You can’t live in Portland and not know about Free Geek and The ReBuilding Center. Sustainable businesses can learn a lot from these two nonprofits and their (un)marketing. What makes these two organizations such local darlings?
Free Geek is a nonprofit community organization that refurbishes and promotes reuse of used technology donated by the community. Free Geek donates computers to schools and other nonprofits to benefit others that need them. What isn’t returned back into the community gets recycled as e-waste. On top of that, Free Geek “happily provides computers, education, and job skills training to volunteers in exchange for their service” and trains end beneficiaries and the community at large on computer use. Free Geek’s mission: “Helping the needy get nerdy since the beginning of the third millennium.”
The ReBuilding Center collects from the community and resells at its retail location “the region’s largest volume of used building and remodeling materials” and furniture. The Center also offers deconstruction services. Similar to Free Geek, the ReBuilding Center donates building materials to community nonprofits and offers classes on their reuse. The Center’s mission: “Working to strengthen the environmental, economic, and social fabric of local communities.”
So why does Portland loves these two organizations? Both Free Geek and the Rebuilding Center meet (and maybe even exceed) two criteria for brands to connect with their customers.
1. Salience
To support a company, you first need to know it exists. In any research, both nonprofits would score high on awareness, recognition, recall. How come?
Local media support
Both nonprofits get relatively frequent and always positive press (this post being the most immediate example). Free Geek is a staple reference in media content about e-waste recycling and reuse; the ReBuilding Center dominates media conversations about the reuse of building materials.
Word of mouth
Both organizations have a de facto monopoly in their respective categories and both are perceived as go-to experts. If you need to recycle your computer, you go to Free Geek, and if you want to move those building supplies, you go to the ReBuilding Center – why would you call anyone else? I mean is there anyone else?
Both organizations do good on both input and output ends of their operations and both thus fit nicely into the city’s sustainability spirit. They’re our pride and joy, and we’ll tell anyone and everyone about them. (Check out Yelp reviews for the ReBuilding Center and Free Geek, which now has de facto franchises all over North America.)
Events
Both nonprofits reinforce their presence in the community with events. Free Geek coordinates computer collection happenings, and you can tour their facility. A visit to the 52,000 square foot ReBuilding Center is an event in itself. They conduct workshops and tours, and Shawn Endicott, the Center’s executive director, does presentations all over town.
2. Relevance
In addition to being very familiar to Portlanders, both organizations satisfy a number of their needs. Both nonprofits’ business models are built on the triple bottom line – they empower people, care for the environment, and (presumably) meet their and their community’s financial objectives.
People own computers and houses, and both organizations collect used items at the end of their “first life” with the good people of Portland. It’s not about offloading old stuff or assuaging guilt, though surely that may sometimes be the motivation for some. The recycle and reuse aspects of their business models appeal to all sustainability-minded denizens.
Though local techies may have a natural affinity for Free Geek, Portlanders at large support the organization and word of mouth. When the nonprofit got burglarized a couple of years back, it got back on its feet quickly with community’s help. The organization has more than 700 regular volunteers.
The ReBuilding Center is a hub for Portland’s sustainable builders and remodelers as well as do-it-yourself home owners. The Center an integral member of the North Mississippi Avenue neighborhood community; no trip up there can do without a visit to the Center (and the Amnesia Brewing pub, but that’s for another post).
That people in need benefit at the back end, either through things or education is more than a nice extra. Call them social enterprises, these organizations meet the human need to be charitable, altruistic, and a contributing member of the community. That your old stuff doesn’t end up in the dump but in good use someplace else, benefiting someone else who’s in real need, feels good and provides for a sticky, visual narrative that’s easy to relate to.
What’s your experience with either nonprofit? Are there similar organizations in your community? What pages from these nonprofits’ books can sustainable businesses take? What’s your story?
