SUCCESS! Homeless Care Package Project

If you follow me on Instagram, Tiktok, or saw one of my recent blog posts, you know I created a project for myself this holiday season. My goal was to create 48 care packages (since that’s just how the quantities ended up) that would equal about $30 each. To accomplish this goal, I estimated I would need to come up with about $1,500.

With spreadsheets in hand, I started creating videos to track my project and reach a bigger audience. Unfortunately, IG Highlights don’t allow for an unlimited number of videos, so unless you were to go down my Facebook page, you wouldn’t be able to easily watch all my updates in one place. I’ve compiled all the videos I made into one video so anyone who would like to see them can access that here.

I created a total of 22 videos, posted to TikTok, IG, FB, and LinkedIn, and for the most part, I’d say the timing of the donations and videos posted are related. My hypothesis was that the more updates/information I gave and the more transparent I was, the more inclined people would be to donate. That hypothesis proved to be true! I received new donations nearly after every video I posted. If I hadn’t received a donation in about a day or so, I posted another video and received some shortly after that. I also didn’t want people to “forget” about the project either, so I wanted to ensure they were staying up to date on the progress.

We purchased the items for our bags from Walmart, Amazon, Dollar Tree, and Wholesale Sock Deals. The only thing I had planned to add in the beginning but ended up not was a $5 gift card to a local fast food place. I ended up using the donation money to get more food items which I think is best anyways as it would ideally last them a lot longer. The idea behind the gift card was that they’d be able to get a “hot meal” versus just the cold/pantry items we were including.

Once all our items were received, we stopped taking donations and starting packing the backpacks! I bagged different items together so it would be 1. Easier to separate smaller items so they didn’t get lost and 2. Easier to pack the bags.

We created:

• Feminine bags that included pads and tampons. If someone received a bag and didn’t need these items, the idea is that it would be easier for them to handoff to someone who did.
• First Aid bags that included Band-Aids and alcohol wipes. They also received 2 big gauze pad packets, but these wouldn’t fit in the bags.
• Wet Food bags that included a Kool-Aid Jammer, Chicken Salad Kits with Crackers, Applesauce, Pudding, and Beef Jerky. This way, in the event that one of those broke or spilled, it wouldn’t get all over the other items in the bag.
• Dry Food bags that included cheese crackers, a small bag of cereal, Nature Valley Bar, Trail Mix, Protein Bar, Little Bites, Pop Tarts, small bag of chips, raisins, mints, and fruit snacks.

These bags accounted for a majority of the things that went into our backpacks, but they also received: water, a sweatshirt, a pair of gloves, a beanie, a pair of socks, toothbrushes, toothpastes, dental repair kit, mouthwash, tissues, lotion, face + body wipes, deodorant, dry shampoo, thermal blankets, and of course, the backpack itself.

I’m sure you’re thinking, “Wow, I’ve been reading for a long time already and this girl has still yet to say how much she received in donations,” so drumroll please…….

In just under 2 months, we received a total of $1,311.50 in donations!!! When I tell you I am in AWE, even that doesn’t do it enough justice. While my goal was initially $1,500, I didn’t honestly think I would come even close that. I love setting goals for myself and fully believe it’s possible (because it is), but at the same time, I try to keep myself realistic, too. $1,500 is a lot of money to expect people to give – especially during the holiday season.

With that in mind, imagine if every single person who watched my videos donated just $1. That’s an easy ask, right? To put that into perspective, one of my videos alone had over 15.5K views! Just imagine the potential *eye emoji*!

Now I’m sure you’re thinking, “Okay that is a lot of money in donations, but how much did you actually spend?” so drumroll please…….

The total cost of everything included in our bags came to $1,436.82. Which means our average cost per bag was $29.93! Pretty dang close to $30 if you ask me 😉

Now I’m a very analytical person, and while this project has been SO much fun to do, I’ve also been tracking how it’s been doing in different ways. If you’re interested in the behind-the-scenes/analysis, keep reading! If not, thank you for reading this far, and a double thank you if you contributed in any way!

In an initial survey I did on my IG and FB, a majority of people voted a good amount to donate was between $0-$100. Our average donation came out to $44, and we had about 30 people donate in one way or another.

There were a few different *monetary* methods available for contributing to the cause:

• Send money via CashApp, Venmo, or Paypal
• Donate via a Facebook Fundraiser
• Purchase something off our Amazon Wishlist

Of all the options listed above, Venmo took 1st place with 40% of donations.

2nd place was CashApp with 27% of donations.

3rd place was our Facebook Fundraiser with 20% of donations.

4th was Cash/Check (if you knew me personally or were local) with 7% of donations.

And 5th was tied between Paypal and our Amazon Wishlist accounting for 3% of donations each.

Also in the initial survey, 91% of people voted that they are more likely to donate if they know exactly where it’s going. This isn’t typically something big organizations show to the public, which may actually be hurting them in the long run, but definitely something I was able and wanting to do. I posted, on average, a new video update every 3 days. The videos included updates on donations, orders placed, items received, and any comments/suggestions I was given. As stated above, I think this is a direct correlation to the donations we received.

All in all, I truly can’t believe how successful this ended up being. Having a goal and working towards it is one thing, but seeing it come to fruition right before your eyes is a whole other thing. I am truly SO grateful to every single person who contributed in one way or another. Whether you donated money/items, shared my videos/posts, talked about it with your friends/family, or even gave a suggestion/comment, it did not go unnoticed and is greatly appreciated. If I could write every single one of you a thank you note, I totally would!

If you have any questions or comments about this project, please reach out! I would love to keep this conversation going, and I hope this becomes an annual thing! Stay tuned 😉

As always, thank you for reading, and if you contributed to the cause in any way, shape, or form, from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!! ❤