Fundraiser Donation Questions, Answered

Community organizations — schools, PTAs, youth sports teams, churches, scout troops, and nonprofits — can request donated products from companies that run donation programs, and thousands of companies do. Donated gift cards, restaurant certificates, park tickets, hotel stays, and merchandise stock most of the silent auction tables, raffle drums, and prize walls in the country. Ultimate Donations tracks 4,000+ companies with donation programs so organizers can see who gives, what each program has historically offered, and how to send a request. This page is the front door to our fundraiser donation answers library — the most common questions, a direct answer to each, and a link to a deeper guide.

A quick definition first, since the words get mixed up. A product donation — sometimes called an in-kind donation — is a physical item, gift card, certificate, or set of tickets a company gives your organization to use, raffle, or auction. A grant is a cash award with its own application and review cycle. Many of the biggest national retailers give mainly through grants, which is why some famous names route fundraiser requests to a grant application instead of a donation form.

Use this page like a table of contents. If you already know your question, jump to the matching section. If you are starting from zero, read the four sections in order — who donates, how to ask, when to ask, and what the rules are — and follow the links only where you need more depth.

Who donates

More companies donate than most organizers expect. National chains, regional attractions, pro sports teams, hotels, and locally owned companies all run donation programs — what varies is what they give, who qualifies, and how requests get reviewed, which is why the guides below are organized around your event rather than the alphabet. This site began with our original donor list, and the pages in this section are the current, organized answer to the same question.

Which companies donate products to fundraisers?

National chains and brands across food, retail, entertainment, and travel donate gift cards, certificates, tickets, and merchandise to community fundraisers — almost always through a formal request process rather than an on-the-spot decision. Our router guide to companies that donate products to fundraisers groups reliable starting points by donation type, including a dedicated section on companies that donate gift cards.

Which restaurants donate to fundraisers?

Many restaurant chains donate gift certificates or food for events, and many others run percentage nights, where a share of one evening's sales goes to your organization. Our guide to restaurants that donate to fundraisers covers both routes — product donations and percentage nights — and when each one makes sense.

What companies donate raffle prizes?

A good raffle needs many modest prizes rather than one showpiece, so the best raffle donors are companies that give gift cards, merchandise, and tickets with a quick turnaround. Our list of companies that donate raffle prizes is built around exactly that, and includes a section on tricky trays for organizers running one.

Which companies donate silent auction items?

The strongest auction items — resort stays, once-a-year experiences, signed team memorabilia — come from a smaller set of companies and generally require the longest lead times. Our guide to companies that donate silent auction items organizes donors by item type and flags where you need to start early.

Which companies donate to schools and PTAs?

Schools, PTAs, PTOs, and booster clubs can pursue two different things — product donations for events and cash grants for programs — and the two run through entirely different processes. Which companies donate to schools and PTAs keeps them clearly separated so you apply to the right one.

Do pro sports teams donate tickets and memorabilia?

Yes — many pro teams donate game tickets and signed items such as a team jersey or ball, usually through a community-relations request process with set submission windows. Our league-by-league guide to pro sports teams that donate tickets and memorabilia shows how team programs typically route requests.

Which theme parks and attractions donate tickets?

Theme parks, water parks, museums, zoos, and aquariums regularly donate admission tickets, and they are reliable performers as both raffle and auction items. See which theme parks and attractions donate tickets for programs grouped by attraction type.

Do hotels and resorts donate stays to fundraisers?

Yes — hotels, resorts, ski mountains, and cruise lines donate stays and getaways, most often for auctions and galas where one high-value item can drive real bidding. Our guide to hotels and resorts that donate stays covers who to ask and what these programs have historically looked like.

Which companies donate to youth sports teams?

Sporting goods companies, food companies, and pro teams all support youth sports, from equipment and gear to prizes for the season's fundraisers. Which companies donate to youth sports teams also answers the eligibility questions teams without nonprofit status ask most often.

How to ask

A good request is short, specific, and sent through the channel the company actually uses. Whether you are writing to a national chain with a request portal or talking to the owner of the shop on the corner, the fundamentals are the same — be specific, be early, and make it easy to say yes. Our long-running post of tips and tricks for requesting donations still holds up, and the three guides below turn that advice into repeatable steps, a letter template, and a requirements checklist.

How do you ask a company for a donation?

Identify the right contact, make one specific request tied to your event, and follow the company's stated process — a conversation with the manager at locally owned companies, a form or written request at national chains. How to ask a company for a donation walks through the steps and includes in-person and email scripts.

What should a donation request letter include?

Six things — who you are, what your organization does, what event the donation supports, exactly what you are asking for, your deadline, and how to reach you. What a donation request letter should include covers each element and provides letter and email templates you can adapt by recipient type.

What do companies require before they donate?

Most programs ask for a written request with basic details about your organization and event, and many also ask for nonprofit documentation or several weeks of advance notice. What companies require before they donate is the full pre-request checklist, so nothing bounces over a missing document.

When to ask

Timing sinks more requests than wording does. Programs review requests on their own schedules, not yours, and popular items go to whoever asked first — so the calendar deserves as much attention as the letter.

How far in advance should you request donations?

Earlier than most organizers plan for — many programs ask for several weeks' notice, and high-value donations like stays and experiences tend to need the most. How far in advance to request donations gives lead-time guidance by donor type, plus backward-planning timelines you can run for a fall auction or a spring gala.

Rules and eligibility

Eligibility questions stop many organizers before they ever ask — usually unnecessarily. The two guides below cover what you need in order to qualify and who actually says yes to your request. Everything in this section is informational, not legal advice.

Do you need a 501(c)(3) to get product donations?

Not always. Some programs donate to school groups, teams, and community causes without one, but many programs ask for nonprofit documentation, so knowing your status before you write saves wasted requests. Do you need a 501(c)(3) to get product donations includes an eligibility table by organization type and what to do if you don't have one.

Who decides donation requests — corporate or the local store?

It depends on the company. Some route every request through a corporate portal or a community foundation, while others leave the decision to the local manager — and sending your request to the wrong level usually means silence. Who decides donation requests, corporate or the local store explains how to tell which is which before you write.

How the donor directory works

Ultimate Donations tracks 4,000+ companies with donation programs. Each company gets a donor page that summarizes whether a program was active at our last check, what it has historically offered, and how requests are typically routed. Because programs change — they pause, reopen, and move between forms and portals — we describe historical patterns and point you to the donor page for current status rather than asserting details that may have gone stale.

Start in the donor directory and search for a company by name — for example, Starbucks, the New York Yankees, or Great Wolf Lodge — to see what each program has historically offered and where its requests go.

If you are browsing rather than searching, category hubs group donors by what they give — food for restaurant and grocery donors, entertainment for attractions and most pro teams, travel for hotels, resorts, and airlines, fitness for sporting goods, home for household brands and big-box retailers, and grants for companies that give through cash awards rather than products.

Honesty matters as much as coverage. When a company had no active donation program listed at our last check, its donor page says so plainly — which saves you from mailing letters into a void and tells you where a follow-up check might be worth it. And it is free to start: browsing donor pages and category hubs costs nothing.

For most organizers, the workflow looks like this:

1. Pick your event format and read the matching guide in the sections above.
2. Shortlist companies whose donor pages showed an active program at our last check.
3. Check each program's requirements and lead time before you write a single letter.
4. Send specific, personalized requests, and track what you sent and where.

Every guide linked on this page, along with our earlier posts, lives in the articles library. Start with the question closest to your event, follow the links where you need more depth, and come back here when the next question comes up — new answers join this library as they are published.