What are we doing?
MeForYou is selling good quality, fashionable backpacks on a buy one, get one model. Actually, our tagline is Buy One. Bless One. What does that mean? For each backpack we sell, we are going to donate a backpack full
of school supplies to another student in need in and around the community it was purchased. The research shows that when kids can start school with the right supplies: test scores rise, absenteeism drops, disruptive behavior diminishes and kids feel better
about themselves.
Our goal this year is to help 1000 students in our area who are currently living in poverty. Now, in order to help 1000 students get school supplies, we are going to need to sell 1000 backpacks. Our campaign goals
will cover our start-up inventory costs so we can launch MeForYou.
Now, MeForYou is not just a new one-for-one concept. It is a new concept based on student leadership. MeForYou is run
by students and for students.
We want to provide volunteer and, in the future, employment opportunities to students in our community at a business where the bottom line, isn't necessarily the bottom line. The students will be involved with everything
from creating backpacks, t-shirts and advertising to selling, packing and delivering. Students will learn important, hands-on life skills that they can take with them into the future they are creating.
How will we go about it?
Our team of student leaders will be talking at churches, fests and festivals, schools, and social media sites to sell our backpacks and T-shirts and explain how and why MeForYou works. People will be able to buy our
backpacks, t-shirts or just donate right on the spot.
Here’s what’s great: the cost of the backpack and school supplies that we are donating is built right in to the selling price of our backpacks. (10% of the t-shirts we sell will also be donated too!) We will take the
revenue generated from the sale of our backpacks and purchase the donated backpacks and school supplies. The end result will be a student in need will get a backpack filled with a notebook, crayons, glue stick, pens, pencils, eraser, highlighter, folders -
most of the core items kids need to start the year.
We have contacted our local YMCA, Salvation Army and other local programs that work with people in poverty. We have identified over 500 students in our town, Mankato, and over another 400 students in surrounding
towns that have children who currently living under the poverty line. We want to help them this year.
To be a successful student-led business, we know success takes time. True success takes thought, commitment, perseverance, and adaptability over time. We are ready to make it happen.
