I'm doing a Car Wash for charity (voluntary service overseas - VSO). Any tips?

Question

I've decided to contact local supermarkets and ask if i can use their car parks to hold and promote my car wash for charity! I'm also going to ask if i can use their water sources as otherwise it's impossible.

Does anyone have any tips on what to charge (or what you'd be willing to pay as I'm thinking between £3-5 per car or more for inside cleaning or waxing), what supermarkets/areas and when are best (in the UK), how to convince my friends to help (i'm already offering snacks and free lunch!), how to set it up (as none of my friends have a license to drive) etc.

Any help/tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Answer 1

dont set a price to your car wash!! make it a free car wash...everyone will pay you something, i guarantee it. and that way, you have no limit on what someone pays you! some people can be very generous especially if it is for a good cause.

Answer 2

Most car washes don't have a set price, but they ask for donations. People are usually pretty generous. You could also get people to collect pledges as well. That's where you get people to agree to pay you a set amount (like a dollar or so) per car. Then you count how many cars you wash and after the carwash you go back to the people and collect the money. Plus ask for doantions from people getting their cars washed too.

Also, make sure you think about the location of they carwash.  Once upon a time I was part of a church that purposely decided to plant a (church) congregation right in the center of the city's "p**n center" (in other words this was a street full of strip clubs, p**n shops, bars, and places where p**n was actually made. Anyway, we got a little too comfortable and didn't think when we decided to do a carwash. When we (the girls) went to hold up signs, lots of the cars that passed by eviintly didn't know which building we were representing, and we heard things like "show us your........" all day.  We did get attention and cars, but it probably wasn't the best place to have a church carwash.