Sevenly has Non-profit Fundraising Down to a Tee

Non-profit Fundraising takes on a fashionable new look with the Sevenly concept: “one tee. one week. one cause.” What this means is that every week they will sell a different t-shirt in support of a different cause and seven dollars from the sale of each t-shirt will go to that cause. Their mission is “to raise capital and awareness for the world’s greatest causes” and their Vision is “to see thousands of lives changed through the efforts we enabled”.

Sevenly image courtesy of sevenly.org (click to enlarge image)

This is an interesting new twist to traditional non-profit fundraising that could succeed on many levels including successfully engaging a broader age demographic. Their t-shirts have a very cool look to them and they are designed specifically for the cause of the week. “Each tee goes up for sale on Monday at 10am PST. After 7 days, that tee is gone. And when we say, “gone”, we mean FOR – EV – ER. So, if you see a cause you want to support or a design you like, and it hasn’t reached Monday at 10 AM PST, you better get one faster than a parent buys the last toy on Christmas Eve!”

This Sevenly model expands on the one-for-one concept that is becoming increasingly popular with companies like TOMS shoes (one of the originals) and Warby Parker as each company gives away a product for every product sold. Where sevenly differs is that they donate cash from every sale and they are not committed to any one charity. They are also helping to shed light on smaller organizations as well. Co-founders Dale Partridge and Aaron Chavez were inspired by the number of non-profits that closedown within a year of their start up. These non-profits don’t close because their charities are not worthy, but because of a lack of exposure and, in turn, supporters.

Sevenly will collaborate with non-profit organizations of any size now but when they started out they partnered with more well known and established charities. The first non-profit fundraising collaboration they worked on was with International Justice Mission and they managed to raise $6,125 by selling 875 shirts. The sale of each t-shirt gave one day of care to a girl rescued from the sex trade.

To date they have sold over 3,741 t-shirts and have raised over $26,187 and counting. It might not sound like much compared to other charities which bring in millions of dollars in one night, but it is a unique and fresh way of reaching out to people who have varied philanthropic interests and motivations.

Sevenly is grassroots non-profit fundraising brought into the age of social media as they are relying on word of mouth, Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets to help spread the word. By sharing details of their purchase they are not just showing off the really cool tee they just bought but they are also spreading awareness of a worthy cause while assisting in non-profit fundraising so everyone benefits.

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