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 such a large amount, I started selling the picks in mid-Feb, two weeks earlier than I had initially planned. There was a lot of excitement when orders came in from all over the US. That excitement subsided a little once I saw the fees associated with each transaction:
- 1 5-pack costs $2 plus $1 shipping totally $3
- The $3 becomes $2.34 after $.64 USPS postage.
- The $2.34 becomes $2.07 after Etsy’s $.20 listing fee and 3.5% cut.
- The $2.07 becomes $1.68 after PayPal’s $.30 transaction fee and 2.9% cut.
That’s 44% of each sale going to fees and postage. I don’t mind promoting the project, making the picks, buying the envelopes or going to the post office because I love the goal of helping music education. But to see only 56% of the money reaching that goal doesn’t settle well with me.
So friends, fans, family and Internet strangers, I throw this question to you.
What can I do without raising costs too much?
Could I host the store on my Squarespace-based site?
Any other ideas?
I’d love your input.
-Ryan
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Hi Ryan, I was googling fundraising ideas and came across your link. Can I ask something? Rather than making guitar picks out of it, why don’t you give the giftcards to people who can use them? Can you imagine someone who has no money getting a gift card for Walmart and what it would mean to them? You could even sell them at 70% of the cost (every mom gives giftcards for birthdays), and then you could give that money to musical education.
By the by, the charity I am raising funds for is darearts.com that gives vulnerable youth who live in poorer neighbourhoods in Canada the opportunity to experience the arts in a way they would otherwise not be able to. Real life artists teach these kids and nationally renowned arts institutions open their doors free of charge so they can learn about art throughout the ages. They are then charged with the responsibility of going back to their classrooms, families and communities to teach them what they’ve learned, so they gain confidence and leadership skills. Do you have any fundraising ideas for us?
All the best.
Your work is inspiring Ryan.
Rachel Pardy
Hey Rachel!
Thank you! The gift cards I use are ones that have been spent already. So usually they just end up in the trash can at the store.
I’m going to look into darearts and see what ideas I can come up with!
Thanks for stopping by!
-Ryan