Creating a comprehensive project that calls upon every member of the Valley and Lodges contained within has resulted in an a zero expenditure fundraising campaign that will provide an ongoing source of funding for Learning Center based special projects, marketing and promotion of community awareness /name recognition of the Center.
This is a two prong project that requires nothing more than collecting and shipping used cell phones and printer/fax ink cartridges, to contracted fundraising warehouses located in Oklahoma and Arizona. Extensive research was employed to identify quality and reputable recycling programs. After intense scrutiny of 11 different organizations, two were chosen based upon; reputation, feedback from references contacted that have been participating in similar fund raising activities and best value paid for products supplied. Additionally, the two companies chosen also pay all shipping and handling fees from the Learning Center – to their warehouses. ZERO EXPENDITURE for the Learning Center.
The average cell phone consumer replaces his or her cell phone every 14-16 months.
On a daily basis - > 1.9 million cell phones are retired from use and replaced with newer technology, smaller chassis, etc.
The collection program is evolving as follows:
•County SR Clubs were contacted to oversee and provide the final remote collections of phones and cartridges collected in their counties.
•Contacting key SR members and Blue Lodges in each of our counties and enrolling their support and participation
•Enrolling “project” support from DeMolay, OES and JOBS Daughters
•Approaching Waste Management executives to funnel collected gross amounts of phones and cartridges to the Learning Center project (They are not deposited into the landfills – but channeled to bulk recyclers) We are providing an option whereby monies can be collected and spent within the community, vis a vis – the Learning Center.
•Targeting Retail Cell Phone operations as primary locations for collections
•Targeting local large businesses to encourage employee & corporate recycling of phones
The hypothetical possibilities of free revenue for the Learning Center is staggering – but also critically based upon participation at the grass roots level of our membership. Organizations similar in size to ours have run these projects continuously some for > 2 years and average $1,000.00 - $5,000.00/month in residual revenue generated by the collection of cell phones and ink cartridges.
Placement of as many collection boxes as possible is obviously weighty. Servicing those boxes is of higher importance. Assuring that retail sales operations and office environments/church lobbies, etc are not cluttered with “overflow” is the primary concern – as failure will most likely result in a request to remove the collection boxes. Once collected from the individual sites - the products then must be centrally moved to a common location within the county – to facilitate the last move – which will be to the Learning Center for final packaging and FedEx shipping to their final destinations. Once shipments are received and processed/counted – checks are then issued back to the Learning Center.
