Submitted on January 3, 2018
Tell us a bit about your business.
We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to reduce social inequities and improve the quality of life of the impoverished in countries and regions around the world. We use a variety of intervention methods ranging from the direct provision of supplies to the homeless populations of San Diego County to stocking and supplying an orphanage that takes in HIV/AIDS positive children in Tijuana and improving access to education among children in Zambia.
The most unique part about our structure is in the usage of funds: 100% (yes, 100%) goes exclusively to our programs. No one, including the executive officers, receives any commission or salary from SanD/Stone’s funds. This has enabled us to help dozens more and expand our services even further in the communities we help. All of our programs are based on needs assessments conducted by public health and political science professionals to ensure the most effective execution.
In what ways has your business progressed recently, and what do you attribute that to? Looking forward, where do you see your business one year from now?
SanD/Stone has only officially been in operation since October 30, 2017. But, in that time, we’ve earned 501(c)(3) status from the IRS; received a $2,000 grant from the Every Kid Plays Foundation Fund, that we used to purchase sports and play equipment for our kiddos in Zambia; funded 100 “dignity bags” (bags containing everything from nail clippers and socks to hand sanitizer and body wash) for the homeless; and, provided bins of clothing, toys, school supplies and hygienic items to our kids in Tijuana. We will also be fully funding the education of 3 children in Zambia for the entirety of the upcoming term within the next few days.
A year from now, we hope to have funded a full year’s worth of school supplies for 10 schools in Zambia, funded a combined 100 months of education for the students, registered 10 teachers in each grade level to teach those students, distributed 1,000 dignity bags to the homeless, and provided a year’s worth of supplies to our kids in Tijuana. If we achieve these goals, we hope to expand into additional populations and develop more programs to better serve our community.
What are your favorite tools or resources that help you do business smarter, and how have they made a difference?
WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger have been, by far, the biggest helps in managing our programs. They allow us to easily communicate internationally without burdening our partners abroad with the heavy costs associated with international communication. WhatsApp has even enabled us to make quality calls, free of charge, to arrange everything from pick up of goods to delivery of scholarships as far away as Africa.
We also use excel for a TON. We’ve managed to create formula-generated expense reports that update instantly to track income and expenditures, reimbursements and easily audit our finances.
For outreach, a combination of Ripl, Canva and Facebook have enabled us to create scheduled, engaging, beautiful posts that absolutely get attention. We also rely heavily on Wix.com’s website builder for the creation of our website.
In terms of product production (t-shirts, business cards, etc.) we always go back to CustomInk and Vistaprint. Their prices are second to none, service is fast and reliable and the user interface is easy to use.
What advice would you offer to businesses like yours just starting up?
I would recommend that you really look at all of the laws surrounding the type of business you want to start and try to predict the sorts of programs you might want to establish. Before we even began SanD/Stone we knew there would be a ton of laws to chew through—especially to get a 501(c)(3)—and it took days to process it all. Even after we got the status, we ran into law upon law upon law dealing with the intricacies of working internationally and the potential costs associated with it. It’s taken a lot of time to work through everything but it’s made everything so much easier to go into these programs knowing the requirements and paperwork coming down the line.
Where can customers find and connect with your business?
You can find out more about us at sandstoneinitiative.org, facebook.com/sandstoneinitiative or by emailing us at sandstoneint@gmail.com.
