CharityGiftMarket: e-commerce marketplace for nonprofits supports mothers through Mother’s Day sales

Andrew and Lindsey Markelz think that if you are going to buy a gift for your mom this Mother’s Day, then it should do more than just support a company’s bottom line.

(And remember Mother’s Day is this weekend.)

The two Camden residents are founders of a new e-commerce marketplace for nonprofits called CharityGiftMarket, that offers a central platform for nonprofits to sell products that benefit their constituents. They’re holding a “Mother’s Day Challenge” in partnership with women’s justice nonprofit Eternal Threads to raise awareness about their products, as well as other products being sold by or in support of mothers throughout the site.

Check out the site here.

“Because a lot of our partnering charities work with mothers, we thought it would be neat to highlight those organizations and their products for Mother’s Day,” said Andrew. “We wanted to create a relevant link between buying something for your mother that also supports a mother.”

The CharityGiftMarkt team, including IT lead Joel Smith at left, and founders Andrew and Lindsey Markelz, at right.

The Markelz launched CharityGiftMarket in the fall of 2011, but the idea for the startup struck them during an even more intense gift-giving holiday — Christmas.

Andrew, 32, says he and Lindsey, 29, who works for UrbanPromise International, which sells products at churches to raise money, wondered how many other nonprofits were selling items that might make good Christmas gifts. They found tons, but felt the shopping experience was inconvenient and disorganized.

This insight combined with Lindsey’s experience as a director of a nonprofit provided a lightbulb, Andrew told Technically Philly.

“Being overworked and underfunded, many organizations do not have the time, nor expertise to set up a storefront and effectively market their products,” Andrew said. “We realized a marketplace would ease this pain-point by bringing their products to a broader market of consumers, thereby, increasing a revenue stream to further their missions.”

By Christmas 2011 the Markelz, along with friend Joel Smith, 27, who offers technical support and web design, had CharityGiftMarket up and running as a side project since they all work full time. Still, they were able to glean important data from the holiday sales rush.

“After this past Christmas, and only operating for a few months, four of our partnering charities reported that their 2011 sales increased by three percent to 12 percent,” Andrew said. “We are excited to see that number climb because the more we succeed the more they can succeed and lives can be changed.”

As of publication, Andrew told Technically Philly the marketplace has partnerships with 37 nonprofits selling more than 300 products for over $7,500 to support their organizations. In return for a central sales platform, CharityGiftMarket takes a 5 percent commission on every sale.

“Each product has a story to highlight the impact the purchase of that product will have,” Andrew said. “There has been a wide spectrum of causes supported and the actual reach these organizations have on the ground is priceless.”

Now, Andrew says they are hoping that the Mother’s Day promotion campaign will be successful for the nonprofits they work with while offering more lessons for how CharityGiftMarket can improve and scale.

“We have found that the majority of people who come to our site do so because of the idea that their purchase will support charity, yet ultimately purchase a product on its quality and utility to that shopper. Many shoppers express that knowing the impact of their purchase is important to them,” Andrew said. “With campaigns, we are interested in seeing how much people rally around reaching a particular goal with a very specific effect of their spending.”

If you’re interested in purchasing a Mother’s Day gift that also has a charitable purpose, you can visit CharityGiftMarket here.