Little Guys

Although we rant about how participating in Cardz for Kidz! helps the entire family, it’s clear by our name and some of the smiles, that we’re focused on the little ones! 

Speaking of little ones, it’s interesting to see how we’ve grown. Recently we’ve been partnering with a couple large corporations, but still, a lot of our cards have come from small to midsized companies and/or community groups.

In fact, we’ve taken it a step further and have been partnering with other small organizations. As mentioned in The Dream Team post, we’ve been working alongside Send a Smile Today to get cards to more children with and without cancer. Additionally, thanks to our connection via Instagram, we’ve also been working with Goods Giving Back, https://www.goodsgivingback.com/vendor/cardzforkidz/. They set it up where people can purchase products on their page and they’ll donate a portion of those sales to us, as well as the artists who made the product. Thanks to them, people can now help Cardz for Kidz!  in many different ways:

1. Simply purchasing handmade artwork (e.g. jewelry) from our page on their site*
2. Making handmade artwork (e.g. purses) and selling it on their site – reimbursed for costs of making the product

If that’s not enough, they’re also making cards and introduced us to other midsized nonprofits who started making cards AND our midsized hospital in San Jose, CA!

Goods Giving Back isn’t the only growing group we’ve been working with however. If you check out our participants page, you’ll see a lot of other growing organizations you may not have heard of just yet. On the flip side, we’re just as thankful for the American Heart Association, Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly, Salvation Army, and Big Brothers Big Sisters for taking the time to make a total of nearly 300 cards! These nationwide organizations worked with the LITTLE GUYS to help us reach and impact more children. We’re thankful large organizations and expanding nonprofits have taken the time to help us reach more kids.

To see more pictures and stories please check out our website www.cardzforkidz.org, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Instagram, visit our Google+ page, or visit our LinkedIn page! Also, check out some of our videos on YouTube!

*Consumers who purchase these products can see that the donation was immediately made to Cardz for Kidz!

The Dream Team

Competitors. Opponents. Challengers. Rivals….

• Michigan vs. Ohio State
• Coca Cola vs. Pepsi
• Ketchup vs. BBQ Sauce
• Yankees vs. Red Sox
• Democrats vs. Republicans
• Samsung vs. Apple
• BMW vs. Mercedes
• Cats vs. Dogs
• Cardz for Kidz! vs. Send a Smile Today

The definition of “rival” is: a person [or thing] who is competing for the same object or goal as another, or who tries to equal or outdo another; competitor.

Based on that description and some of the examples provided above, one could consider Send a Smile Today and Cardz for Kidz! rivals. Both of us are working towards the same objective, to get people (e.g. Girl Scout troops) to make uplifting homemade cards for people who are going through difficult times. Another similarity is both groups have specializations based on their founders’ personal experience; Send a Smile Today– reaches people battling cancer, Cardz for Kidz! - room to room deliveries, #EveryCardCounts.

With that said, it’s hard to imagine finding the Pepsi logo on the Coca Cola site even though they both sell soda. Or a Republican endorsing a Democrat even when the country needs to unite this election season. But despite our “differences”, if you check out our Participants tab, you’ll find the Send a Smile Today logo. 

It works because we agreed that great minds think alike! Our methods may differ, but our goals are very similar. We both realized how helpful these cards can be during tough times and that we should help others going through trying times. We decided that if there comes a time when one of us gets extra cards and the other one is short, then we’d share between groups. So instead of being an ultimate rivalry like the old school Celtics vs. the Lakers, we’ll be THE DREAM TEAM and work together to get more homemade cards out there!

Larry Bird from the Boston Celtics and Magic Johnson for the LA Lakers worked together to win the gold medal!

#TheDreamTeam #UpliftingSpirits

To see more pictures and stories please check out our website www.cardzforkidz.org, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Instagram, visit our Google+ page, or visit our LinkedIn page! Also, check out some of our videos on YouTube!

More Impressive

What do you think? As always, we update the Participants tab on our site on a quarterly basis. This quarter, there’s something new. For the first time, we’ll have TWO logos in our DIAMOND section!

And yes, technically, there could be three logos, if DePaul University allowed us to use their overall logo rather than strictly their DePaul Alumni logo, but we’re still impressed with the two!

Now, the two up there have similarities, but also some differences. First, here’s the current breakout for the amount of cards made as of 7/1/2016:

·         Kforce – 1,138

·         AAFCS – 1,139

Here are some comparisons:

• Record Setting. Until last quarter, Q2 2016, Kforce had the record for the most cards made in a quarter, 675 cards (Q2 2014). Now the record is owned by AAFCS – 915 cards (Q2 2016). 
  
• All For One. The main reason we decided to acquire a hospital in Tampa, FL is because that’s where the Kforce office is located that produced all the cards. We wanted to say thanks and make sure their community was positively impacted. With AAFCS, they had at least 15 different chapters join in, and the most any one chapter made was 177 cards. When everyone pitches in, a lot can be accomplished.
• Need Consistency. Kforce was one of the early groups to participate in Cardz for Kidz!  and held its first event in Q2 2014. Equally impressive, even when the gentleman who started the first event at Kforce moved on, they continued making cards! AAFCS was able to reach the Diamond level within 3 quarters, Q4 2015 – Q2 2016. 

Now what do you think is MORE IMPRESSIVE, one office originally being the only group dedicated to making over 1,000 cards OR a group of people inspiring other small groups of people across the country to join in in making cards? We think both models accomplish our goal – to make more cards and uplift more spirits.

#MoreImpressive #UpliftingSpirits

To see more pictures and stories please check out our website www.cardzforkidz.org, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Instagram, visit our Google+ page, or visit our LinkedIn page! Also, check out some of our videos on YouTube!