By Kelly Szaniawski
The “buy one give one” business model has garnered appeal for its seemingly impactful trade off. It implies that by buying a product, you are helping to fund the efforts of giving a product to someone in need or providing a needed service. Such an ideology was adopted and implemented by the two founders of Love Your Melon, Zachary and Brian, in an entrepreneurship class at the University of St. Thomas in 2012 with a socially-minded goal of “putting a hat on every child battling cancer in America”. Since its inception, 45,000 hats have been given away to support the company’s original goal of helping children fight cancer. Today, a new goal of supporting pediatric cancer research as well as providing immediate support to children and their families has been the focus of Love Your Melon. The Buy One Give One business model has been adapted to having 50% of profits received to Love Your Melon go into the “Love Your Melon fund” that supports their “nonprofit partners in the fight against pediatric cancer, create therapeutic experiences and fund charitable programming initiatives for children and families battling cancer”.
Pediatric cancer patients receive their Love Your Melon hats
The “Love Your Melon fund” has raised over four million dollars that have been given to nonprofit partners as well as over 100,000 beanies to children battling cancer. Some of the nonprofit partners listed on their website include: Alex’s Lemonade Stand, Children’s Oncology Group Foundation, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Make-A-Wish Foundation. In terms of the application of the BOGO business model: directly on the Love Your Melon fund website page, all of their nonprofits are listed as well as the amount given to each individual nonprofit—indicating a transparency with regards to donation allocation. The “Buy One” aspect of BOGO, encompass a wide variety products: beanies, blankets, scarves etc. Beanies themselves can range from $45.00 to $35.00, which is definitely higher than most beanie prices, but not outrageous (could be a small example of margin enhancement techniques). The selection of the product for the “Give One” aspect of BOGO in Love Your Melon may have started out as a hat for child battling cancer but has grown into fund that supports a child battling cancer via cancer research, and programing initiatives.
Love Your Melon has utilized the BOGO model in order to provide not only beanies for children battling cancer, but a fund to provide support to the ongoing cancer research, initiatives, and nonprofit partners with a mindset to create lasting positive impact. Furthermore, their “Send a Smile” initiative to send an encouraging note to a “superhero” battling cancer speaks to the commitment Love Your Melon has to children battling cancer.
