The most common way to package Ear Savers is to stack them by 10 and put them into a quart size ziploc bag of 50, fold over the top, and seal with clear tape. We also optionally put in a personalized note.

Although adding a note about @OperationMake will help with any potential confusion for the receiving requester, it’s completely optional and we highly encourage you to write your own personalized note taking full credit for your donations.

To help minimize shipping costs for the requester, we put a bag of 50 into a large envelope and take it to the post office which is around $2 via the Large Envelope Rate (see usps postal rates).

Shipping costs really start to add up and we are lucky to have so many volunteers from across the nation, so we wanted to help provide the below guidance:

 

1. When selecting an open card on the Donations Request Board, try to select those in close geographical proximity and available for contactless pickup.
2. If none are available, select an open card that has been inactive for more than 3 days and email the requester explaining: “Hi this is [Matt] from Operation Make. Our local volunteers are a bit backed up due to the high demand, but if you are able to help cover the shipping costs, I would be more than happy to ship these items out to you from over here in [Lawton, Oklahoma].”
3. If the requester emails back acknowledging, reply back with the quote for shipping and your preferred options of payment (Venmo, PayPal, gofundme).

If a requester has not responded to your initial email within 3 days, feel free to tag us on the Trello card so we can attempt to nudge the requester. If there is still no response after a total of 5 days from the initial email you sent, move the card to Closed and write a comment on the card explaining we could not make contact with the requester.

Yes, absolutely. While Operation Make as a whole does not collect monetary donations, you are more than welcome to share your own GoFundMe link. Some examples include:

• Adding your GoFundMe link on a note in your personalized donation package.
• Including your GoFundMe link on your social media pages that we’ll help re-post.
• Asking us to create your own Meet the Volunteers page on this site where we’ll include your link (see here).