Think It Up Staples & DonorsChoose.org, Entertainment Industry Foundation
Staples, the office supplies giant, sees school supplies as an essential component of its business. To that end, the company supports education through its Staples for Students initiative which not only donates school supplies, but offers teachers classroom support, donations to education projects, classroom initiatives, and the sale of products that give back to communities and classrooms in need.
Founded in 2000, Donorschoose.org is an online charity that makes it easy for anyone to help students in need. In September 2015, DonorsChoose.org expanded its business model for the first time since the organization’s founding—allowing students in grades 7 through 12 to partner with their teachers to post learning projects on DonorsChoose.org. Think It Up, a national initiative of both DonorsChoose and the Entertainment Industry Foundation sought to inaugurate this new program.
Staples made a $10 million pledge over three years to Think It Up to support student-powered, teacher-led projects in classrooms across the country. Staples partnered with Think It Up ambassador Nick Jonas to star in an inspiring PSA and to be the face of the campaign’s marketing. In-store and digital signage along with a national sweepstakes, $1 million in funding for DonorsChoose.org projects and a national telecast aired on four major broadcast networks to spread brand awareness and increased in-store point of sale donations at Staples stores across the U.S.
Think It UP generated over 2.6 billion earned media impressions and over 338 million social media impressions. Two million viewers watched the Think It Up Telecast. Staples gained 20,000 social media followers through Think It Up. Staples also saw an increase in sales while the sweepstakes engaged 144,000 registrants with over 55 percent of entrants making an in-store purchase in order to enter. More than $288,000 was raised from consumers in Staples stores. With their $1 million donation to DonorsChoose, Staples funded more than 840 classroom projects across 360 schools and helped more than 690 teachers for a total impact on 91,000 students. The Think It UP campaign has mobilized 2,200 donors and raised $420,000 for projects affecting 130,000 students.
Think It Up inspired more than 1,300 students to submit student-powered projects on DonorsChoose.org, with more coming each day. Think It UP has mobilized 3,700 donors to support projects at DonorsChoose.org and $1,130,000 has been applied to student-powered projects.