Gifts for the Greater Good: Program Recap & THANK YOU!
Jan 5, 2021
Running from November 23rd to December 23rd, the Flatiron Partnership established a gift purchasing campaign, Gifts for the Greater Good, as a part of our “23 Days of Flatiron Cheer” program. The fundraiser set out to raise funds to purchase gifts from retail shops in the Flatiron District, and these gifts would be donated to families in need supported by two local organizations: Hearts of Gold and the Harmonia Shelter. Overall, the campaign set out to achieve two things: generate revenue for our stores at a time when they need it most and offer some warmth and love to families who have had an undeniably hard year.
The Partnership aimed to match each donation dollar-for-dollar up to $10,000 for a total spend of $20,000 on gifts. At the close of the campaign, donations totaled $11,747 thanks to an incredible outpouring of support. These donations were then combined with our match for a total of $21,747. We cannot thank our donors enough! Thanks to the generosity of our community, we exceeded our fundraising goal and plan to purchase additional items from district retailers for other local organizations supporting those living without shelter this January.
With the funds raised, we were able to purchase over 450 gifts for homeless fathers, mothers, and children. Gifts included art sets, games, and toys for the kiddos, and winter apparel, journal sets, sunglasses, bath and body sets, headphones, thermoses, and coats for the adults. All gifts were of high-quality and a healthy mix of fun and necessity items. In total, we fulfilled bulk orders with 16 retail stores in the neighborhood. The participating shops were beyond grateful for the sales during a shopping season that has been deeply impacted by the pandemic and they were excited by the opportunity to come together and support the district.
All of the gifts were dropped-off at Hearts of Gold and the Harmonia Shelter so they could distribute to the families that they support. Hearts of Gold delivered bags of gifts to mothers and children in a festive bus and the Harmonia Shelter distributed items to their residing families on Christmas Day.
Again, THANK YOU for all of the support. This was a true community effort. The participating stores were very thankful for the purchases and the receiving families were thrilled to experience some much-needed cheer.
Business beneficiaries:
- 10/10 Optics ***
- Barbering by Marcus
- Butterfly Studio Salon
- Cohen’s Fashion Optical
- Fotografiska Gift Shop ***
- Il Fiorista
- J&M Hardware
- Little Folks
- Memories of New York
- Museum of Mathematics
- P.C. Richard & Son
- Rituals ***
- Rizzoli Bookstore
- Seven Grams Caffé
- Sundays Nail Studio
- The White Company ***
- Thursday Boot Company (Generously donated 100 pairs of boots at no cost! Thank you, Thursday!!!)
***Provided special discounts for this program that still allowed for their business to generate revenue. Some of these discounts were specifically provided by larger retailers to allow more dollars to be spent with smaller retailers. We are so thankful for our business community!
We’d like to give a HUGE shout out to local businesses who generously donated to our GoFundMe campaign: Honeybrains, Bombay Sandwich Company, The Home Depot, and Pentagram Design. Their donations helped us make huge strides in reaching and exceeding our goal! Thank you so much.
