Shop Local For Good has announced the rollout of their “Build-A-Box Delivered” program. This initiative was developed as an opportunity to encourage the Tampa Bay community to “shop local” with their small business neighbors who have regularly supported worthwhile nonprofit missions in their neighborhoods.
To maximize the savings of the shoppers while also supporting the small business families, a unique ordering process has been developed. The catalyst for this program was the current crisis challenging small businesses. While facing the unprecedented shutdowns affecting the live events industry and the ongoing issues with accessibility of relief funds, the Shop Local For Good team was determined to develop a program to help keep these hard-working families financially solvent even while their normal opportunities for earning wages were drying up.
CARES Trouble
Meanwhile, many of these small businesses continue to have troubles with accessing government funding. The CARES Act was intended to offer some relief for these small family businesses. However, many spent hours attempting to navigate an application process — that regrettably wasn’t designed to recognize their business models. They found that their weeks of waiting were for naught.
This spurred Karena Morrison into assertive action. Morrison, the Founder of Shop Local for Good and the Benevolution Foundation, stated, “Many are unaware of the economic impact on the families who participate in our local festivals. When fully-booked, each of our community events offers the opportunity for more than 100 local businesses and all-volunteer nonprofit organizations to be showcased to thousands of our neighbors seeking family-friendly fun with a purpose.”
Even though the Shop Local For Good team was facing their own struggles of having to completely reorganize their 2020 “Festivals For Good”, in addition to facing losses from these delays and restructuring work that had been planned for over half a year, they realized that many of these vendors that had become their “family” could lose everything.
Helping Vendors
As a result, the team mobilized to help these vendors. “The phrase ‘outside-the-box’ best describes this new program,” explains Morrison, “Our online fans get to know our participating families, and submit a request form for their ‘wish list’ through our website. Shop Local For Good then sends an invoice for the products that are available to be delivered on a Sunday of their choice. Our delivery drivers are the families who are featuring their products in our program!
“And our fans save from not having to pay multiple delivery fees while shopping from a wide variety of local businesses. While the kick-off of the project included plenty of good-natured coaching for our determined ‘shop local’ supporters who are used to a less “unique” ordering process (it does take a few more steps to complete an order), there was plenty of enthusiasm about helping their small business neighbors, while saving on their purchases. Basically, everybody ‘wins’.”
A portion of the proceeds of the Shop Local “Build-A-Box Delivered” program will be donated to The Benevolution Foundation’s Nonprofit Incubator Fund that is designed to assist all-volunteer locally-focused nonprofit missions in Tampa Bay. “This is the ‘for good’ in every program that we’ve implemented over the years,” offers Karena, “the local nonprofits are also being strained and many of them are managed by the very same business owners who are struggling to keep their businesses from closing for good.”
The Benevolution Foundation’s Nonprofit Incubator Fund has set a goal to assist the following nonprofit missions in 2020:
- The Benevolution Foundation, Inc.
- Investigation Station
- KIDS Campaign, Inc.
- Mothers of Minors, Inc.
- The Stano Foundation, Inc.
- Building Bridges Ministries International, Inc.
- Pasco County Explorer Post #916
Growing the Family
Meanwhile, the Shop Local For Good family continues to reach out into the community to add more small business families to the program. Shop Local For Good performs dynamic social media and emailing campaigns to encourage their neighbors to “shop local” while supporting worthwhile nonprofit missions in Tampa Bay. They welcome new “vendors and spenders” to join the program, and to help these small businesses and nonprofits succeed.
More information about participation in the Build-A-Box Delivered program is available at www.Shoplocalforgood.com/build-a-box. To connect with the Shop Local For Good team or The Benevolution Foundation, visit ShopLocalForGood.com.