Everyone offers thank you gifts in their crowdfunding campaign, usually shiny new products that promise to change your life. What would you say to thank you gifts that touched your heart and truly made you happy? What would you say to crowdfunding gifts that made you feel good? 

That’s what John Cronin of John’s Crazy Socks is offering in his Indiegogo campaign to start John’s Crazy Christmas Store. You can find the campaign here: https://igg.me/at/christmas

You may have heard of John, a young entrepreneur who happens to have Down syndrome. He’s a winner of EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award and has testified twice before Congress to demonstrate that people with differing abilities are ready, willing and able to work. You may have heard about John’s business, a social enterprise called John’s Crazy Socks, that has a simple mission: spreading happiness.

Now John wants to open John’s Crazy Christmas Store. This new online store will enable John to do four things:

• Spread more happiness
• Hire more people with differing abilities
• Create a line of Christmas items designed by people with differing abilities
• Raise more money for our charity partners.

Wouldn’t you want to be part of that effort? Wouldn’t you want to spread happiness and see people with differing abilities employed? Think of the difference that would make and how good it would make you feel.

Awesome Crowdfunding Gifts

But we were talking crowdfunding thank you gifts. Where else could you get gifts like these: 

• Three holiday socks designed by John and his colleagues that come with a note from John.
• Holiday cards designed by people with differing abilities that look great and truly send a message of joy.
• A package where you get socks and John makes a video for you. You could show it at your holiday party or share it at dinner. John will make you smile and feel real happiness.
• A tour of the warehouse from John for you and five friends where you get to make a video with John, share lunch and go home with an armful of gifts.

 And if you are looking for that unusual gift, a gift that will make an impression like no other, consider those two opportunities:

•  Design a pair of socks with John. He will ship 100 pairs to you to give away. John will sell your socks in the John’s Crazy Socks store, giving ten percent of all sales to the charity of your choice. 

• Even better, design a pair of socks with John and he will hand-deliver 100 pairs to you (anywhere in the continental U.S.), bring lunch and speak to your company or non-profit group. John and his Dad have wowed customers around the U.S. and Canada and you can have them speak to your organization. And John will sell your socks in the John’s Crazy Socks store, giving ten percent of all sales to the charity of your choice.

Where can you order gifts that deliver so much happiness? And these are gifts that will make an impact. Forever more, you can tell people that helped John’s Crazy Christmas store get off the ground. You can do that right now by contributing to John’s Indiegogo campaign.

Creating John’s Crazy Christmas Store

“Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love Christmas,” says John Cronin.

That love of Christmas led this award-winning entrepreneur to a new dream: open a Christmas store. John has a way of making his dreams come true. John and his father, Mark X. Cronin, co-founded John’s Crazy Socks, now they are turning to an Indiegogo campaign to launch a new online store, “John’s Crazy Christmas Store.”

“We want to spread more happiness and create more jobs for people with differing abilities. We want to show what’s possible,” says John Cronin.

Mark X. Cronin explains, “We will offer fun holiday products, create more jobs for people with differing abilities and give back.” Just as they do in the original store, five percent of earnings from the Christmas Store will go to the Special Olympics.

The new store will include holiday socks but will move beyond just socks. John’s Crazy Christmas Store will carry the products designed and made by John and his colleagues:

• Christmas and Holiday Cards designed by people with differing abilities
• Christmas ornaments designed by people with differing abilities
• Christmas and Holiday Socks (or course) designed by people with differing abilities
• Wrapping paper designed by people with differing abilities
• Christmas caps and stockings
• Pajama pants
• And much more

The new online store will create more jobs for people with differing abilities and allow the company to show the world what they can do. Mark said, “We have asked our customers if they would like to see us offer a Christmas store and we received an overwhelming positive response.” 

John says, “I’m so excited.” 

Turning to Crowdfunding: An Indiegogo Campaign to Fund the Christmas Store

The Campaign to launch John’s Crazy Christmas Store has started fast with many customers and supporters enthusiastically supporting John and his Christmas dream. You can reach their project page here: https://igg.me/at/christmas.

The money from the campaign will pay for: 

• Producing the new line of Christmas items
• Building out the website
• Modifying the warehouse
• Hiring and training more staff

The Cronins are asking their customers and supporters to back this new venture. Mark says, “To make this expansion a reality will cost money, money we do not have. We have bootstrapped our business and while we have had good early success, we have funneled our money back into our current store. Expanding the business and creating more jobs requires new capital. We have looked to banks and investors, but they either turn us down (we’re too new), want to charge us too much or want to take control of the business. We want to stay true to our mission of spreading happiness. We think our customers and supporters will agree.”

Indiegogo allows backers to support a project. In return, backers receive rewards or “perks” as Indiegogo calls them. “We have great gifts for our backers,” says John. We want our customers to know how much we appreciate them.”