The Great Give Away

Thus far, The Great Give Away has been hosted twice at the University of Miami’s Coral Gables campus by the student group Random Acts of Kindness. Our goal for the first Great Give Away was to collect 10,000 articles of clothing to give to impoverished citizens in downtown Miami. In less than three weeks, we collected 11,151 articles of clothing and distributed 2,000 U R Awesome Shirts to our donors. We then sorted the clothing by size and gender to prepare for our distribution event, which coincided with World Kindness Day. As we arrived at the distribution location, we were welcomed by a long line of enthusiastic recipients who applauded as we exited our vehicles. We promptly set up our tables and tents, and within five hours we were able to help 481 impoverished citizens by providing them with clothing, reusable shopping bags, and U R Awesome Shirts. The remaining clothing was donated to homeless shelters in the surrounding area.

During our second Great Give Away, we focused on improving the overall process to ensure that The Great Give Away’s success could be repeated year after year. Although we had a smaller goal of collecting only 2,500 articles of clothing, we collected more than 6,500 articles in less than two weeks! We deepened the impact of the second Great Give Away by conducting group reflections with our volunteers throughout the drive and by providing our recipients with food and hygiene kits in addition to the reusable shopping bags, clothing, and U R Awesome Shirts they received. We also enhanced the distribution event by utilizing an indoor location provided by the Miami Rescue Mission. This helped us created an extraordinary experience for every recipient that walked through the door. Each recipient was assigned a volunteer who walked them through the distribution process, helped them pick out clothing that fit their needs and, more importantly, provided them with superior service that simply made them feel awesome. Through surveys conducted at the event, both volunteers and recipients highlighted these one-on-one interactions as their favorite part of the distribution experience.

Both the U R Awesome Shirts and The Great Give Away have been tremendously successful in every way we hoped they would be and more! This success was made possible by the contributions of our many sponsors Artees, Chick-fil-A, Dennys, Lowes, M&M Bus Services, PODs, Power Pizza, Publix Charities, the Miami-Dade community, The Miami Rescue Mission, the University of Miami, and our dedicated volunteers.

Organizations interested in hosting a Great Give Away should start by submitting an online application choosing to meet a specific Great Give Away goal based on its capacity and its intended recipients. Along with this application, applications will be asked to submit a budget to be reviewed and approved by our Great Give Away Team.

ALMOST NOTHING! All costs approved in an organization’s Great Give Away budget will be funded through sale of U R Awesome Shirts by the hosting organization during The Fundraising Stage. Hosting organizations may also seek sponsorship for any additional goods or services they wish to provide to their recipients.

The only financial investment made by a hosting organization is a security deposit used to fund the production cost of the initial batch of shirts.

EXAMPLE: The security deposit would total $2,000 for a batch of 500 shirts at roughly $4.00 a shirt. The 500 shirts are then sold for $10 each, totaling $5,000 in return, which will be used to fund the drive and refund the security deposit. Following our one-for-one business model, once this initial batch of 500 U R Awesome Shirts is sold, the hosting organization will receive 500 shirts to will give away to its donors and recipients.

Once an organization has sold its first batch of U R Awesome Shirts for its Great Give Away, a second batch of custom U R Awesome will be printed to fit the organization's preferences, including colors, slogans, and/or logos that represent the organization’s members, supporters, recipients and their Great Give Away as a whole.

Along with its initial batch of shirts, hosting organizations will receive documentation that provides instruction on each step of The Great Give Away process, as well as examples of flyers, palm cards, and other marketing tools to help promote the drive. More importantly, each organization will be assigned a Great Give Away Coordinator. The Great Give Away Coordinator will facilitate an organization’s Great Give Away by providing guidance through each stage of the process including the Art of Being Awesome Curriculum.