Best Practices for Collecting Large Amounts of Change?

Our nonprofit recently launched a spare change campaign with local businesses, and we’re excited that we’re able to manage it entirely in-house so 100% of proceeds come back to our organization.

We completed our first coin collection this week and quickly realized we need a more efficient process. The canisters are metal and become extremely heavy once filled, and because of the design, the coins can’t simply be dumped out. Right now, we’re literally scooping coins out by hand, which takes a lot of time and disrupts the businesses.

We’re already planning to get a cart to help with transporting the canisters, but I’d love suggestions on better ways to collect or transfer the coins. Has anyone used a vacuum system or another tool for this? I’m also open to hiring a company for collections, though I’d really prefer to find a way for us to continue managing it ourselves.

Any ideas, equipment recommendations, or lessons learned would be greatly appreciated!