Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Gift for Life Launches Text-to-Donate Campaign at REAs
August 24,
2018 by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Designer Weekly, Industry 
Gift for Life, the gift and home industries’ charitable organization, has launched its first-ever Text-to-Give campaign in collaboration with Progressive Business Media (PBM), generating nearly $7,000 in contributions.
The fundraising campaign debuted at the 2018 Retailer Excellence Awards, an event at which Gift for Life also presented its 2018 Industry Achievement Award to Seth and Mitch Nash, founders of Blue Q.
Text-to-Give donations will directly benefit JBT Foundation (Just Been Tested), an organization using social media and innovative technology to promote HIV/AIDS testing and awareness.
“We were delighted with the industry’s response to our first full-scale text-based fundraising effort. Not only were donations received during the Retailers Excellence Awards, but continued to roll-in during the final days of NY NOW: The Market for Home & Lifestyle and Shoppe Object,” said George Kacic, chair of Gift for Life. “We’re looking forward to developing more new ideas like this in the future.”
Winner of REAs 2018 Industry Achievement Award, Blue Q launched with just one product – The Flat Cat. The six dollar, life-sized pet established the company’s niche: reinventing things with wit, design and high quality. Today the company sells everything from recycled bags to lip balm to kitchen accessories to socks. In accepting the award, which recognizes overall excellence and contribution to the gift and home industry founders, Mitch and Seth Nash, credited their team’s creativity and empathy for the company’s success over the last 30 years.
In connection with the award, Blue Q has signed on as the first sponsor of Gift for Life’s 2019 Party for Life with a $5,000 donation. The 27th Annual Party for Life will be held on Monday, Feb. 4 at New York City’s Stage 48.
Information about sponsorship packages, which range from $500 to $25,000, is available online at http://www.giftforlife.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/2019-GFL-Sponsorship-Form.pdf and individual tickets are $185 per person.
Each year, Gift for Life hosts events throughout the U.S. benefitting DIFFA: Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. The primary mission of Gift for Life and DIFFA is to eradicate the AIDS pandemic in the U.S.