Participation begins with a $300 donation in the form of gift certificates, which adds your business to our Restaurant & Retail Program. You’ll be featured on our program webpage, receive an LPIE supporter window decal, and get a digital logo to use in your own marketing. Your donation will be featured in our online Annual Event auction in late February - early March.

In addition to being promoted as part of the LPIE Community Crawl event and our auction, participating businesses will also have the opportunity to be featured in three seasonal promotional emails sent to our community—in November, December, and May—helping keep your business top-of-mind well beyond the event itself. The LPIE Office will contact you approximately three weeks prior to the promotional emails being sent, requesting that you provide details on any specific products, specials, or anything you would like to highlight in the upcoming promotions. 

For the Community Crawl and scavenger hunt: by Friday, November 14, you’ll receive a teddy bear to hide in your store and printed scavenger hunt cards to hand out. The Crawl runs from Friday, Nov. 14 through Monday, Nov. 17, encouraging families and community members to visit participating businesses, find the bear, and get their card signed. On Saturday, Nov. 15, LPIE will also host special attractions and activities downtown to increase foot traffic.

It’s a fun way to bring new people into your store, increase visibility, and show your support for our public schools—all while receiving extended promotional value throughout the school year.

No. Last year, 40 businesses participated in the Restaurant & Retail Program, with 36 joining the scavenger hunt. Businesses that join the program but don’t wish to participate in the scavenger hunt are still welcome to be part of the seasonal promotional emails and are recognized in our materials, so there’s flexibility in how you get involved.

Just hide the bear in your shop and enjoy the increased weekend foot traffic. The goal is to bring new people through your doors, boost sales, and highlight your support for public education in our community.

There’s no requirement to host a special activity, but if you have an idea, like a small craft or activity to have, we’d love to hear it! We can help find volunteers to staff it, and we’ll include it in our promotional materials and Saturday activity map to encourage more visitors.

Gift cards and service vouchers are especially popular in our online auction. They attract great bids and drive attention to your business. If you have an idea about a unique donation, we are happy to talk through the details with you!

Yes! Your donation and logo will appear in our online auction in early spring. We promote the auction to the entire community via email, social media, banners, and more. As Restaurant and Retail Program partners, your business will also be recognized on our website, on printed flyers for the LPIE Community Crawl, and in our widely distributed donor lists, including the Lamorinda Weekly and our Annual Event program. In each of our three promotional emails throughout the year, we highlight that these businesses support our public schools, encouraging the community to support those who support education.

Absolutely. You’re encouraged to use the LPIE Restaurant and Retail Program logo in your own social posts to highlight your involvement. We promote the program and participating businesses on social media, and we’re happy to reshare your posts as well!

We track how many scavenger hunt cards get turned in and how many times each business is marked off, and we’re happy to share that info with you. We also monitor how many clicks your logo gets in our fall, winter, and spring promotional emails and can provide those metrics upon request. We can also let you know how much your donation raised in our online auction.

Definitely! Many businesses last year said they enjoyed meeting new customers. Consider setting out an e-newsletter sign-up sheet during the scavenger hunt, or a QR code encouraging visitors to follow you on social media. If you have other ideas, we’d love to collaborate. This is our second year running the event, and we’re always looking for ways to make it more valuable for participating businesses.