Toy drive sign-up sheet

Start with the partner

Find the charity that will give the toys out before you collect a single one. Coat-drive guides make the same point: One Warm Coat drives deliver to a local nonprofit, and Tom's of Maine's guide advises partnering with a charity rather than trying to share out donations yourself. The agency already knows the families. Ask them three things:

• What they accept: new or used, wrapped or unwrapped, any price range
• Which ages they are short of
• Their last drop-off date and where to bring things

Toys for Tots, for example, asks for new, unwrapped toys and does not take used items. Put the partner's answers in the sheet description so every donor reads them before they shop.

Split the gifts by age

Donors buy for the ages they know, which is usually small children. The City of Brookhaven's 2024 Toys for Tots guidelines noted that toys for newborns to 2-year-olds and for kids 10 and older always run short. A line per age group fixes that, because the gaps are visible. When "Toys for ages 3 to 5 x10" is full, the next donor sees it marked full and picks the teens' line instead.

For the older kids, suggest gifts in the description: sports equipment, art and craft kits, headphones, watches, makeup sets and board games. Teens are the hardest to buy for and the easiest to forget.

Each line takes a quantity, so a family can claim three gifts on one line in a single sign-up. Set a limit per line that matches what your partner asked for, and add a line for books or gift-wrap rolls if they want them.

The volunteer shifts

A drive of a few hundred gifts needs people as well as presents:

• Collection table, two at a time, so one can carry boxes while the other greets donors
• Sorting, four people with tables and labeled bins for each age group
• Delivery, two people with a large car or a van

Sorting is where a drive falls behind, so give it the most hands. If a scout troop or a team wants to help together, one person can sign up for the whole group by putting the number in the quantity.

Questions worth asking

Add one or two questions to the sheet:

• "Will you drop off, or do you need a pickup?" as a choice, if you can collect from homes.
• "Your group or company, if any" as a short answer, so you can thank sponsors afterward.

Food drive

A food drive uses the same sheet with food in place of toys. Feeding America West Michigan's most-needed list (updated October 2025) leads with peanut butter, canned meat, soup and beans, and says it can't take opened or home-processed food. Protein is the gap at most food banks. Lines like these work:

• Peanut butter (jars) x40
• Canned tuna or chicken x40
• Canned soup or stew x40
• Canned beans x30
• Rice or pasta (2 lb bags) x30
• Low-sugar cereal or oatmeal x20

Many food banks also say cash goes further than cans, because they buy wholesale. If yours does, say so in the description and link their donation page. For regular shifts at a pantry rather than a one-off drive, use the food bank volunteer schedule.

Coat drive

For a coat drive, list sizes instead of ages: kids' small, medium and large, then adult sizes, plus hats, gloves and scarves as their own lines. One Warm Coat lets you register a drive, and you deliver the coats to a local nonprofit that hands them out for free. AARP's guide suggests leaving a drop-off box out for about a week after the drive for people who were away. Add a "Wash and sort" shift, because donated coats often need both.

Giving tree and adopt-a-family

On a giving tree, each paper tag is one child's wish. Put each tag on the sheet as its own line with no number, which means one person can claim it: "Tag 14: girl, 7, size 7 coat & art set". Use tag numbers, never names, and set the sheet to show names as "taken", so donors can see which tags are left without seeing who took them. For adopt-a-family, use one line per family and describe what they need in the line or the description.

Families who want to apply for gifts should go to the program in their area, such as the Salvation Army Angel Tree. This sheet is for the people giving.

A 2026 timeline

For a drive that collects on Friday, December 4 and Saturday, December 5:

• Monday, November 2: confirm the partner, their rules and their deadline.
• Monday, November 9: share the sheet in the school newsletter, church bulletin or team chat.
• Friday, November 27: check which age groups are still open and message everyone with the gaps.
• Wednesday, December 2: Dibs sends the two-day reminder to everyone on a Friday shift on its own.
• Friday and Saturday, December 4 and 5: collect, sort and deliver, well before the partner's cutoff.

A ready list

The starter list above is a drive of about 60 gifts, with a two-day collection and a sorting crew. Paste it into Dibs, change the age groups to match your partner's list, and share the link. Donors and volunteers sign up with a name and email, no account and no ads, and each one gets a reminder before their shift or drop-off.