This year’s Gifts That Keep On Giving Campaign benefits Kickstarter campaigns! The premise remains the same. Old gift cards are turned into guitar picks, they’re sold on Etsy then the proceeds are given away. On Kickstarter.com, we’re always reminded that every dollar counts. That means every time you buy picks from the Gifts That Keep [...]
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Gifts That Keep On Giving: Fundraising for Kickstarter Campaigns
March 27th, 2012 
Ryan Simmons Last year I launched the Gifts That Keep On Giving campaign. The idea was simple: collect gift cards, turn them into guitar picks, sell picks on Etsy. The initial incarnation was created to support music education. Unfortunately, the funds were not lucrative and operating costs were higher than I expected. When it came time to [...]
Recycled Guitar Picks Now Available at Hamilton Mall!
November 7th, 2011 Ryan Simmons Last year I initiated an effort called The Gifts That Keep On Giving. We collected thousands of used gift cards, turned them into guitar picks then sold them on Etsy with proceeds benefitting music education. Unfortunately, despite thousands of gift card donations, we were unable to raise much money due to the various fees associated [...]
Wrapping Up The Gifts That Keep On Giving!- Part 1
April 19th, 2011 Ryan Simmons At 4:32AM last night, I finally fell asleep. With a bruise on my hand and over 10,000 guitar picks by my side, things felt like they were coming to an end. Since it’s inception in December 2010, the Gifts That Keep On Giving campaign has been nothing but a labor of love. Hundreds of good [...]
Tags: Gifts That Keep On Giving IPO- A Fundraiser For Your School
April 12th, 2011 Ryan Simmons Weeks ago I asked you to suggest how I could cut the overhead on the Gifts That Keep On Giving Campaign. With the high fees associated with shipping and online services, only about half of each sale was making it to music education. Conversely, I’ve had great success selling the recycled picks at Whose On [...]
GtKoG’s 1st Beneficiary: Archbishop Ryan Jazz Band
March 24th, 2011 Ryan Simmons The inspiration for the Gifts That Keep On Giving Campaign can be credited to many people. One person sticks out in my mind though: Lou Fante. Lou was my high school algrebra teacher and a truly amazing man. He passed on November 30th. That day I recorded a short video about my memories of him. [...]
Fees Cutting into Charity Fundraising. Any Alternatives?
March 22nd, 2011 Ryan Simmons Since December I’ve been running the Gifts That Keep On Giving Campaign. The idea is simple: gather used gift cards, turn them into guitar picks then sell the picks to benefit music education. The gift card donation portion was a wild success yielding nearly 6,000 cards. That equates to roughly 30,000 guitar picks! Having had [...]
GTKOG Store Launches! Get Your Picks!
February 14th, 2011 Ryan Simmons 2 months after the initial announcement of The Gifts That Keep On Givin’ Campaign, we’ve gathered over 5000 gift cards from hundreds of people! With roughly 20,000 guitar picks ready to go, it’s time to start selling!!! Here is the Etsy store link! The Gifts That Keep On Givin’ Store!! New styles will be added [...]
Update #4: Gifts That Keep On Givin’
February 11th, 2011 Ryan Simmons Our Etsy store will go live Monday! With over 5000 cards donated and literally 1000s more on the way, it’s time to starting selling! These picks are awesome. I’ll have a few posts over the weekend, so keep your eyes peeled. For now, these are the totals as of 9AM Friday. Can’t tell you [...]
Update #3: Gifts That Keep On Giving!
January 26th, 2011 Ryan Simmons The Gifts That Keep On Givin’ Campaign launched on December 16th as a small idea. There was no plan really, just an idea with some good intentions behind it. Upon posting, interest swelled. I received messages from people all over the country asking how they could help. In an effort to make the project more [...]
Update #2: Gifts That Keep On Givin’ Campaign
January 19th, 2011 Ryan Simmons Last weekend was quite a success! Wawa #8035 in the Parkwood Manor section of Philadelphia donated over 250 while an additional 157 were donated by individuals! With those totals, we’ve officially crossed 1000! But that doesn’t mean we can stop here. The more cards we have, the more picks we have and the picks we [...]
Gifts That Keep On Givin’ Campaign: Update #1
January 14th, 2011 Ryan Simmons On December 16th, I launched the Gifts That Keep On Givin’ Campaign. The idea was simple: friends would save their old gift cards and I’d turn them into guitar picks. Picks would then be sold with proceeds benefitting local music programs. The above photo was taken yesterday and today I received more cards! What started [...]
Spend It, Send It! Gift Cards >>> Guitar Picks Project
January 7th, 2011 Ryan Simmons The Gifts That Keep On Giving Campaign is off to a remarkable start. Projects of this nature only thrive when people of all walks of life get involved and spread the word. Thankfully, that’s been the case on Facebook and Twitter. Heck, I even found a link to the project page on a forum, posted [...]
