publication date: Nov 2, 2012
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author/source: Janet Gadeski
When most people want to engage their friends in supporting
charities, they run, ride bikes or throw a party.
Brett Preston chose a different route. He sells wine. Lots of wine -
ten thousand bottles and counting since July, with the entire profit ($1 per
bottle) going to charities of the purchasers' choice.
"I run a small company and we do a lot of pro bono work for
charities," he explains. "As opposed to working with each charity individually,
we tried to come up with something they all could benefit from."
With lifelong friend and
Winefox.ca
general manager
Justyn Szymczyk,
Preston recruited a network of 150
enthusiasts to source the wine from a vintner in Argentina, manage the
logistics and regulations, design bottle labels, court the Liquor Control Board
of Ontario and promote the product through every free channel they could find.
Great potential in
smaller communities
Twenty-four charities have signed up with
The Little Grape that Could,
with more applications on Preston's desk. Unlike many fundraising
opportunities, it's equally effective for charities in smaller communities.
Just ask
Brenda Dushko, fund
development and communications manager for the
Oakville & Milton Humane Society.
"It's incumbent on us to make it work," she says. She has
already turned a "to-do" list into a "done" list that includes -
- Persuading every LCBO outlet in Oakville and Milton to
stock the product with signage emphasizing the support of a community
charity;
- Encouraging those stores to include the wines in
their staff tasting program, which gives the wines a chance to be featured as "staff
picks";
- Convincing the LCBO outlet down the street from
the OMHS shelter to display the wines and related signage near the checkouts;
- Issuing media releases and including stories in
their e-newsletter and print newsletter, all emphasizing how easy it is to
credit wine purchases to the OMHS;
- Campaigning to have local restaurants offer The
Little Grape that Could as their house wine next May to celebrate "Be Kind to
Animals Month";
- Successfully pitching the University of Toronto
graduate business students' association to make the OMHS their charity of
choice for the year, including buying the wine for all of their events; and
- Promoting the wine through OMHS' wedding favour
program, in which couples make a donation in lieu of wedding favours,
and receive table cards with their pet photos plus small pet goodie gift bags
for their guests.
Convenient, easy for
purchasers
"It's an ideal program for us," Dushko enthuses. "We know
that our donors fall into the wine-drinking demographics. And they've made it
so easy to use. The ‘choose a charity' link is right there on the home page, so
it's convenient for purchasers to enter the codes on the bottles and select our
charity for the profits. And if you buy in quantity, you can just scan your
receipt and email it to have the purchase credited. We really stress that with
restaurant managers and people buying for their own events."
Dushko and her charity are model participants for the
program, helping Preston grow his distribution network while they both reap the
benefits. The LCBO only places a new product in 100 stores, Preston explains. It's
up to the manufacturer or importer to solicit other outlets individually. That's
pretty tough to do with a volunteer workforce and no marketing budget, so he's
grateful for the efforts of participants like OMHS.
Wines draw great
reviews
Wine critics, including Tony Aspler and Konrad Ejbich, have
given high marks to both Little Grape wines (Torrontes and Cabernet Sauvignon).
And Preston's website highlights a couple of studies suggesting that knowing
you're helping a charity enhances your taste experience:
Functional magnetic resonance imaging shows that the act of giving
money to charity stimulates the areas of the brain responsible for pleasure and
reward. In a study published in Science Magazine participants
were asked to split $100 between themselves and a food bank. Donation of
the money to the food bank led to activation of the pleasure and reward centers
of the brain. According to some researchers, the act of giving can cause
the release of serotonin and other neurotransmitters that stimulate these parts
of the brain.
... In another study
researchers from Bristol University performed
a study in which certain participants were given a drug that boosted
serotonin. The participants were then given things to taste. Those
individuals who had been given the serotonin booster actually tested to be more
sensitive to sweet and bitter tastes.
These studies indicate
that when your serotonin levels increase, as they can when you give to charity,
you can experience different tastes much more vividly.
As for me, I'm off to do my own in-depth research this
weekend. It's good to be a writer!
