Helping Provision Kids’ Education Expedition
Why is it?
Get much needed school supplies into the hands of the children that need them by including those who are on Facebook and want to help, but might not otherwise be able to gather supplies.
What is it?
A program to join forces of online fans, local businesses, and local organizations, to bring social good through the It’s On Me! Social Gifting platform.
How is it?
For users: If you have the time and inclination to get and deliver the supplies in person, by all means, visit your local vendors and get it done! We will not argue against it one bit. However, if your time is limited, we want to be able to point you to a local participating vendor or organization where you may “virtually” buy a school supply bundle and have it delivered to those who need it most!
For vendors: If you sell the supplies that children in need in your area will be required to have, talk to us! We want to be able to offer this opportunity to as many willing Facebook fans as possible, all to the local benefit. Local to whom? Local to you, of course!
What about teachers? They need supplies too!
Indeed. As much as many of us might want to believe otherwise, the supplies crisis (and it really is that, particularly with personal and educational budgets being whacked, hacked, and shredded throughout the country) affects students and teachers alike.
We’d be happy to talk to local office supply stores, teacher aid stores, and anyone else who carries the necessary materials.
How is it… different?
We’re not out to kill the local school supply drives. We think those are wonderful with the drop-off locations and their own focus on “give local”. We also think that there are many other people who may not be able to physically participate (for any number of reasons) but have the desire to help nonetheless. By focusing on a tangible, describable donation rather than dollars, just as the physical drop-off drives do, it increases the connection between the giver and the recipients, even when the recipients are actually anonymous and the action is performed online.
The Mechanics
What needs to happen for social good to come out of this?
A source of school supply bundles needs to be recruited
This will, in the best case, be a locally owned/operated business that can offer the bundles. If that is not available (some areas might only have big-box stores), having an individual or an organization willing to create bundles will offer a similar benefit. Do you want to be the local business/organization/organizing individual for your locale?
A distribution resource needs to be identified
Once the source of supplies is covered, we need an organization/individual(s) to handle the distribution to schools. Whoever takes on this responsibility will need to be publicly identified and known to your community. Are you already involved in PTA-like organizations or community resources? That role would likely be a perfect fit for what we’re looking for. Do you want to be the local business/organization/organizing individual for your locale?
What about us? What is our role?
We’re facilitators in this, not organizers as such. It’s impossible for us to be local in every community, but we can be the glue that brings other local resources together.
We’re offering to waive the IOMG setup fee (normally $100) for the vendor that sells the supplies as well as waive transaction fees for the school supplies themselves (PayPal fees still apply) if the vendor offers a discount on the supplies bundle. We understand commodity margins and all that so we will discount transaction fees even if the vendor doesn’t kick in on the bundle.
We want to encourage as much community participation as possible so the best price possible for the donation is what we want to help achieve.
When the vendor becomes a participating vendor, they also get to take advantage of all features we offer for their normal product line, at normal transaction fees. Do good and get rewarded with the benefit from the service at a substantial overall savings.
