Giving Back Report for July 2021

In July 2021, we raised $5,844.05 for our charity partners. Through July 2021, we have now raised more than $443,706 for our charity partners. Giving Back is an essential part of our mission and we are excited by our ability to support others. We continue to learn that the more we can give, the happier we are. 

Our Giving Pack Program 

A core aspect of our mission at John’s Crazy Socks is to demonstrate the capabilities and contributions of people with differing abilities. Our Giving Back Program helps us to achieve this mission. By donating to charities like the Special Olympics, the National Down Syndrome Society and the Autism Society of America, we enable them to do more work on behalf of people with intellectual disabilities. 

John Cronin, the co-founder and inspiration behind John’s Crazy Socks, initiated the Giving Back Program by committing to donate five percent of our earnings to the Special Olympics even before we opened for business. John is a Special Olympics athlete and knows first-hand the difference the Special Olympics can make in the lives of all involved. 

Since opening, we have added a growing list of Awareness Socks and Charity Socks that raise money for our charity partners. These include our Down Syndrome Awareness Socks, which John designed, and our Autism Awareness Socks. John loves to hand deliver the donations and our staff celebrates when we announce our Giving Back totals for the month.   

Event: Autism Can Do Scholarship 

On July 23, we announced the winner of this year’s $5,000 Autism Can Do Scholarship that is co-sponsored with the Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation.  We had more than 180 applicants who all submitted a sock design and completed a personal statement as to what educational opportunity they would seek with this scholarship.  The winner of this scholarship, Isabella Blake, will receive the monetary grant to continue her studies at University of California – Irvine and we are producing her winning sock design and will sell it in our online store! We are so excited to share this with our customers.  We are sure that you will love this new and imaginative sock design. 

Event: Sock Design Contest 

In July, we announced our inaugural Sock Design Contest.  This contest, open to everyone age 18 or older living in the US [except for our employees of course!] amassed 340 entries before the deadline.  The winner of the contest will receive the following: 

1. One dozen of the socks with their winning design
2. The ability to pick the charity that will receive 10% of the proceeds from the sale of that sock, and
3. $1,000 Visa gift card  

The selection process for the winning sock design has just begun but the 10 semi-finalists will be reduced to 5 finalists by our customers through our social media platforms.  That process will begin right after Labor Day and we should have a winner by mid-September! 

Giving Back – July 2021 

This report covers sales and activities from July 1 through July 31, 2021. 

Giving Back to the Special Olympics 

We pledge 5 percent of our annual earnings to the Special Olympics. We also donate 5 percent of the sales from our Sock of the Month Club to the Special Olympics. In addition, each sale of Shark Socks, Polar Plunge Socks,and Spreading Happiness Socks results in a donation to the Special Olympics.  

This month, we raised $433.32 for the Special Olympics. 

Donations to Charity Partners 

This table shows how much money we generated for each of our charitable partners. 

Donation of Charity Boxes 

Every month, we receive many requests for donations of socks and/or boxes of socks that can be used at charity auctions or events to raise money for a multitude of organizations that are doing admirable work on behalf of non-profit groups.  In some months, we have received more than 1,000 requests for sock donations. 

There are many great causes – people working to protect the environment, to advance the arts, to lift people out of poverty, to advance peace – and we want to support many, many causes. Nonetheless, we realize that we can have a better impact focusing on issues concerning people with differing abilities since that resonates best with our overall mission. We do our best to fill as many requests as possible, but we cannot fill every request for even those organizations that are fully aligned with our mission. 

In the past month, we donated 6 boxes to be used at fundraising events associated with the following charitable organizations: 

In addition, we donated socks to Michael’s World for their work with homeless and needy children in Alliance, Ohio. 

Other Donations 

In addition to our monthly charitable donations, donation boxes and sock donations, in July 2021, we donated $2,117 to other charities including Special Olympics, the National Down Syndrome Society, Alzheimer’s Association, Sjögren's Foundation, Dana Farber Jimmy Fund, and the Center for Hope. 

Summary 

In summary, we made the following donation in July 2021: 

1. Monthly Donations to Charity Partners          $  1,627.12
2. Charity Boxes                                                     $     600.00
3. Other Donations                                                 $  3,616.93

 Total                                                                           $  5,844.05

Our Charity and Awareness Socks 

Charity and Awareness Socks are a large part of our Giving Back Program. The sale of each Charity and Awareness sock results in a donation to a specific charity. 

The following lists our Charity and Awareness Socks as well as the related charity partner. 

Nothing makes us happier than giving back to charity. We work together with our charity partners to help raise awareness for their causes. Then we report on this activity for our customers. Without you, none of this would be possible. Thank you. 

If you have questions or would like to comment on this report, please contact Mark X. Cronin at mxcronin@JohnsCrazySocks.com.