Gardeners' Supply, a mail-order company in Burlington, Vt., has ambitiously integrated company skills with social purpose. From the company's beginning, in 1983, says president Will Raap, "we had the goal of generating profits so those profits could further our mission of bringing the joys and rewards of gardening to more people." The company's oldest social program collects and composts grass clippings and leaves for free in the Burlington area; the program has been so successful the county now runs it, collecting 3,000 to 4,000 tons a year, and then makes the nutrient-rich compost available to gardeners. To reach its goal of recycling 30% of the community's total waste, the company also composts food scraps. The compost is used to grow produce for a local medical-center cafeteria. More than half the company's 120 employees participate in the composting projects or are members of the company's community farm, which enables families in the Burlington area to jointly own and work a garden and share in its produce.
Raap estimates that the direct costs of equipment, trucks, and staff associated with those and other philanthropic activities total $50,000 to $75,000 a year. The company, which has annual revenues of nearly $20 million, doesn't count the cost of the time its employees donate. Raap believes that using the company's special skills in community projects sharpens those skills. "When we're growing food for people or making compost, it gives us a better appreciation of how to help our community -- and customers -- learn to do the same."
Suzy Becker, owner of the Widget Factory Cards Inc., a greeting-card publisher in Concord, Mass., has only three full-time employees and annual revenues of less than $1 million, yet she has mapped out a sophisticated giving strategy that leverages Widget's expertise in communications while enlisting its network of suppliers and customers. Focusing on nettlesome issues that have surfaced in the personal lives of Becker and her staff, Widget runs an educational campaign every other year. Its first, called I Don't Put Up with Put-downs, showed people how to take a stand against prejudice. On the back of its greeting cards Widget printed a coupon that could be sent to the company with $1 for a booklet of practical advice and a button. That initial effort raised $7,000, which Widget donated to A World of Difference, a national diversity-education program sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League. This year's campaign will suggest ways in which people can become better-informed patients.
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Enlist Suppliers and Customers
Becker has had far greater success in terms of dollars raised by calling on Widget's suppliers and business contacts to support her causes. When she first approached suppliers to become sponsors in the five-day, 500-mile bike rides Widget put together to benefit AIDS education, she was apprehensive. "I was hesitant," she remembers. "I thought, I'm asking them to do me a favor." In fact, she found they were eager to support both the cause and Widget itself. "People really want to feel like they can help a small company make a difference," she says. Together, the first two rides raised more than $75,000.
Music for Little People (MFLP), a mail-order and record company in Redway, Calif., works even harder to enlist suppliers and customers to contribute to a charitable cause. "One of the questions we ask a new or potential supplier is, 'Do you make donations or support any charitable activities that we can mention in our catalog?' " says executive vice-president Jimmy Durchslag. "We have limited space in the catalog. So if we have a number of suppliers who can supply the same product and one is more socially conscious than the others, it could tip the balance in its favor." The company also occasionally is able to persuade suppliers to join MFLP in supporting a cause by donating part of the profits on a product. Enhanced Audio Systems, an audiocassette producer in Emeryville, Calif., agreed to donate 25¢ of every one of its tapes sold through the catalog to the MFLP Foundation, which helps children and their families learn about the arts. Similarly, Colleen's Garden, a company owned by a Native American family in Marvin, S. Dak., sold its products at a lower wholesale price to MFLP, which donated the difference to Project Lakota, which benefits an Indian reservation.
The result is clearly visible to a customer perusing MFLP's catalogs. A good third of the audiotapes and compact discs function as fund-raisers for a range of charities. For example, every "Walk Your Talk" drum and T-shirt purchased from the company's New Year's sale catalog triggers a $1 contribution toward helping the Sinkyone Intertribal Wilderness Council preserve U.S. forests and tribal customs.
The advantage of that technique is that by involving suppliers and customers, you can bring some volume to the giving process. MFLP raised $28,352 during a year in which it had $9.3 million in revenues. Says Durchslag: "That money is committed whether we make money or lose money."
Yakima Products Inc., a car-rack maker in Arcata, Calif., and Hanna Andersson, a children's clothing mail-order company in Portland, Oreg., focus on the largest group they have influence over: customers. Unable to avoid using plastic and foam in packing its high-end roof-rack systems, Yakima created a way for customers to easily mail the packaging materials back -- free. The company reuses the foam and polyethylene-shell portions of the container and recycles the outer chipboard. Hanna Andersson asks customers to recycle its products, too. Any used piece of the company's clothing that isn't torn or stained can be sent back, and 20% of the returned item's original price will be applied to the customer's next purchase. The company has washed and donated 107,000 garments to needy children since sending out its first catalog, nine years ago.
Sebastian International, a maker of skin, hair, and makeup products, based in Woodland Hills, Calif., established Club UNITE (for Unity Now Is a Tomorrow for Everyone) to make philanthropists out of salon customers. Participants write a check for $10 to one of seven foundations that Sebastian has screened and immediately receive $15 in Sebastian products. As club members, they also get a passport of coupons for products and services worth up to $65. Since 1991 the company, which has some $100 million in revenues, has channeled more than $4 million to the foundations through Club UNITE and outright donations.
Allying your customers to your good cause makes it easy for them to feel they're making an impact on the world. If they already know and like your product, they'll often go out of their way to support your fund-raising drive. When Barry Steinberg, founder and president of Direct Tire Sales, a $6-million tire retailer in Watertown, Mass., ran a program allocating to the Jimmy Fund/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute 3% of every purchase made by customers who mentioned the company's radio ad campaign from August to December, customers streamed in. Direct Tire's program raised $14,800 in its first year and $21,060 in its second. Steinberg remembers one customer who didn't need tires but came in to buy a $300 Christmas gift certificate just so that 3% of his money would go to the cancer-research institute.
