Thursday, August 25, 2011
GoodThreads Combines T-Shirts, Causes
Looking to help nonprofits, Los Angeles-based GoodThreads said today that it has launched a new service which helps integrate the creation of customized T-shirts, hats, bags, and other merchandise into charity activities and events. The new service allows nonprofits to offer up personalized t-shirts and other products to supporters, as part of fundraising and other event registrations. Headed up by Brandon Hance, the founder and CEO of LA music and band promotions site Audiolife, GoodThreads was started because of Hance's experience watching his mother raise money to honor the loss of his aunt to breast cancer. Hance said in an interview that he realized the parallels between merchandise for music artists and the popularity of creating personalized T-Shirts for charity fundraisers like walk-a-thons, races, and more--and that no one in the nonprofit world had yet made it easy to create those personalized T-shirts to help those charities. GoodThreads allows nonprofit organizations to offer up personalized merchandise, which can be customized with the name of a loved one, photos, images, or personal messages, with a portion of the sales cost--determined by the nonprofit--going directly back ot the charity. The company's services are already being used by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, among others.