Case Study: Kākāpō Recovery T Shirts
The Project:
The Kākāpō Recovery program, run by the Department of Conservation, is an initiative that monitors and helps the critically endangered Kākāpō with hopes to restore their population to its former glory and bring them back to mainland Aotearoa. There are only 201 (and counting) birds left, which means the work they do is vital to keeping this species alive. These preventative actions include intensive monitoring, health checks, predator control, supplementary feeding, and hand-rearing chicks. It takes a great deal of work and resources to run this program, so donations are super necessary!
The Solution:
In celebration of the 2022 Kākāpō breeding season, The Kākāpō Recovery program decided to run a limited-edition t shirt fundraiser. They approached us with their idea and design by Kākāpō ranger Sarah Little, and we were tasked with getting the fundraiser moving. Our previous success with fundraising campaigns, such as Dick Frizzell's Cancer Society fundraiser in 2021, made us the perfect team for the job. Our (free!) pre-order online store was the best option to run this fundraiser as customers can order directly, it uses a 'print to order' method, meaning there is no excess stock, and we ship the garments individually once printed.
We chose three classic t shirts for this job - AS Colour Men's Staple t shirt, AS Colour Women's Maple t shirt, and AS Colour Kids t shirts. All garments were printed with our eco-friendly water-based inks. These are better for the wearer, our team, and the environment.
All profit goes directly to the cause when creating fundraising campaigns with us, and your donation is built into the cost of the t shirt. To take this campaign to another level we added an additional donation option with clear messaging about where your money goes. This was a fantastic way to maximise the fundraiser and generate more help for Kākāpō Recovery.
Here's how your donation helps:
$25 buys a kākāpō a month of pellets.
$50 buys a disease screen test.
$100 buys materials for an artificial nest box.
$250 buys a radio tracking aerial.
$1,000 buys a portable incubator.
$1,600 buys a radio-telemetry receiver
It has been fantastic to facilitate this fundraiser for an important cause to maintain our native ecosystems and save these beloved birds. We (and DOC, of course) have been delighted with the response, selling over 1,000 t shirts, which generated around $25,000! Amazing mahi from the Kākāpō Recovery team and amazing support from New Zealanders.
You can find out more about what Kākāpō Recovery does here.
