By Allison Yacht
I run a small nonprofit that has given thousands of hoodies away to children battling cancer, and I want us to keep growing so we can help more sick children and their families. A significant part of our success comes from the many low-cost digital tools offered by large tech companies.
Their cheap advertising options, as well as business tools and e-commerce solutions, have opened up new windows of opportunity for our growing social venture. That’s why it is disappointing to hear lawmakers and politicians boast about wanting to change or even split up the companies that keep us going.
Our story started as terrifying, but today is happy and hopeful. Our daughter was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer at age five. It was a trying time for us, but she was so brave throughout the treatments and hardly ever complained about the toll it took on her physically.
While completing her yearlong chemo treatment, our once-confident daughter wouldn’t leave the house. She lost her hair, as is typical for chemo patients, and was embarrassed. We tried everything from hats (too hot) to wigs (itchy) to scarfs (uncomfortable).
Nothing worked until she threw on a t-shirt hoodie. It was perfect – lightweight and fun, plus it renewed her self-confidence because she could put the hoodie on or off whenever she pleased.
My daughter’s confidence was back, and I was onto something. I decided to gift fashionable hoodies to children fighting cancer and their siblings. We would also sell hoodies online and use the proceeds to gift more hoodies to cancer-stricken children. I left my job as a data consultant and opened up shop in our basement.
My data background taught me that this enterprise would be tricky financially and require a strong e-presence to keep costs low. We used GoDaddy and Wix to create a website and QuickBooks to keep our finances in order.
Our most significant breakthrough came with Facebook ads, an invaluable resource to reaching customers affordably. We target customers with fun and engaging ads based on age, hobbies, and even if they have a connection to pediatric cancer. The ads drum up interest and have been a game changer in driving website visits. Facebook ads help us sell hoodies and raise more money.
Digital marketing platforms make it easy to test different messages to different audiences. We use MailChimp for free email marketing and integrate our mailing list with Google Analytics for website metrics – who clicks on the ads, which hoodies pique customers’ interest and how we can market them better. We have Google Suite for internal operations and PayPal for shipping. It’s all so easy.
Digital tools allow us to sell more shirts year after year, which means we donate more shirts to kids with cancer. We have given more than 7,000 hoodies so far, and our sales doubled last year.
These tools are essential, but they won’t be around forever if some elected officials’ desire to break up tech companies comes to fruition. We only have two employees and some volunteers. Every dollar we save in the cost of running our business means more kids we can help battling cancer. Digital tools and platforms have helped us help more kids than I dreamed possible.
Tech regulation is an important debate, but an essential component of that debate is the positive impact big tech has on small nonprofits. As Congress holds hearings on this issue, I urge Congressman Ken Buck and the other members of the House Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law Committee to keep us in mind before making any reckless decisions. They may be aimed at “big tech,” but if they’re not careful, they will end up hurting those they do not intend.
Allison Yacht is the founder and executive director of BraveHoods in Longmont and is a member of the Connected Commerce Council.
"Opinion" - Google News
July 29, 2020 at 05:01AM
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Guest opinion: Allison Yacht: Digital tools empower us to help kids with cancer cope - The Daily Camera
"Opinion" - Google News
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