Start a STEM Gift Drive in Your Community

Interested in bringing the STEM Gift Drive to your community? Authorized local campaigns are led by volunteers who build community partnerships, recruit collection hosts, and work with an approved charitable organization to put STEM toys, games, and books into the hands of young people in their community.

A STEM Gift Drive Campaign might be run by a team of community volunteers, or it might be a business, group, or organization that leads the STEM Gift Drive as a volunteer initiative (would still need to have at least three volunteers committed to the program).

What does a local STEM Gift Drive do?

• Organizes a local annual STEM gift collection campaign
• Recruits businesses, organizations, and community groups to host collections
• Works with an approved local charitable beneficiary
• Promotes STEM-focused giving for primarily middle- and high-school youth
• Coordinates local collection/drop-off logistics and, if desired, an Elfing Day event
• Reports campaign results back to STEM Gift Drive Headquarters

Are you our next community leader?

A STEM Gift Drive Chief Elf Organizer (CEO):

• Has strong leadership and community organizing skills
• Has strong community relationships or is willing to build them
• Has at least two additional committed volunteers ready to help build the local campaign
• Can recruit businesses and organizations
• Is organized and responsive
• Believes in the STEM Gift Drive mission
• Is comfortable working collaboratively with a charitable partner
• If you are an organization, you are secular (religiously neutral), consistent with the STEM Gift Drive Secular Program Requirement below
• Is committed to inclusion and belonging
• Can represent the STEM Gift Drive professionally

Know your community

Before reaching out, spend some time considering how a STEM-focused gift campaign would fit into your community.

• What existing holiday or year-round gift drives operate in your community?
• Are any already focused specifically on STEM?
• What unmet need would STEM Gift Drive address?
• What organizations, businesses, professional groups, clubs, communities, or other partners in your area might participate?
• What charitable organizations could receive and distribute the gifts?
• Is there a particular youth population or program the campaign could help support?

Choosing a Charity Beneficiary

STEM Gift Drive headquarters will work with the local branch CEO / organizer and the chosen charitable organization to establish the required MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) before solicitation or collection begins.

Charity organization general guidelines:

• Is a qualified 501(c)(3) charitable organization
• Has STEM programming or another strong connection to our mission
• Has the infrastructure to distribute gifts appropriately
• Is willing to actively collaborate with the local campaign
• Agrees to uphold applicable STEM Gift Drive standards, including our Inclusion & Belonging commitments

What are you getting yourself into?

What we provide:

• Authorization to operate a local STEM Gift Drive campaign
• Use of approved STEM Gift Drive branding
• A dedicated community page on STEMGiftDrive.org
• Recognition of your leadership team and partner organizations on the main website
• Shared Host a Collection and Volunteer systems
• Campaign flyers, graphics, collection-box materials, and supporter resources
• Gift standards and Gift Guide
• Guidance for establishing the charitable beneficiary relationship
• Campaign planning support
• Access to established STEM Gift Drive practices and resources
• Opportunity to host a local Elfing Day
• Ongoing support from Headquarters

Expectations of branch leaders:

• Sign and comply with the STEM Gift Drive Branch Authorization Agreement
• Uphold the STEM Gift Drive mission, standards, and Inclusion & Belonging Statement
• Use STEM Gift Drive branding only as authorized
• Collect gifts that comply with the official Gift Guide
• Work only with an approved charitable beneficiary
• Not represent the local campaign as an independent nonprofit or tax-exempt organization
• Not directly collect monetary donations (a charity can likely help you set up a donation portal that they manage)
• Ensure charitable acknowledgments/receipts come from the benefiting charity
• Maintain appropriate campaign records and provide impact reporting
• Protect the reputation and integrity of STEM Gift Drive

Secular Program Requirement

Maintaining a religiously neutral (secular) environment is an intentional feature of the STEM Gift Drive. Official STEM Gift Drive campaigns are also not associated with any specific holiday. Individuals of all Religious, Secular, or Spiritual Identities are welcome to donate, volunteer, and support the campaign.

STEM Gift Drive locations and charitable beneficiaries, however, must be secular organizations. Houses of worship, ministries, and organizations whose mission or public programming advances religious instruction, worship, evangelism, proselytizing, or a particular religious belief or tradition are not eligible to operate a STEM Gift Drive location or serve as its charitable beneficiary.

This requirement does not exclude religious people from participation. It ensures that participation in STEM Gift Drive does not require donors, volunteers, recipients, or community partners to support or affiliate themselves with a religious institution or religious mission.

An Atheist, Humanist, Wiccan, Pagan, Jewish person, Muslim person, Christian from a minority tradition, person harmed by religion, or simply someone who wants their charitable support to remain secular may reasonably say that they don’t want their donations or time investment to support religious programming or organizations. The STEM Gift Drive provides a charitable involvement and impact opportunity alternative that is free from religious requirements or attachments. Mission alignment is part of partnership selection.

Role	Religious participation

Individual donor or volunteer

All Religious, Secular, or Spiritual Identities (RSSIs) are absolutely welcome

Supporting organization / collection participant

Welcome regardless of the organization’s RSSI. Churches, synagogues, temples, secular organizations, businesses, civic groups, and others may collect and donate gifts, provided their STEM Gift Drive participation complies with our program and Inclusion & Belonging standards.

Local STEM Gift Drive location operator or charitable beneficiary

Must be a secular (religiously neutral) organization

How to start

1. Tell us about your community. Ready to pitch your idea?! Send an email to STEMGiftDrive@gmail.com

Include your name & community, who your volunteers are, why you want to bring the STEM Gift Drive to your area, initial thoughts about collection partners and charity beneficiary, any market research you’ve done on gift drives in your area and how this will fit in, and any ideas you have for building the local campaign.

We’ll review your ideas and let you know whether we think your community may be a good fit for an authorized STEM Gift Drive campaign.

2. Meet with us. If there appears to be a good fit, we’ll schedule a video conversation with you and your prospective leadership team.

3. Build your campaign. If we mutually agree to proceed, we’ll complete the Branch Authorization Agreement, establish the charitable beneficiary relationship, develop your project plan, create your official community page, and prepare for local outreach.

Let’s make a difference together!