Rolling Hills Blog

My name is Alexander Crutchfield, and I am currently the Student Chair for Roots of Peace.  After running a very successful Penny Campaign at Rolling Hills Elementary, where the students donated over $900 in just three weeks, I decided to record the process I used.  I hope this blog will serve as a road map to help you create and run your own successful penny drive.

Rolling Hills Elementary School, the site
of my most recent penny campaign

The first step in organizing a Roots of Peace Penny Campaign is to contact the school in which you wish to run your campaign.  You can go about this in a couple of ways; you may contact a student leadership organization on site, like Honor Society or ASB (appropriate for high schools and junior highs), or you can directly contact the principal.  For my Penny Campaign, I decided to contact the elementary school’s principal directly and set up a meeting with her.

In this meeting, it’s important to discuss a few things.  First, is a Penny Campaign possible at the site?  If the answer is no, don’t worry; there are plenty of other schools out there.  Second, discuss the length of the campaign.  I have found from personal experience that 2-3 weeks is an optimal amount of time that results in the highest gain.  Third, explore how you will get the word out about your Penny Campaign.  With elementary school students, its best to carry out a presentation to teach the children about land-mines and why they should help eliminate this scourge.  Be sure to make this presentation simple with many opportunities for the children to interact.  For example, the Roots of Peace office lent me some deactivated land-mines to pass around to the students (pictured below).  You may also want to send a flyer home with each student, so parents get involved.  Finally, get a list of classrooms with room numbers and teacher names, in order to track donations.  Also, inquire as to the best time to collect donations from each class (needs to be done weekly), and how to communicate results with the school.  You’ll want weekly announcements so that the students are encouraged to donate.

Deactivated Landmines,
used in presentations

For a Penny Campaign at a high school, the strategy is a little different.  One idea is to contact the teachers and request for them to discuss the campaign with their students.  Another strategy is to place an announcement in the school’s bulletin, or if available, a school broadcast.

An important thing to remember for both elementary and high schools is the need to have an incentive for students to donate.  The best way, I have found, is to offer a reward to the top three classes who donate the most.  This can be in the form of an ice cream party (popular with young children) or a pizza party (more popular with teenagers).  Local businesses are usually enthusiastic about helping out with the rewards, especially if there is press coverage (we will cover this later).

Collection Canisters

After you have the logistics of your campaigned outlined, it’s time to create the tools needed to carry out your campaign.  First, and more importantly, you need to create your collection cans.  I created mine by ordering paint containers from an online source and covering them with Roots of Peace images, which can be found at rootsofpeace.org.  Another viable alternative is coffee cans with the same principle.  Also, it’s important to create a ledger to keep track of each class’s individual donations, in order to decide the winners.  You will also need a large zip-lock back for each class, labeled with the class’s room number and teacher’s names; these bags are used for the weekly collections.

The next step is to distribute your collection cans to your classes.  Notify the teachers when you will return for your weekly collection.  Distribute your flyers at this time as well, if you are using flyers.

Prior to arriving for your first collection, decide how you are going to deal with the money you collect.  In order to run a competition, you will need to add each class’s donations separately.  This is very time consuming if done manually, or even with a coin counter.  The easiest way to deal with this problem is to find a Coinstar machine in your area that accepts Roots of Peace donations.   To locate such a site, call Coinstar at 800-928-CASH.  You will also need a large bin to hold all your collection bags.

Collection bin filled with individual
classroom donation bags

On collection day, go to each classroom and put each class’s donations into their individual, labeled collection bag.  Take the collections to your local Coinstar.  You can directly donate change (and sometimes bills) to Roots of Peace by selecting “Donate” at your local Coinstar machine and entering Roots of Peace’s charity code ( 8000 ).  After you enter all the money for an individual class, you will receive a receipt.  Put this receipt in that class’s collection bag so you can later enter this amount into your ledger.  Also, be sure to keep the receipts because after your campaign, you will need to send them to the Roots of Peace office.

Each week, after visiting Coinstar, log each class’s donations in your ledger.  Keep any cash and/or checks in a safe place- these will be mailed to Roots of Peace at the end of your campaign.  Look through your ledger and determine the classes with the highest donation totals.  Write up a short announcement listing the top classes, and thanking the entire school for their efforts.  Include in the announcement how much time is left in the campaign.  Drop off the announcement at the school the next morning, so classes know who they are doing.

Depositing donations into Coinstar

After your final collection, it is time to tally the winner!  Be sure to create totals for all classrooms as well as a grand total for the entire school.  Create an announcement that contains the grand total as well as the top three classes; then plan with the principal/teachers about the best date to throw the reward party.

Now that your campaign is finished it’s time create your reward party.  Start by contacting local businesses in your area for the reward party.  I found through personal experience that local pizzerias and local grocers are more than willing to donate their goods, especially if there is a promise of press coverage.

Once you have the logistics of the reward party laid out, contact your local newspaper and tell them about your campaign.  Your local newspaper will most likely be happy to cover the event and include it in the paper.  At your event, be sure to highlight that through their generosity, the kids have allowed children in other countries to live safer lives and to play and go to school without fear.  Be sure to mention that Roots of Peace uses 100% of the money donated to directly help children.  Also, present the classes with awards commending them on their accomplishments as well answer any questions.  You might want to print out certificates for the classrooms and/or give the first place classroom some sort of trophy.  I filled a jar with all the items that were rejected by Coinstar (foreign coins, flattened coins, tokens, etc.) and presented it to the winning class.

Picture published in the local paper:
Ice cream party at Rolling Hills Elementary

After you finish cleaning up the reward party, you are almost done.  Take any check/cash to the bank and get a money order made out to “Roots of Peace”.  Mail the money order, all of the Coinstar receipts, along with a note detailing the total amount collected and the name of the school, to Roots of Peace (1299 Fourth St., Ste 200 San Rafael, CA 94901).  You will receive a certificate from Roots of Peace, along with a letter of thanks; deliver these to the school principal.

I would like to extend my thanks on behalf of Roots of Peace for your interest in starting a Penny Campaign and your concern with the global land-mine scourge.  100% of the money you collect will go directly to help kids-  This is the good news story about the Penny Campaign as it is the one program, under the Roots of Peace organization, which is embraced by kids to help kids who are much less fortunate around the world living in war-torn countries where landmines have rendered the land unsafe to traverse.  Hopefully this guide has given you all the information you need to run a successful campaign.  If you need further advice or information, feel free to contact the Roots of Peace office at 415-455-8008.

My award for the first place class