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This page is a step-by-step guide on how to donate your strings.

Want to help us more and volunteer as a Strings4All Coordinator? Click here to find out how.

  1. Prepare your strings

Scenario 1: Are your strings in their original packaging? If so, move on to step 2 :)

OR

Scenario 2: Are your strings loose and not in their original packaging? In that case, please wrap them in something and write:

  • Instrument

  • Notes What strings they are, and how many of each

  • Size (1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 7/8, 4/4)

Scenario 1: if your strings are in their original packaging, please move to step 2.

Please clean your strings if you can.

Scenario 2: If you don’t have the original packaging for your strings, please make sure to put them in something and label it so that we know what the string(s) is.

2. Put your strings in an envelope

On the front, please write your name, city where you live, and (if applicable) orchestra. Why?

Imagine you’re a 15-year-old violin player living in Bogota, Colombia.

You’ve never had the chance to leave your country. Cities like Paris, London, Moscow, Sydney, New York are just distant dreams. International orchestras are legendary names on YouTube or Spotify.

Suddenly you have in your hands a set of strings sent by a musician living in London. The package says “London Symphony Orchestra”. Can you imagine the excitement? How motivated you would be knowing that you’ve been given strings that have been played by some of the best musicians in the world?

We’re making this dream a reality.

3. Send your strings

You won’t send your strings directly to the country where they will be donated. For example, if you live in Paris, you won’t send your strings to Venezuela.

Instead, we have a network of volunteers who collect strings in their local area and send them to destination countries. Why? Because it saves on postage costs, and it’s easier for us to coordinate and track sending a bigger package of strings rather than many small packages.

See below who to contact in your area to give/send them your strings. Don’t see someone near you? Write to us and we’ll let you know where to send them.

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4. See where your strings have been donated

If you’ve written your name on your package, you can regularly check this page to see if your strings have already been donated.

It can take a little while for your strings to find a new home.

Why? Because local volunteers wait to send packages until they have at least 150 strings. And once the strings have arrived in their destination country, it can also take a bit of time before volunteer distributors find them the right new homes.

Don’t hesitate to write to us if you’re worried about where your strings are! 

5. All done! Give yourself a big pat on the back!

Thank you so much for supporting Strings4All. WIthout your donations we would not be able to give musicians good strings, and motivate and inspire them with your acts of kindness.

Wondering how you can help more?

A Strings4All box. Our aim is to have one of these in every concert hall in the world, so that musicians always have the chance to give away their used strings. Help us make this a reality by asking your local musical institutions if they would agree for us to send them a box.

  • Please tell other musicians about Strings4All

  • Contact us if you think your local orchestras, concert halls or conservatoires would agree for us to send them a Strings4All box so that their members always have an easy place to donate strings. We can be in touch with them directly about this once you’ve shared with us a contact there.

  • Become a volunteer Strings4All coordinator. Our coordinators are the backbone of Strings4All. They spread the word about the project and collect strings in their local area.

  • Consider donating to Strings4All so that we can continue to run this project and reach our aim of making sure all musicians in this world have useable strings. Wondering what things cost?

    • 50 USD - the average cost of making a Strings4All box and sending it to an organisation

    • 80 USD - the average cost of sending a package of 200 strings to a destination country (e.g. London to Lima, Peru).

    • 800 USD - our current average monthly operational costs. Unfortunately we can’t ask everyone to be volunteers. Our staff coordinate and promote the Strings4All project, are in close contact with volunteers, and track where strings are being collected, sent and distributed.