While on holiday, I met a really cool guy named Mike. Mike Kryshak is the CEO of Rebel Converting. They are experts in producing wet wipes in coreless perforated rolls dispensed through canisters and displays. The markets they serve are primarily industrial and commercial.
Rebel Wipes is the outcome of extra product they produce; Mike created his own brand where all profits from sales of this extra product go to charity.
We began our chat when he told me about a project he has worked on for some time bringing bikes into his business. His employees help by doing repairs, on their own time. These bikes are given to charities to help them support their efforts or are given to inner city children, US war vets and others who need mobility. During this chat, Mike mentioned that his staff had rarely received a thank you from the charities they support.
A company called Master Lock had been contributing discontinued bike locks. In return for their support, Mike had Master Lock’s logo placed on the Rebel Wipes canisters, placed their logo into their print advertising and mentioned them on TV interviews. Master Lock had been donating locks to other charities for quite some time with no recognition and in Mikes’ words, they were ‘blown away’ to receive any form of thanks for their support. http://www.rebelwipes.com/bikeprogram
Rebel Wipes is not a charity but it is run by a leader who is charitable, and he wants to give back. Mike knows first hand how important it is to recognize people and organizations making a contribution.
Mike told be about the Rebels, an all-volunteer youth football team in Saukville, started in 1960. The Piggly Wiggly grocery store has provided ‘brats and sodas’ to the team for many years for their opening day of practice. In general, Piggly Wiggly works with many smaller groups in the area and does many charitable events. For their opening day support (which began around 1970), of the Rebel Football party, the team had been sending a letter of thanks to the store manager.
In 2016, Rebel Wipes were involved and it changed the way the team said thank you. 
This year, a banner was made to say thank you for your support. The entire team signed it. The banner was about 12’ x 18” in size, so substantial and hard to miss. (The photograph was added to the Facebook page only.) It was hung on the front of the store by the entrance doors.
Think of the benefits to Piggly Wiggly. Think of the families and friends of the players who shop there and saw this impressive thank you message.
Everyone who saw the banner felt great about the about the store and rebel wipes; this includes families of the players but also everyone else who shops there. You can also take into consideration how the employees felt about their employer and its community support. The store manager even sent a copy to the Fox brothers, who own the grocery, at the Piggly Wiggly head office. Gratitude was contagious!
Recognition of this sort pays many benefits to all, the price was nominal and the impact was huge and you can bet that next year all these organizations will once again be first in line to make a contribution.
Make 2017 your year to do something different, something new and something exceptional and check out www.rebelwipes.com; this is a for profit business, setting a good example and playing an active role in their community, showing how making it beneficial for all, is a good thing.
Sharron Batsch is the developer of @EASE Fund Development Software and the author of From Chaos to Control, Build a High Performance Team Using Knowledge Management. She has worked with a wide variety of charities for over 25 years as both a consultant and volunteer fundraiser and event chair.
