Giving Back Report for March 2021

In March 2021, we raised $9,785.00 for our charity partners. Through March 2021, we have now raised more than $421,985 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.  

New Charity and Awareness Socks:

In March, we introduced our Texas Strong Family Pack to support our friends, family and customers who live in Texas and were affected by the extreme weather and resulting hardships of loss of electricity, water and food shortages.  We donate $5.00 from the sale of each of these packs to Feeding Texas, the largest hunger-relief organization in Texas

Event: World Down Syndrome Day

At John’s Crazy Socks, we celebrate World Down Syndrome Day – March 21 – in style and since it fell on a Sunday this year, it turned into a three-day celebration!  On Friday, March 19, we hosted an online celebration with the National Down Syndrome Association that included a video called “I Am Down Syndrome”, a montage of individuals with Down syndrome who are making their mark on the world with their businesses, their music, their art and their drive.

On Saturday, March 20, Mark and John attended the grand opening of the new Gigi’s Playhouse  in Patchogue, New York.  Gigi’s Playhouse provides a social and educational place for people with Down syndrome and is a great resource for individuals and families.

Event: Introducing Our Unity Socks

Designed by John with American flags spread across a field of blue, we created these Unity Socks to symbolize the unity and inclusion that binds all Americans. As John said, “Let’s do something to bring people together and make them happy.”

John gave a pair to every member of Congress and to President Biden. You can wear them too and show your support of a Unified America. 

We may come from different backgrounds and we may have different political views, but we share a common belief in the promise of the United States of America. These socks stand for unity and inclusion of all Americans and we donate 10 percent from the sale of these socks to the National Down Syndrome Society.  

On March 30, 2021, John met with Congressman Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) and Congressman Tom Suozzi (D-NY) to announce that we were giving a pair of these socks to every member of Congress. Why? We want our elected leaders to build upon our common bonds, to find the paths that bring us together, to celebrate our unity in purpose and belief in the ideal of the United States of America. We hope that when they wear these socks, they inspire you and make you smile.

Giving Back – March 2021

This report covers sales and activities from March 1 through March 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 $637.88 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 7 boxes to be used at fundraising events associated with the following charitable organizations:

In addition, we donated socks to four individuals for their use in providing socks to the homeless, veterans, elderly and children undergoing cancer treatment.

Other Donations

In addition to our monthly charitable donations, donation boxes and sock donations, in March 2021, we donated $652 to Gigi’s Playhouse-Long Island, National Down Syndrome Society and Autism Speaks.

Summary

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

1. Monthly Donations to Charity Partners $ 6,883.57
2. Charity Boxes $ 700.00
3. Other Donations $ 2,201.43 

Total                                                                                      $ 9,785.00

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.