KonectIDY - A Case Study Using Social Giving As Part Of Business Model

BEDFORD, N.H. - Nov. 20, 2014 - PRLog -- Established in 2012 by David and Christine Phillips in loving memory of their daughter Aine, The Friends of Aine Foundation was formed to build centers of support, safety and compassion for the children who feel alone because their brother or sister or mother or father died too soon.

The Foundation’s first goal was to raise needed funds to support the very first Friends of Aine Center in Merrimac NH, and their first major fundraising event was the first annual Friends of Aine “Try-athalon” for kids in August 2013.

Since the beginning, KonectIDY has played a critical, on-going role in partnering with the Friends of Aine Foundation to create awareness for the foundation, build their brand, and generate much needed revenue to achieve their goals. In anticipation of the their first “Try-athalon” event, KonectIDY worked with David and Christine to create 4 distinct bracelet designs that were unique to their foundation and conveyed personal, unique traits inherent in Aine and their memories of her – with a percent of the proceeds of each bracelet sold going to the Foundation.

KonectIDY created a specific Friends of Aine Foundation webpage on konectIDY.com describing the Foundation/event as well as all of their bracelet designs. KonectIDY was prominently featured on the Friends of Aine site driving traffic to their page on KonectIDY, and the combined social media assets of both KonectIDY and Friends of Aine were used to engage potential donors and drive online sales. Friends of Aine used email to existing donors to introduce KonectIDY and the bracelet designs, and KonectiDY devised a “create your own bracelet design” contest – with the contest winners’ bracelets being featured on KonectIDY.com and sales benefiting the Foundation.

At the “Try-athalon” event, KonectIDY distributed approximately 300 bracelets to “Try-athalon” participants and volunteers to further reinforce the Friends of Aine message and branding, and sold Friends of Aine bracelets at the event. In one hour KonectIDY sold out of bracelets and further spread the Foundation’s message among a very passionate group of participants and their parents – who then spread the message among their friends as well. The event generated 50% towards their goal, and we are proud to have been a part of this by giving the proceeds of this event to such a worthy cause.

To date, in addition to having highly engaged people coming to the Friends of Aine page of KonectIDY.com to buy bracelets from the Friends of Aine Collection, individuals continue to come to KonectIDY.com to create their own bracelet designs, assign a special meaning to them, choose The

Friends of Aine Foundation as their charity of choice – and share their message with others!

URL’s associated with this program:

KonectIDY Charity Page (http://konectidy.com/charity/friends-of-aine/)
KonectIDY Blog post about the event (http://konectidy.com/friends-of-aine-try-athlon/)
Friends of Aine website (http://konectidy.com/case-study-friends-aineoverview/www....)
Friend of Aine website about Konectidy Bracelets (http://friendsofaine.com/?page_id=782)
Photos from event (http://friendsofaine.com/?page_id=747)
KonectIDY Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/konectidy)
Friends of Aine Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/friendsofaine)

Project goals for Friends of Aine:

Increase awareness
Generate long-term engagement with the brand
Fundraising (immediate and long-term)
Crowd-sourcing/sharing of messaging
Social media content and interaction

Services included for Friends of Aine:

Fundraising: $2 of every bracelet sold.
Branding:
Marketing
Word-of-mouth/Crowd-sourcing

Bracelets: via creation of a color-coded language that takes the form of 4 unique bracelet designs, 10 additional Friends of Aine contest winner bracelet designs, and on-going bracelet designs associated with the Foundation.
Packaging: specific packaging for Friends of Aine describing their mission and bracelet designs.

Social Media

Customized/Unique URL on KonectIDY.com
Blog Postings
Contests
Event Sponsorship and participation
Email marketing
The unique color coded bracelets act as a personal hashtag or URL that you wear, share and discuss with others (online and off-line) leading to donations
Website and social media consultation

Results:

50% of goal raised in one day at the Friends of Aine “Try-athalon”
$4,000 contributed in one day from KonectIDY.com (hard goods and proceeds of sale)
Increase in brand awareness and site traffic (to friendsofaine.com, konectIDY.com and http:// konectidy.com/charity/friends-of-aine)
Model will serve as the benchmark for future “Try-athalon” events and franchising of program
Participation for the 2014 “Try-athalon” event expected to triple.
Sales spiked for the Friends of Aine Bracelet collection on KonectIDY.com
Led to David and Christine Phillips being awarded the “Unsung Hero” award 2014 in NH