The Ottawa Food Bank wants to not only provide food for people but provide the most nutritious food possible. Your support helps them purchase the expensive and necessary items that everyone needs and deserves such as: fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy, grains, sources of protein as well as much-needed diapers. They provide this food to over 39,000 people every month with the help of their network of 112 emergency food programs across the city.
The Great Glebe Garage Sale is a community event held in the Glebe where homeowners use their front lawns, driveways, and porches to collectively make one giant sale (and awesome recycling event) that has become an annual community festival attracting thousands of people to the neighbourhood. The event, founded in 1986, has traditionally asked vendors to donate a percentage of sales to the Food Bank. But because of the pandemic, the GGGS hasn’t been able to function in person as usual. That’s where GiveShop comes in!
Soon after GiveShop launched last year, we teamed up with the Ottawa Food Bank and the Glebe Community Association to hold a supplementary campaign to help fill the gap left by such an amazing community event. The campaign was a moderate success that ran from July 20 to September 7, 2020, and was featured only on the GiveShop mobile app. This year we wanted to go bigger, making The Great Glebe Garage Sale – Virtual Edition the first Multi-Group campaign at GiveShop, featuring it on the mobile app and our new browser-based app.
This year’s campaign ran from 6am on May 28th to 6pm on June 25th, 2021, bringing together a dozen sponsoring companies and organizations and garnering some impressive prizes. Each donation posted was entered for a chance to win a $500 gift card to McKeen Metro Glebe, and the Ottawa Food Bank provided charitable tax receipts for any items that sold for $10 or more. The campaign had support from more than a dozen local businesses that provided merchandise/gift card donations, prizing, and promotional efforts (in store posters, social). Even the GiveShop team got together and hung posters around the Glebe community to help bring awareness!
In the end, this year’s sale was a huge success. There were 174 items (valued at over $7K) listed on the GiveShop marketplace in benefit of the GGGS and the Food Bank, and we sold 75 of those listings for a total value of $2,821 (which exceeded the Food Bank’s goal of reaching $2,500).
A huge thank you goes to all the great local companies that came together to make this campaign such a success for our community! We couldn’t have done it without McKeen Metro Glebe, Engel & Volkers, the Glebe Community Association, the Glebe BIA, The Works Craft Burgers and Beer, Fred Astaire Dance Studio, Top of the World, Purdy Paws Pet Grooming Spa, Clear Interior Design, Curavita, The Ten Spot, and Free Form Fitness, all of whom donated their time and merchandise (and purchased sale items as well!).
The campaign also drew some critical local media attention. On May 26, Andrew Duffy wrote a great Ottawa Citizen article to get some attention. Then Samantha Ingram, Communications Manager for the Ottawa Food Bank, was featured on CTV News to talk about the sale:
“The Great Glebe Garage Sale has been an event that’s been so embedded in our community for so long, and it had potential to come to a screaming halt with the pandemic. But luckily, through GiveShop, we’re able to carry on and the Great Glebe Garage Sale has gone virtual.”
The whole campaign was a shining example of how easy it can be for communities to come together to bring some awareness and raise much-needed funds for a very worthy local cause. Items that did not get snapped up during the sale remain available for purchase on the marketplace and proceeds continue to flow through to the Food Bank any time an item is sold.
Thank you so much to everyone who participated.
The GiveShop Team
Recent Comments