While bringing you opportunities to support state, national and international non-profits, we have learned that many of your efforts to raise money are locally focused. That’s where our new fundraisers come in!

We’ve developed a new fundraising program for groups that is especially helpful when hosting events, distributing materials throughout the community or meeting constituents in person. You can rally people to your cause by selling your own branded apparel and use the proceeds to benefit your group.

Our fundraising efforts operate much like our Exclusive Partnerships, except sales are handled primarily by the organization. We work with each group to provide free artwork - the design is donated at no cost to you.

We will also provide paper order forms for your event or to keep on hand, as well as post the fundraiser on our website. When the order forms are turned in and the money is collected, Greater Than Goods will produce the shirts. Again, at no upfront cost to the organization. You are only charged a wholesale cost when orders are turned in.

Are you looking to generate money for an important cause? We can help! Some inspiration for fundraisers include:

• Offsetting a friend or family member’s medical expenses
• Paying for new hospital equipment
• Restoring a historical site
• Building a new animal shelter

We hope that by adding yet another way to raise funds, we can help your group as much as possible! Contact me to chat more about Greater Than Goods and how we can help your organization!

This week, our good friend Mark Wyatt, Executive Director at the Iowa Bicycle Coalition, is making his yearly bike ride across Iowa with RAGBRAI. RAGBRAI is an annual event that draws thousands of Iowans who bike from border to border. The event has attracted celebrities such as Lance Armstrong, Sheryl Crow, Tom Arnold and presidential candidates over its 37 year run.

This year, Mark brought a little bit of Greater Than Goods on the tour. He’s selling our “Another Way to Roll” bicycling shirts as well as the exclusive Iowa Bicycle Coalition shirt. Of course, $5 from each shirt sold goes directly to his group.

Help support biking, bike safety and alternative transportation by checking out this line of shirts. And good luck to all the bicyclists on RAGBRAI this year! Keep pedaling!

We are approaching the one-year anniversary of Greater Than Goods coming up in July 2009. This milestone has made us pause to think about our first cause. It was the Embrace Iowa fund, which inspired the “Greater Than Any Storm” shirt to raise money for disaster recovery and relief assistance to victims of the tornadoes and devastating flooding that took place throughout Iowa in the spring and early summer of 2008.

Our goal for Greater Than Goods has always been twofold: to raise funds for nonprofit organizations and provide a communication channel to help them spread the “good” and raise awareness. Visitors from 22 states ordered our “Storm” shirt, thereby spreading exposure for the Embrace Iowa cause from coast to coast.

As grateful as we are to everyone who bought the shirt, we need to continue on our mission. There is more that still needs to be – and can be – done to provide assistance to the people whose lives were changed. Just in the Cedar Rapids area alone, 7,198 land parcels were affected by the flood:

• 5,390 residential
• 1,049 commercial
• 84 industrial
• 51 agricultural
• 486 non-profit organizations
• 138 other

…and 72,428 tons of debris were collected and removed as of August 2008. Now the rebuilding process is underway and volunteers are needed! Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity says they are extremely shorthanded, and a blitz build of 20 houses was to begin construction in June.

So think about it, what could be better than a summer vacation helping the good go around by creating fresh starts for flood victims in Iowa?  For information on how to volunteer, follow this link: http://corridorrecovery.org/Volunteer/habitat.asp.

If coming to Iowa to volunteer is a little out of the way, you can still help with a donation we’ll make from your purchase of a Greater Than Any Storm t-shirt too!

Thanks for all you have helped us accomplish in our first year. Let’s keep doing good together!

Did you know that black dogs are some of the least adopted dogs at animal shelters? There are a few ideas of why this may be…maybe they don’t photograph as well, some fear they are more aggressive, etc.  The Animal Rescue League of Iowa is working to change that.

The ARL has started a Black Dog Club and Greater Than Goods is partnering with them to help raise money for this important cause.  As a proud owner of an adopted black dog named Joey, I can say he is one of the most loving, cheerful dogs I have ever met!  He gets along great with our other dog (Henry) and the two are now best friends.  While they are A LOT of work, they are completely worth it, even though sometimes I feel like I am living the book/movie “Marley and Me.”  Actually, Joey ate that book up - literally!

A number of other shelters throughout the U.S. have started similar groups to promote black dog adoption.  Tell us about them!  And tell us about your black dog, or any of your pets for that matter - we love hearing about them!

Look for the Black Dog Club shirt coming to our site soon!