Making a difference, one card at a time

PRIME – November 2013 By Debbie Gardner debbieg@thereminder.com Cathy Robbins has the ultimate feel-good career. She's working at a job she's mastered. She's her own boss. And . her products help customers make a difference in the world with every purchase. Robbins, and her husband, Ted, are co-owners of a locally based niche greeting card company called Good Cause Greetings. Billed as "the card that gives twice," her products, sold to individuals and corporate clients alike, allow customers to choose to support any one of a number of charities – from the Global Health Council to Feeding America to a local organization such as the Connecticut Children's Hospital – with every greeting card they send. "I think it's a socially responsible thing to do," Robbins said. "We give away thousands of dollars; our minimum donation is 10 percent pre-tax. Some organizations get much more, depending on what they do to drive sales to their cards." An opportunity came knocking PRIME caught up with the Robbins in the corporate offices of Good Cause Greetings – a modest space on the fifth floor of one of the Indian Orchard Mills buildings, located in the Springfield neighborhood of the same name. Crammed with boxes of envelopes, printing and cutting machines, stacks of cards, original artwork and the other trappings of their trade, the office was a reflection of the cyclic nature of the card business. It was early October – the beginning of what Cathy said is two months of nearly non-stop work to fulfill the holiday rush. As she cleared a space on one of the worktables, Robbins said she wasn't planning to open her own greeting card company when the opportunity came calling. "It started when I met an artist [Carolyn Holderness Ferrari] that had a look that I thought was really terrific," Robbins said. She was working in the Marketing Department of her husband's family-owned card company, Sunshine Art Studios, then located in East Longmeadow, at the time. Part of her responsibilities, she said, was purchasing the art for use on the company's greeting cards. This was just before 2000, Robbins added, a time when card companies purchased original art outright, though some artists, including Holderness Ferrari, were interested in licensing their work. This arrangement, she said, allowed an artist to be paid based on the sales of his or her designs, instead of relinquishing the rights. "She wanted us to produce cards using her artwork and she wanted to license her work [but] it just wasn't a fit for Sunshine at that time," Robbins said. Holderness Ferrari, a native of Atlanta, Ga., had already dabbled in producing some of her card designs for charity, according to Robbins, but really wasn't prepared for the production, marketing and fulfillment areas of the card business. This was the era before on-demand digital printing, Robbins noted, when "you had to print 10,000 cards at a time. [Holderness Ferrari] stored them all in her in-law's basement." Robbins added she not only liked Holderness Ferrari's artwork, her charity card idea intrigued her. Moreover, those first few cards Holderness Ferrari had produced drew real interest at a few stores Robbins approached. Then a 43-year-old working wife and mother with two young children at home, the potential for a more flexible schedule appealed to Robbins. She also saw a business concept that she thought had the potential to grow. "I called her up; I was looking for something a little more entrepreneurial," she said. "She was coming to New York for some business [and] we just decide to meet. "She liked my ideas and I liked her artwork, we struck a deal and I was off and running," Robbins added. "Good Cause" is born In 2000, Robbins set up shop in her home, leasing space from her former employer to store her card inventory and supplies. "That first season I had about 20 cards, most of them were her artwork, but I did commission a few more," Robbins said. "I signed up for the national stationery show and went and showed my goodies and made a few sales to some retail stores and some book shops and some gift stores and then decide that the way to really sell enough cards was to go the business to business route." While at Sunshine she had worked on a project that involved selling high-end, custom greeting cards to businesses, and decided that was the way to market Good Cause Greetings. "The charity hook was a way to differentiate us from the many, many, many other business-to-business personalized card companies out there," she added. "Plus, I thought it was a good thing to do." Holderness Ferrari had already established a partnership with several charities, including the Child Welfare League of America and Prevent Child Abuse America. Robbins decided to try and expand the company's charity connections. "I was rather naive when I thought how easy that would be, I mean what charity would say 'no' to this," she said. But, as she started to reach out to charities, "It became very evident these organizations guarded their brand vehemently," she said. "It was a very tough sell." She said concerns ranged from whether or not the charity would receive their cut of the proceeds to how good a product she was going to produce to whether or not their name and logo was going to be used correctly. Some even wanted revenue guarantees. "The American Cancer Society wanted $1 million to use their logo in guaranteed revenue," she said, adding that fact told her "A lot of people were using the American Cancer logo without permission." She finally secured 15 partner charities. "They ran the gamut from environmental causes, education, homelessness, food banks, children, families, animals – both wild and domestic," she said. "I think we were the first to make cards for all different types of charities under one umbrella." But starting a card printing company back then was very different from today. "There was no digital printing available for small businesses," Robbins said. "When we first started we would print shells in huge volumes and then when we needed them, would customize [a card] with the company's name and personalized greeting." It was a business model that required "a lot of schlepping to Ludlow Printing" for finish work, she added. Ted, who was still employed at Sunshine, was very supportive of her startup business, Robbins said. "I didn't get a paycheck for two years, maybe three years," she continued, adding that she poured all of the profits back into the business those early years. She also said she found herself working "way more hours" than she would have at her position at Sunshine, as marketing her business required a lot of "relationship building" through catalog mailings, phone calls, trade shows and customer visits, in addition to securing artwork and insuring cards were ready for printing and delivery. "I knew this would give me flexibility," she confided. "I didn't know it would give me flexibility to work 24-7." Doing good with every box By 2007, Good Cause was successful enough that Ted joined the company. Now, in 2013, Good Cause Greetings has three full-time employees – more seasonally for order fulfillment – routinely offers more than 600 card designs and has partnered with 25 established charities. "We have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to these organizations over the years and people listen to us now," Robbins said. " People come to us wanting to be part of our collection." According to the company website, www.goodcausegreetings.com, the company's donations to the various charities they support have reached $250,000. Thanks to the flexibility of online website design and ordering – and digital printing – Good Cause can also produce smaller orders for local organizations and less well-known causes. "Someone called me from a smaller, obscure disease and we were able to set up a private page on our website [for ordering]," she explained. Robbins is also proud of the fact that her cards are made in the U.S., using American-produced materials. "We are totally recycled paper, which is way more expensive than the cheap stuff made in China," she said. "Our boxes come from Maine, our envelopes come from Pennsylvania." In addition, most of the artwork for Good Cause's card designs is commissioned, "So the art on the card reflects the charity. "We don't buy [art] on the Internet," she explained, adding that she writes the majority of the sentiments herself. Lamenting that finding good outside tech help to keep the company website going – it has multiple components to track not only orders and designs but also donations to the various charities – Robbins said her goal now, is "to get big enough to get an in-house information technology department [so] I never have to think about it," she confided. Good Cause Greetings cards are available for purchase locally at Faces, 175 Main St # 2, Northampton, Mass. For more information about their cards and the charities Good Cause supports, visit the company website at www.goodcausegreetings.com.