Magazine Literacy Bee

There are a few very important keys to success:

• Build your team first for a dependable and sustainable effort. Collecting and distributing magazines is much easier to do when lots of people are involved, each with a small amount of magazine work. For example, each team member and a back-up might be responsible for collecting or delivering magazines to a small number of locations. Others can help to keep the team's information organized, while another group promotes the team's work to local media. The team should meet at least once a month to address organizational matters and to sort, label and bundle magazines for delivery. We have online tools you can use to grow and keep track of your team.
• Before you start to collect magazines, identify the shelters, food pantries and other agencies that are going to take them. Get an idea about what types of magazines they would like to receive and about how many and how often. Find out how many boys, girls, teens, and/or families they help each month. We'd also like to plot the collection sites and locations of agencies served on our online map to show others where KinderHarvest activities are taking place. We have some online tools that you can use to gather and keep track of this information.
• Count the magazines you collect and distribute. This is important to measure your local impact and the overall impact of our program. If possible, keep track of the counts by magazine title and issue for each collection and for each distribution to an agency. If that is not possible, then count magazines collected and distributed by category. At a minimum, keep track of how many magazines you collect and distribute in the following categories: children's magazines, teen magazines, consumer magazines. Or count by subject matter categories, such as news, home and garden, sports, cars, science, entertainment, etc. We have some online tools you can use to keep track of your counts.
• Removing labels: Often, the magazines you collect will have paper or ink mailing labels. These need to be carefully removed or obscured with a permanent marker so that donors don't feel the need to tear the covers to remove them (to protect their privacy). This ensures that new readers will receive magazines in good shape - so it's an enjoyable and dignified experience. This is an important step in the KinderHarvest program, as well as affixing a new label. There is more information about that, as well as a "gift" label template you can print, on this web page: http://magazineliteracy.org/?tp=ideas#label
• A word about funds. Your volunteer time is extremely valuable. The magazines that are donated, collected, and delivered to children and families are also extremely valuable. These are the key ingredients to a successful KinderHarvest operation. Very little funds are necessary to operate and to grow a local literacy drive. However, there will be supplies that are needed on a regular basis, such as labels and collection bins. So think of ways to raise the funds you will need for these things. Remember to report the source of all donated funds and in-kind gifts. We are required to account for all funds and other donations and we want to send out a thank you to any person or business that donates funds or in-kind services or products to support our MagazineLiteracy.org work.