About

Each year we have sponsors who host collection boxes at different locations around the greater Orlando area. You can also donate online through our Amazon Wish List page or our JustGiving Portal.

Our big collection event is called Elfing Day, a Saturday where we will host a collection tent and donors can drive through to drop off items collected by groups or business or individual donations.

No. This drive is for new items. Donations must be in original, sealed packaging.

If you have used STEM-themed items that you want to donate and aren’t sure where they will be accepted, please connect with us and we’ll help find a non-profit or thrift store that would be able to accept it and would align with your values.

Absolutely! Especially science-themed gift wrap or bags would be great!

All gifts must be unwrapped or in open gift bags. We need to be able to inspect items before giving them to kids & families. The charity can provide the bags/paper to the families with the gift or wrap gifts before giving them to the recipient.

Our focus is middle & high school. Donations in most gift drives tend to be for younger kids – the older kids get left out. So we want to bring in a majority of items for middle & high school level youth and we focus marketing on that.

However, younger kids also don’t get a lot of STEM-related gifts. If you can, include a gift for younger children, in addition to your donation to older youth. Our charity partner serves youth of all ages and can distribute any age-focused gift.

No. We provide all gifts to charity partners in our community. If a family contacts us we can direct them to the non-profits we work with so they can find out if they are eligible to participate in gift programs.

If you are in financial difficulty a great resource is United Way 2-1-1. They may know of community programs that can assist you.
You dial it on your phone just like “911”. Or you can visit their website, https://uwcf.org/about-2-1-1/

We do not accept gifts that proselytize or promote any religious tradition. Please see our Diversity Statement for more information.

Examples:

YES: A book STEM-themed book featuring a female scientist in a Hijab on the cover

NO: Religious toys, games, or books including Bible, Qur’an, Torah, etc.

No. We host most of our events & marketing through the Giving Season, though. December is the biggest gift-giving month, with celebrations and observances for many religious, secular, and spiritual traditions. While this is the perfect time to conduct outreach for our cause, the gifts are given to youth throughout the following year.

Non-profits must be established and have a proven track record of positive impact serving at-risk youth in the community and have the established infrastructure to distribute gifts in a meaningful way.

No. We’re volunteers offering a collection and delivery service volunteering for a charity with gifts going to the charity. We do outreach to the community about STEM Gifts for kids and help get these gifts into the hands of at-risk kids in our community through charity partners.

All items and donations go to vetted non-profits.

No gifts or donations benefit the volunteers for this project. If you prefer to donate money we suggest using the online fundraiser portal that goes directly to the Boys & Girls Clubs towards STEM Gifts or our Amazon Wish List, both on the menu under “How to help”.

WE WERE A 501(c)3 – and re-starting the process for 2025.

Our nonprofit, BE. Orlando Humanist Fellowship, closed in 2019. That organization started a gift drive initiative (one of about 72 events hosted per year) in 2014, and in 2015 transitioned the gift drive to focusing specifically on STEM-themed items for at-risk youth. Though BE. is gone, the STEM Gift Drive continues through the efforts of volunteers who believe this is an important effort to complement general gift drives.

We are currently building our board and starting the process so that in 2025 we will have our own charitable designation for the STEM Gift Drive.