The Penn Wynne Library Association once collected so many shoes for its library shoe drive fundraiser that it had to store them in an attic. A Funds2Orgs staff note recorded that detail in 2019.
That collection was one part of a long run. Funds2Orgs records show payments to the association every year from 2017 through 2025, totaling $14,230.86. In January 2026, Jeremy Bub of the association wrote that the money is used “..to support local programs at the library, along with funding to help buy new material for the library.”
For a friends group or library association weighing library fundraiser ideas, Penn Wynne’s shoe drive fundraiser is a useful model: it raised money for the library and brought the board and the community together.
A library with community roots
The Penn Wynne Library is one of six libraries in Pennsylvania’s Lower Merion Library System. The system says a group of women from the Penn Wynne community founded the library in 1929 with seven dollars and 35 books. It was incorporated in 1932, and its building on Overbrook Parkway opened in 1949.
Results year after year
From 2019 through 2025, the association’s shoe drive fundraisers filled 1,006 bags. The biggest year on record, 2020, brought $3,043.50 and 251 bags, including a 25% bonus. In the other six of those years, the yearly payments ranged from $1,151.60 in 2019 to $1,515.15 for 130 bags in 2025.
Plan for storage before the shoes pile up
Penn Wynne’s attic story shows how fast bags of shoes take up space, so decide where you’ll keep them before the first donations arrive.
Our shoe drive fundraiser FAQ asks groups to keep each pair together with a rubber band or tied laces and to pack 25 pairs of gently worn, used and new shoes in each 33-gallon bag. It also recommends two to three volunteers for every 50 bags on pickup day.
Camaraderie for the board and the community
Jeremy wrote that the shoe drive fundraisers also brought the board together: “We experienced camaraderie with each other and the community at large.”
For a library board, the fundraiser can be a shared project: one member can promote it, another can host a drop-off location, and others can bag shoes or recruit volunteers for pickup day.
A win-win for the library and small businesses
The board also saw the donations as a win-win. “We helped our local library, supported small businesses, and gave our old shoes a new life without sending them to a landfill,” Jeremy wrote.
The money and the shoes take different paths. Funds2Orgs pays by the pound after we receive and weigh the shoes at our warehouse. For the Penn Wynne Library Association, that money supports the library.
The shoes enter a resale network in the reuse economy where micro-entrepreneurs buy and resell them in their communities to earn a living in developing nations. Those sellers are the small businesses in Jeremy’s win-win. Our social enterprise explanation describes how that process works.
Starting a library shoe drive fundraiser
Penn Wynne’s story points to a simple plan: make the fundraiser a board project, plan storage before the shoes arrive, explain the win-win to supporters, and repeat it each year.
For program details, see our nonprofit shoe drive fundraiser page and explore how Funds2Orgs shoe drive fundraisers work before you choose your dates. When your library is ready, start your shoe drive fundraiser and plan it with a Funds2Orgs fundraising coach.
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