Beef-a-Roo’s Round Up

THIS is the power of community! If you think that everyone who supports your mission has to do A LOT to make a big difference, you are wrong! When a bunch of people start pulling in the same direction, even in a small way, they can change the world for the better!

During October, for all 31 days of Down Syndrome Awareness Month, all eight of our local Beef-A-Roo locations did a ‘Round Up’ fundraiser in support of GiGi’s Playhouse Rockford. If you are not familiar with the concept of a “round up,” it’s kind of a beautiful thing! Upon check-out, restaurants or stores simply ask their customers if they would like to round up to benefit a particular organization. If they say YES, their bill is rounded up to the next nearest dollar. So, for example, $11.55 becomes $12.00. It’s a simple, painless, and yet very powerful way to make a real difference.

CASE IN POINT… Beef-A-Roo asked their customers to round up during October and by doing so, THEY RAISED A TOTAL OF $17,596.59! Literally pennies or a few cents at a time, they raised almost $20,000 in 31 days. Mind… blown!

There is so much that is awesome about a round-up.  First, it’s community driven, and the whole community becomes stronger whenever we all pull together.  Another great thing is that, in reality, it doesn’t cut into the profits of the sponsoring organization because it is ALL money that is donated by customers after the sale of their product. A third great thing is that anyone can take part in the fundraising effort and make a meaningful contribution, and the most it will cost them is 99 cents. Finally, it is a total win-win for the non-profit. It doesn’t cost them anything (which is a huge bonus in the social service world!) and it has the potential to generate substantial funds.

When we say that we are grateful for every penny donated to GiGi’s Playhouse Rockford, it has never been an exaggeration. Saying every penny counts is actually an understatement, and Beef-a-Roo’s awesome round-up is proof positive of that. Pennies quickly turned into dollars, dollars added up to hundreds, and hundreds compounded into thousands, literally in a matter of days. 

We can’t tell you how good it feels to know that thousands of individuals in our community made a real difference throughout Down Syndrome Awareness Month for those we serve. We are beyond grateful to Becky Fridly and the owners of Beef-a-Roo for organizing the round-up and encouraging their employees to ask every customer to participate; we are grateful to all the Beef-a-Roo staff members for following through on the ask; we are grateful to our Operations Coordinator, Stacey Bonetti, for being an over-achiever and going to Beef-a-Roo 37 times (we’re not kidding!) in October; and we are truly grateful for every person that said YES when you were asked to round up. You could have said no, but you didn’t… and that made all the difference.