Company: CommonKindness
Company Description: CommonKindness, a printable grocery coupon website, which also supports the consumer's favorite non-profit. Consumers come to our site, register and choose their favorite local or national non-profit to support and when they redeem their coupon, we pay 20% of the ad revenue from the brand to the selected non-profit.
Nomination Category: Company/Organization Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Company of the Year – Business Services – 10 or Less Employees

Nomination Title: CommonKindness, Inc.

Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated organization since the beginning of July last year (up to 525 words):

CommonKindness is a unique grocery coupon website. The mission of this young coupon website is to continually empower consumers to save money and at the same time generate sustainable funding for non-profits. The brands looking for a coupon solution are quickly catching on that this coupon model is a "Win" for them as well.

CommonKindness is the only online coupon platform where brands only pay a fee when they get a sale. It’s that simple. If you don’t get a sale, you don’t pay a cent. CEO’s from most major brands are now looking for pay-for-performance models like CommonKindness, says Sarah Schloemer, CEO of CommonKindness.

In addition to hosting the brand's coupon, CommonKindness runs dedicated seasonal and cause-related promotions to drive traffic to the coupons and increase brand awareness. This is truly a unique coupon experience for the brands who load coupons with CommonKindness. The coupon promotions begin with an email blast announcing the new coupon to the CommonKindness community, and is followed by placement on the home page, in the gallery, email to the online communities, promotions in social media networks and more.

CommonKindness offers brands various free tools that they utlilize to support their coupon campaign; iframe technology of their coupon so that they can promote to their facebook and website audiences, video and custom content directly next to the coupon to increase click through, redemptions, and to deepen brand message engagement.

The same iframe tool is being used by the various non-profit organizations to display all CommonKindness coupons on their websites or facebook pages, giving their volunteers and supporters direct access to coupon savings that help their families, while also generating funds for charities. This network provides a powerful and direct access point for brands to reach a valuable audience of influencers – non-profit supporters.

Most recently CommonKindness dedicated a section of the website to ‘Brands with a Mission’, which empowers brands to tell their story to consumers. Brands receive the valuable ‘halo’ and are placed amongst other brands with a mission for a full month.

CommonKindness is a woman owned and operated company. Over the past year, this start-up has climbed its way into the #2 position in the online coupon industry, grown their database to over a half a million consumers, has 1500 registered non-profits promoting the site, major brands Hershey’s, Cabot,Kimberly-Clark, Poise, Johnson & Johnson, Quaker and many others loading coupons and attracted press from Huffington Post, USA Today, Parents, Forbes and many others.

Upload a collection of supporting files and web addresses to our server to provide more background information to the judges. You may upload any number of attachments and URLs through the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above. (Do NOT list your URLs below.)

Provide a brief biography of the person or persons who lead the nominated company (up to 125 words):

CommonKindness is a woman owned and operated company with Sarah Schloemer at the helm. She was Progressive Grocer's 2013 Top Women in Grocery.

Prior to CommonKindness, Sarah served as an account executive with advertising agencies Saatchi & Saatchi in New Zealand and BBDO Interone in Germany. Clients included CPG’s and Foodstuffs supermarket retailers as well as BMW, Sparkasse, Estee Lauder, Contact Energy and Interislander. Sarah also led the brand development, public awareness, marketing and promotions to establish PrideLands Ltd. In addition she has more than 7 years experience as Graphic and Website Director for New Zealand companies including Moa Foods Inc, Kea Ltd. and Garratt Print Company.

Choose one (even if both apply):

The CEO (or other principal manager) of this company is a woman, and at least 40% of the management team is comprised of women.