About VisABILITY 
|
This is the question:
what special characteristics might encourage a nonprofit to select VisABILITY as its vendor of imprinted branding products?
Below is our answer to this question.
At the end of our answer is information about our incredible location in the foothills of Colorado’s Front Range.
|
VisABILITY, located in Lyons, Colorado, is owned by a husband/wife team – Janice Gavan, president and John Burke, founder. Since 1985 we have supplied nonprofits with logo-imprinted branding products. By 2005 (last time we counted) 16,000 fundraising, membership and marketing campaigns had used products from VisABILITY.
We supply more than custom logo-ware. Our clients rely on for guidance about product selection, development and use. They trust our advice. The reason? Our clients know we spent years holding or supervising jobs like the ones they now hold. In combination, we have 31 years of hands-on experience managing public service organizations, followed by 52 combined years supplying them with imprinted branding products.
We have learned our background is important to current clients. We think it may be of interest to potential new clients. So, here is a quick summary of why our company is different from every supplier of imprinted products in the nation:
VisABILITY’s Founders (husband and wife team) are or have been: director of a local United Way, external affairs vice president of a university; development vice president of two private colleges; executive director of a regional health association; trustee of two private colleges; senior fundraiser for an international health organization; secretary of a public university board of trustees; director of a regional animal shelter; admissions officer at two private colleges; director of a local united way; management and marketing consultant to 23 regional and national nonprofits.
We organized annual benefits with 35,000 participants; obtained coverage from nearly every major print and broadcast media in the nation (plus some international press); wrote and produced two nationally broadcast TV documentaries; managed development programs, supervised direct mail campaigns, wrote grants and conducted major gift solicitations producing nearly $200 million in philanthropic funding.
We founded VisABILITY in 1985: our goal was to put our nonprofit background to use in an entrepreneurial context. VisABILITY quickly became (and remains) the primary supplier to the nation’s public radio system. It is entrusted with national brands like Marketplace, This American Life, Morning Edition, A Prairie Home Companion, NPR News, Wait, Wait – Don’t tell Me and many more programs and networks of equal luminescence. We produces custom-logo merchandise for several hundred noncommercial, nonprofit. Locally-owned public radio stations and we operate the Shameless Commerce Division for Car Talk.
Contribute to your local public radio station? The premiums you receive are probably be produced by us. We might even pack and ship them for your station.
In addition to servicing America’s public radio stations and producers, we have supplied custom logo-imprinted branding products and related marketing advice to: MIT (Cambridge, MA) Smithsonian Museum (Washington, DC) Wells College (Aurora, NY) The Food Trust (Philadelphia, PA) Komen Denver Race for the Cure (Denver, CO) UCLA Alumni Association (Los Angeles, CA) Smithsonian Publishing (Washington, DC) San Jose Museum of Art (San Jose, CA) Colorado Department of Social Services (Denver, CO) New York State Historical Association (Cooperstown, NY) Outward Bound (Golden, CO) Canton Municipal Government (Canton, NY) Arkansas State University (Jonesboro, AR) George Foster Peabody Awards (Athens, GA) Radio Free Asia (Washington, DC) American Association of Cancer Research Foundation (Philadelphia, PA) Vassar Alumnae Club (Philadelphia, PA) Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine (North Grafton, MA) Dana Foundation (New York, NY) Christian Brothers Academy (Syracuse, NY) Empower African Children (Dallas, TX) Defenders of Wildlife (Washington, DC) Seattle Youth Symphony (Seattle, WA) Grassroots TV (Aspen, CO) University of California (Davis , CA) American Motorcyclist Association (Pickering, OH) The Concord Coalition (Arlington, VA) Minnesota Orchestra (Minneapolis, MN) Dance Theater Workshop (New York, NY) Audubon Society (Cheyenne, WY) University of Missouri (Columbia, MO) Denver Regional Council of Governments (Denver, CO) Ordway Center for the Performing Arts (Saint Paul, MN) University of Northern Colorado Alumni Association (Greeley, CO) and more….
Experience is one way to measure VisABILITY. The stature of nonprofits who entrust their brands to us is a second measure. Loyalty is a third. So please consider the significance of this indicator:
a few years ago a staff member tabulated a comparison of our original and then-current clientele. His study revealed that 93% of the organizations who became clients during our first two years in business continued to be active clients 20 years later.
Old timers in the promotional products industry tell us that a client retention rate of 93% over two decades is a spectacular achievement.
We believe the reason for our clients’ loyalty is this: no supplier of promotional products in the nation has our level of experience with the nonprofit public service sector. Or our understanding. Or our commitment. That understanding and commitment is reflected in the way we staff our company, the way we define corporate values and the way we establish its policies and practices.
The old adage says: Location. Location. Location! Surrounded by natural beauty and with more hours of sunshine than San Diego or Miami, our town of Lyons, Colorado is the perfect location for us to live, work and keep things in perspective. We’re Type A people - determined always to exceed client expectations. Pursuit of this standard is realistic in environs that help us stay content, mellow, productive – and grateful. Want more about this blessed place? Click here.
|