.

Storage Village donates and volunteers around the year as well as hosts charity events at our store. Each location has a planet aid box which collects food and clothes to send to people in need around the world. Additionally each of our stores hosts a canned food collection center. We encourage tenants and employees to donate canned foods, providing incentives such as one month for $1 if you bring in 3 canned goods. The food collected then goes to a food bank which serves the same community as our storage facility. Our White Flint location donates to Manna, our Landover location donates to PG County Resource Center, our Chantilly location donates to Western Fairfax Christian Ministries, our Clifton Park location donates to John Hopkins Bayview and our Millersville location donates to Severna Park Assistance Network.

In addition to donating essentials to those who need it, Storage Village employees also donate their time. Each full time employee donates 8 hours a month at the organization of their choice. In the past month, Storage Village employees have volunteered all around DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia including People Encouraging People, Parks and Recreation in Baltimore City, Eastern Family Resource Center, and Western Fairfax Christian Ministries.

As previously mentioned, Storage Village also hosts charitable events at our store. Last month, Storage Village ran a school supply drive which raised 82 items including backpacks, notebooks, and calculators for the children of Belair-Edison. We are currently planning a special Thanksgiving Food Drive, a company wide effort to ensure that everyone in our community enjoys a Thanksgiving meal.

Storage Village's committment to community service has left a profound impact of its employees. It has strengthened their ties to their community, and enriched their lives through the sense of fulfillment that comes from doing good for others. One employee who volunteered at Western Fairfax Christian Ministries got the chance to speak with a few of the recipients, and commented on how heartwarming it is to see face to face the impact Storage Village has, from the collections at the storage, to the distribution at the food bank.

Our orientation towards community service has undeniably has its business benefits. Perhaps most importantly, our company reputation has attracted employees who are friendly, compassionate, trustworthy, hardworking and proud of the company they work for. This is turn has kept customers happy, and we have suffered significantly less than our competitors during the economic crisis. To top it all off, we have received many awards and recognitions for our contribution to the community. Just this summer, we were honored with the prestigious Presidential Service Award.

Storage Village is proud to be an active member in its community, and it has brought incredible rewards to both individual employees and the company as a whole.

We have 3 main "Seasonable" events we provide space and product, Blue Santa, Forgotten Child & OI (Operation Interdependence). We provide space to store the donated goods and boxes for their collection points.

Not only are we "Spiritually" ordained to give back but the Good Will generated for us is immeasurable. OI is around the 4th of July and takes donation for personal items to send to the troops in Afghanistan & Iraq. It's main sponsor is a popular radio station who also operates THE ZONE ESPN RADIO locally. We had a Live Remote that was TONS of FUN! If you go to Facebook and enter 3009 Self Storage in the search bar you can see some pictures I posted.

You do have to draw the line at some point however, we provide almost any cause 3 "Gift Certificates" for 3 mo's free rental in whatever size we have the most. They are normally used for Silent Auction Gifts etc. I can't tell you how many of those we have converted to tenants after the 3 mo's is up.

Anyone that would like I can e-mail send you the "Form" I created and you can alter it to suit you need. So they can't be duplicated I print them on Glossy paper stock, number them, print our logo on the back and stamp them with my Notary Seal.

Sandy & I just attended the Texas Self Storage Association Annual Convention and TSSA had a Texas Holdem Tournament Sunday night before the Monday start, $100 entry, $25 to watch all going to the Shriner's Burn Center in Galveston. FUN!!

We have sponsored many charity events on usstoragesearch.com. Including food drives and toys for tots. It really is a great thing to be doing.

I know that this is an old post, but I wanted to share something. Although this is not regarding an event at my site, this is regarding hosting Charities! Our first charity event will be held for the Boys & Girls club on April 2nd 2011. I'll let you know how it goes....in the meantime,

I have three customers who are non-profits. Two of those customers have brought me in more customers. I am a new lease-up site - open since May 2010 and am now at 30% sq ft occupancy.

One group is a group for families and children in need - they will take discarded and donated usable furniture and household items, including clothing. WOW - how could that be a miss - they bring in their customers who see our facility, how clean it is and then possibly use us in the future. However, the people who bring in donations, also see us and think of using us for their storage needs.

One group is Operation Support Our Soldiers - they collect medical supplies that have been sanitized at the hospitals, medical supplies that are no longer needed (wheelchairs, canes, walkers, etc) package them up and ship them to our soldiers overseas. If the solders do not need the supplies, then they give the supplies to the local physicians to take care of the communities - these locations include Iraq & Afghanistan.

My facility's benefits? Volunteers for both groups see the site and think of us for their storage needs or friends, families and co-workers. Our benefit? Word of mouth recommendations and referrals. You can't BUY that kind of advertising!

At Accountable Management we feel this is not only a great tool for getting involved in our own communities, but the best strategy to help our customers also get involved with their community without having them invest allot of time & commitment on their parts. It's a win-win situation for all parties involved including the charity whom also benefits from free marketing.

Our facilities throughout the year host, child seat safety events, yard sales, car washes, food drives, toy drives etc. If you invest in your community, they will invest in you and you will be supporting your future customers.

Here at Roemer Way Self Storage in California we partner with local Non-Profit companies and make donations as needed. We find it to be a lifeline of our company goals and standard. Helping our local community allows us to network and help those in needed. We make donations of waters for events, gifts for silent auctions, as well as complimentary units for storing items for their events.