Fundraising and Awareness: Cobranding silicone wristbands

I work with kids a lot, so the wrist bands are a favorite with them. I also realize that the profit margin on silicone wrist bands is pretty high, so all that money goes to vasculitis research. In my opinion, all VF members should have an information card and a handful of give away items with them at all times.

Buy them in advance and sell them to your friends! Tell them they can have a cool wrist band, but you need a donation.

I was going through my drawers last night and came across a silicone wrist band for Breast Cancer Awareness.

What was unique about this was the logo for Walgreen’s pharmacy. I recalled then that I had purchased this wrist band at Walgreen’s for the listed price of $2.00.

Now, this makes me wonder... why not do this sort of B2B partnership with more stores for the Vasculitis Foundation?

Any big retailer would be a likely candidate, though after a little brainstorming I really favor Target. Both because it is a brand name I trust and because their logo is also a red circle, representing a target. Just as the Vasculitis Foundation logo is three red circles representing small medium and large blood vessels. We want to target a cure for vasculitis! Could you find a more obvious partner?

Now, how do we go about meeting the decision makers at Target Corporation? Somebody should put Bob Haas on this project. Just selling wrist band as end caps at the Target check out counters would likely make thousands of dollars every year just in impulse buys, without even needing to organize an event. Depending on the profit, maybe kick back a nickel to Target to pay for the shelf space... and BAM! you got a money maker.

Next, you organize a nationwide event in conjunction with Target, at all locations that have a local VF chapter, then you get even more opportunities to raise awareness and make money. Combine that with a nice raffle, and you get some pretty great word of mouth.

Any way you slice it, the idea is to get the contact information to the public to increase awareness, and give them a chance to donate at the same time.

What about offering multipack silicone wrist band in partnership with other organizations? No discount, just offer it as another item. For $2.00, you get our organization, and for $8, you can get Vasculitis Foundation, Red Cross, American Heart Association, and United Way... or something like that. All the better if the multi pack is also multi colored.

Each chapter can set up a partnership with a print on demand outfit like Cafe Press, to have the organization logo printed on any number of items. That is another idea that I will discuss in a moment.