Does Build-A-Bear Workshop donate to fundraisers?

Children companies that do donate

Our directory lists 3 children companies with a published donation program. Crayola, Oriental Trading Company and Vermont Teddy Bear are among them.

Those children companies are listed further down this page, with what each one gives and how much notice each one asks for.

How to ask a company with no published program

An empty program listing is a record of what we found at our last check, not a decision by Build-A-Bear Workshop. Community donations at national chains are commonly left to individual locations, so the request worth making is usually the local one — to a person, at a store, rather than through a corporate channel.

• Ask a local store or franchise manager directly. National chains often leave small community donations to individual locations even where there is no company-wide program, so an in-person ask is a different route from a corporate request.
• Check Build-A-Bear Workshop's own website for a giving or community page. Programs change and are not always announced — our directory records what we found at the last check, not what is true today.
• Give as much notice as you can. Programs that do publish requirements commonly ask for several weeks, and a late request is refused on timing alone regardless of the cause.
• Ask a Children company that does publish a program — 3 companies in our directory do.

When to ask

The children companies in our directory that do publish a program state lead times of 4-6 weeks, 4 weeks and 1 month — a local ask has no published deadline of its own, so use those as the guide.

Across more than 25,000 fundraising events in our own records over fifteen years, March, April and May are the busiest months for fundraisers, October is the next busiest, and July and December are the quietest.

Work backwards from your event date rather than forwards from today, and if your event falls in the spring peak, ask earlier than those lead times rather than later.

Common questions

Why is no donation program listed for Build-A-Bear Workshop?

Ultimate Donations records what a company publishes about donation requests, and at our last check we found no published program for Build-A-Bear Workshop. That is a record of what we found, not a statement from Build-A-Bear Workshop: programs start, change and end, and they are not always announced.

Can we still ask Build-A-Bear Workshop for a donation?

Nothing recorded here says Build-A-Bear Workshop turns down donation requests — only that we found no company-wide program. National chains often leave small community donations to individual locations, so a local store or franchise manager is a different route from a corporate request, and it is the one worth trying when no program is published.

Which Children companies donate to fundraisers instead of Build-A-Bear Workshop?

Crayola, Oriental Trading Company, Vermont Teddy Bear. Each one has a donation program recorded in our directory, with what it gives and how much notice it asks for.