Recently nominated by the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce as a candidate for the 2007 Small Business of the Year!!!

1) Describe your personal involvement and your employees’ participation in contributions to the community. Fundraising Works, by nature, strongly contributes to the financial success of many community organizations. We currently work with eleven elementary schools plus various middle school and high school organizations in Joplin to help them raise funds. Last year Fundraising Works helped non-profit groups in the four-state area raise an outstanding 1.3 million dollars! We are projecting that in 2007 we will exceed 1.6 million. In 2005, Fundraising Works developed the need for a centralized storage, office and sales operations center. Development plans began and we purchased the property located at 1115 Illinois Avenue, were we currently do business. In addition to Park Plaza, we were also able to renovate and utilize our 17,000 square foot warehouse. We installed walk-in freezers which allow us to store our products on-site and conduct normal warehouse activities with ease. My wife, Jenny and I are personally involved in financially supporting Children’s Miracle Network, Children’s Center, youth functions at Central Christian Center church, and community centered conferences. We have freely given our time to Camp Quality, teaching Vacation Bible School, and are currently serving on the Social Committees at Twin Hills Golf and Country Club. Other employees within our company are involved in activities that are directly linked to our local community, such as PTO President and Big Brothers/Big Sisters sponsorship.

2) Describe your organization culture, including your purpose, vision, mission and values as they relate to your business. To understand Fundraising Works culture you must first understand our customers. Our customers are the greatest people on earth. They embrace the challenging role of raising thousands of dollars for their non-profit organization while receiving zero compensation for themselves. They truly have their heart in the right place and it is our honor to serve and assist them during the process, making it as effortless as possible. Excellent service and commitment to quality is our number one priority. We strive to create a culture that nurtures volunteerism, winning attitudes, and a giving spirit. It is with these attributes that we conduct business. We do this by creating a positive and enthusiastic atmosphere where we embrace teamwork, innovative ideas and successful outcomes. We operate under a system of unity. Each individual in our office is an important contributor that plugs into the formula of our company’s success and vision for the future. It takes all of us to be successful! This culture enables us to accomplish our purpose of delivering quick, easy fundraisers with products people love. Our vision is to facilitate partnerships with our customers enabling them to accomplish their missions. The result of this union provides our groups with the financial means that they would otherwise be without. Non-profit groups often lack all of the necessary finances to accomplish their goals. Our mission is to seamlessly fill this gap so they can focus on their true purpose. We would not be the trusted partners that we have become were it not for our value system. I was born and raised in Joplin. I attended Joplin schools and received a BSBA degree with an emphasis in marketing from Missouri Southern State College. It was during this time that I started Fundraising Works. Our accomplishments at Fundraising Works are due in no small part to our ability to recognize the opportunities that abound in Joplin. It is a growing, thriving community that strives to give back to its people. We believe that if you value hard work, honesty, God, family, and an interest in your neighbors, you can accomplish anything.

3) Describe the business’ key challenges, including operational, humane resource and business challenges. Focus on specific challenges – those most important to your business success and strengthening your organization’s overall performance. The number one challenge in the fundraising industry is motivating members of a given organization to participate in the fundraiser. This includes such groups as elementary schools, civic organizations, churches, sports groups and others. Four years ago, the national percentage of participants in an average fundraiser was 44%. Currently, we have seen these numbers drop into the 30’s on a national basis. The participation decline is even greater on the coasts where schools in particular are seeing participation levels at 23%. Despite these declines, groups continue to experience a strong need for fundraising. We at Fundraising Works recognize this challenge and are striving to meet it head on. We accomplish this by frequently changing our programs and adding new products and services. We also help the groups motivate their participants by providing innovative prize programs and incentives. We recognize that our success depends on the success of our customers. We have actually seen increases in participation within our customer base due to these creative innovations. Furthermore, Fundraising Works has increased its sales to non-profit groups by more than 100% in the last two years. This has created a need to grow our infrastructure as well as our human resources. Our sales office and warehouse staff has also grown dramatically during this time. This growth has presented new challenges in regard to hiring and training. Our people have risen to the challenge and exceeded all possible expectations.

4) Describe what sets you apart form your competitors in relationship to innovative products or services. Our quality products, programs and level of personal service are second to none. Fundraising is a small business industry. The problem most fundraising companies have is that they are completely reliant upon suppliers to facilitate all of their product selection and customer service. The other side of fundraising involves very large companies with sales reps scattered over the country. Similarly, these reps rely on a large entity that is far away from the needs of their local customers. Many of their products are cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all programs that do not address the needs and tastes of local non-profit groups. Furthermore, most fundraising companies deliver their products via common carrier. This can create unpredictable delivery situations and unhappy customers. While Fundraising Works mainly specializes in frozen fundraising items, we also have a wide array of non-frozen products that are used in various programs. However, it is the combination of both types of items that creates a unique blend of fundraising success. It is the handling of frozen items that creates a particular challenge. In order to do this successfully, Fundraising Works maintains a large, cold storage facility and a fleet of frozen trucks. Fundraising Works is unique in its delivery of products. We deliver all products on our frozen trucks with the assistance of our professionally trained staff. In choosing our products, we scour the country to locate the highest quality items available. We then use our considerable volume to negotiate exclusive territories with manufactures. These territories include all of Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Our quality products include such brands as Grandma Parker’s cookie dough, Schwan’s pizza pails, Auntie Anne’s pretzels and Jon Donaire cheesecakes, just to name a few.