bracing kids for a better future...
Each year, most orthodontists buy some amount of branded products to promote their practices, whether that is ‘give away’ items such as pens or tote bags or logo’d apparel, such as scrubs or uniforms. While expenditures for those items vary widely, a certain sum usually appears as a line item in the practice budget. Usually this merchandise is purchased on line or from a local vendor. Since most of these expenditures are relatively small, the profit earned by the vendor, regardless of the source, is not large enough to constitute a significant amount of revenue for the seller.
Smiles Change Lives (SCL) realizes the importance of advertising to an orthodontist. This is why we believe that participating in our program provides a potential marketing platform for our providers and as many doctors already know, SCL can assist in this marketing effort. SCL has entered into a relationship with Forward Pass Promotions (FPP) and we have done this for two reasons:
FIRST, to better assist the doctors in our program with their marketing efforts by not only providing expertise but to save them money as FPP prices will be competitive and in many instances below others in the business.
SECOND, FPP has agreed to donate a significant amount of their profits to SCL. While the amount of profit per order may be small, taken as a whole (if large numbers of our providers spend their already budgeted marketing dollars with FPP) the amount of money coming to SCL can become quite meaningful.
SCL’s practice has been not to solicit our network of doctors for any type of financial assistance as the work they do in providing life changing treatment to the kids and families in our program is donation enough. But – by buying branded products from FPP, doctors can provide some financial assistance without spending any more money than already budgeted and, in some cases, less.
Like most nonprofits, SCL needs to find sources of revenue to keep our program alive and well. Unlike most nonprofits, our business model is geared to providing enough money from program revenue to substantially cover our operating costs. However, outside fund raising is needed to complement our internally generated revenue to allow the money to make capital purchases such as computers, software and the like.
So please consider buying your promotional items, or at least some of them, from FPP. These purchases will ultimately lead to more smiles all the way around or, as we like to say, spending already budgeted dollars creates a “grin-grin” situation.
