Des Moines Bike Collective Shop Manual

Accepting a bicycle donation

• First: thank the donor for their interest and explain briefly what the collective is and does.

• The bicycle to be donated should be inspected to see if it can be recycled or refurbished by the collective.

• If the donation will work for the collective, capture the following pieces of information in the white Donation binder (eventually this may become a computer file):

1. name and address of the donor 2. brief history of the bicycle: its age and model being the most relevant items. 3. any serial numbers

• Offer the donor a tax receipt. These are forms found in the white Donation binder.

• Thank the donor again.

Accepting a donation of cash or goods

• First: thank the donor for their interest and explain briefly what the collective is and why this donation will be valuable.

• Deposit the check or cash in .................

• Offer the donor a tax receipt. There is a receipt book near the binders. Make sure you apply the collective's identification stamp to the top of the receipt.

• Thank the donor again. Tell them to come back anytime.

Accepting a donation of multiple bicycles

From time to time, the collective receives donations of multiple bicycles. The arrival of 10 to 50 bicycles may be really stretch room in the shop, tax volunteer efforts and even clog up fire exits if not carefully managed.

• Before deciding to accept the donation, it should be -- tactfully -- determined if the donation meets collective objectives. A donation consisting solely of department store bicycles might be more than collective resources can possibly handle. (Note: there may be many ways to handle such situations. For example, a large donation of department store bicycles might be an opportunity to receive a cash donation from the donor.)

• When the truck delivering the bicycles arrives, it is best to offload the bicycles through the staging area, which is currently at the side of the shop. This will prevent disruption to any sales or customer viewing in the main area of the shop.

• Once the bicycles are offloaded, they should be categorized as quickly as possible: some may be scrapped, while others other might receive a quick evaluation (generally getting a green tag indicating their position in the repair queue.)

• If possible, the scrapping of unwanted bicycles should be the first priority, particularly if there are many to be dealt with. Scrapping is a relatively quick process and the frames can be kept in the scrapping area near the bike wash.

• If there are many bikes to be recycled, arrangements should be made as quickly as possible so as not to overwhelm any future donations.

• If the donated bicycles are making move through the shop difficult, arrangements should be made to move some other these to off-site storage.