If your school collects donations of school supplies during the year—and you almost certainly do—having a creative donation box is a great way to grab attention. A plain cardboard box placed in the corner of a room probably won’t turn many heads, and you may struggle to collect donations as a result. But by taking the time and effort to create an interesting, unique collection box, you can make sure all who walk by will take notice of the cause and consider helping out. Here are some creative school supply donation box ideas to help you get started!
Feel free to run with these ideas, or mix in your own vision to create a donation box that is truly one-of-a-kind. And while you’re putting your box together, be sure to browse our school supplies online so you can have affordable supplies ready to fill it!
The School Bus
We are going to start our list with a classic idea that is always a winner, even if it has been used plenty of times. The concept is simple: design your school supply donation box to look like a school bus. Use yellow Kraft paper, and consider drawing some kids riding along. To make it look more like a bus, you may want to link two or three boxes together.
For the wheels, consider painting some paper plates black and adding them to the bottom of the boxes. Not only is using a school bus design very much on topic for the setting at hand, but the yellow color will help the box to stand out from its surroundings!
A Box of Crayons
When collecting supplies intended for young children, a crayon box design is a great school supply donation box idea! Shape your box to look like a package of crayons, complete with a variety of colored crayons along the back. This is another great option for grabbing attention, since there will be so much color used in the development of the container. You may decide to simply write the word ‘Crayons’ across the front of the box, or you could use that space to highlight the purpose of the box.
A Plastic Tub with a Creative Sign
You don’t have to limit yourself to building something out of a cardboard box when trying to collect school supply donations. Another useful idea is simply to use a large plastic tub as the container for the donations, while adding an eye-catching sign behind the tub. Of course, the same idea applies here in terms of using bright colors and other features that will allow your donation bin to stand out from its surroundings.
Backpack Theme
Most kids carry backpacks from the time they are in grade school all the way up until they finish high school—and often beyond. So, the backpack is certainly an item that is closely associated with the school years. So why not use this as a school supply donation box design?
The problem here is an obvious one: it may take some artistic talent to pull off. If you aren’t confident in your artistic ability, you may want to stick with an easier theme that won’t require such detail and creativity. However, if you are strong in this area and have the skills to design a collection box that looks like a backpack, you could wind up with a noteworthy bin that gathers plenty of donations!
Try Themed Bins For Specific School Supply Needs
When collecting donations, it can help to be very specific with the kinds of things you need to receive. In other words, simply placing a box out on the floor and asking for ‘school supplies’ in general may not work very well. Rather, you can try asking for specific types of supplies, which will make the task much easier for the person who chooses to donate. They will know exactly what you want, meaning they will know exactly what to buy.
If you are up for the challenge, you could decide to make three or four small boxes, each themed to match the type of supplies you are hoping to collect. So, you could have one for crayons, one for glue, one for pencils, etc. These boxes would not need to be very big in all likelihood, so this might be an idea that is better suited for taking donations on a table rather than down on the floor. Think about the purpose of your school supply drive and decide whether or not this option would be a good fit for your goals.
Shop Affordable School Supplies Online
We hope these creative school supply donation box ideas listed get your wheels turning as you work on building an attention-grabbing box. When your box is complete, and the time comes to order supplies, visit For My Desk to handle all of your shopping quickly and easily. With competitive prices and top-notch customer service, we make back-to-school shopping a breeze. Here’s to a great school year!
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