How Do You Get a Donation From a National Company Versus a Local Store?

To get a donation from a national company, you usually apply online through its corporate program, with your 501(c)(3) details ready and weeks of notice; to get one from a local store, you usually put a written request or the company's printed form in the hands of the store manager or donation coordinator. The catch is that one chain can use either route, or both, so the sign over the door does not tell you which ask to make. Check the company's own process first, then prepare that ask.

This guide shows what each route asks of you, using what companies' own giving pages say. For the related question of who makes the decision inside a company, see who decides donation requests.

Route one: the national application

At these companies, the request goes through one online system, and the store cannot take it for you:

• Big 5 Sporting Goods considers requests only through its online request system, and it no longer takes requests at stores or by email, phone or fax.
• Wegmans takes requests through its online request system only and does not accept written, faxed or emailed requests. Allow at least four weeks for a response.
• Bass Pro Shops takes fundraiser requests through an online application and asks you to allow 60 to 90 days.
• Callaway Golf takes product requests through its Product Donations Portal and allows six to eight weeks for processing.

What to have ready before you open the form:

• Your nonprofit paperwork. Most national programs ask for 501(c)(3) status, and Cabela's also asks U.S. organizations for a W-9 on the current IRS form.
• Your event date. Big 5 processes requests based on it.
• A sentence on fit. Wegmans, Bass Pro Shops and Callaway Golf each name the focus areas they give to, so say how your event matches one.
• Time to finish in one sitting. L.L.Bean's online form expires after more than four hours of inactivity, and its page suggests reviewing the printable version before you start. Cabela's application saves progress only in the browser on the device you use.

What does not work at an online-only company is the in-person visit. A friendly manager there still has to send you back to the form.

Route two: the local store ask

At these companies, the store itself handles event requests:

• Trader Joe's handles product donation requests at its stores, where each store has a Donation Coordinator. Deliver a written request on your letterhead to your neighborhood store at least three weeks ahead.
• Whole Foods Market runs its In-Kind Donation program through store leadership. Contact the store near you directly.
• Target gives gift cards, not merchandise. Fill out its GiftCard request form, print it, and take it to your local store with your IRS letter. Stores can take up to 30 days to reply.
• Costco asks local groups to print the Warehouse Donation Request Form and bring it to the nearest warehouse. Requests must be monetary, and a warehouse may issue Costco Shop Cards instead.

What to bring: a printed request on letterhead with your event, date and what you are asking for, plus your tax ID or IRS letter. Ask for the person who handles donations, and follow up with that same store.

An independently owned shop has no corporate process to check at all. As our guide to who decides donation requests explains, the owner's budget is the owner's own, so the conversation at the counter is the whole process.

When one chain runs both routes

Several companies keep a local route for small event asks and a national one for larger requests. Pick the route that matches what you need.

Read the national side's exclusions before choosing it. Costco's grant application, for example, lists individual primary and secondary schools, PTOs and PTAs, athletic teams, merchandise for fundraisers and auctions, and raffles among the things it does not fund.

Some limits cover every store in the chain

A local ask does not multiply your chances, because several companies count requests across the whole chain:

• Trader Joe's allows one food and beverage donation per organization per year from the whole company, not one from every store near you.
• Target caps GiftCard donations at $500 per organization per year.
• Costco allows one application per organization per fiscal year, which runs September to August.
• Whole Foods Market gives priority to organizations that have not received another donation that calendar year.

If several volunteers are gathering donations, give each company to one person, so two people do not ask two stores of the same chain.

When a national chain has no published program

Our pages for some national chains, including Under Armour, The North Face and Oakley, record no company-wide donation program at our last check. That is not a refusal. National chains often leave small community donations to individual locations, so ask a local store manager directly, in person.

A few companies have no request process for organizations at all. Starbucks, for instance, publishes no product donation request process; its Neighborhood Grants go to local nonprofits nominated by Starbucks partners (employees), and a nonprofit cannot apply directly.

A quick way to decide

1. Open the company's donor page and read how it asks you to apply.
2. If requests are online only, skip the store and fill out the form.
3. If the store handles requests, bring a printed letter or the company's form to the manager or donation coordinator.
4. If the chain runs both routes, match the route to the size of your ask.
5. If no program is published, ask the local manager in person.
6. Count back from your event using the longest lead time on your list. Our guide to how far in advance to ask helps you set the dates.