AMERICAN GIVING | Strengthening communities through generosity
28 April 2008
Hallmark Joins “Red” Campaign to Fight AIDS in Africa
Company's products include greeting cards, handmade mud cloth bags
Kansas City, Missouri -- Hallmark Cards, the world's largest greeting card company, has partnered with rock star Bono and activist lawyer Bobby Shriver to raise funds to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa.
In joining the (Product) Red campaign, which features collections of cause-oriented products also identified as “Red,” Kansas City, Missouri-based Hallmark in October 2007 embarked on the company's largest social-impact initiative in its history.
(Product) Red is aimed at harnessing corporate and consumer power to fight AIDS. Since the campaign's launch in March 2006, Red partners and events have generated more than $100 million for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In addition to Hallmark, Red partners include American Express, Apple, Dell, Emporio Armani, Converse, Gap, Microsoft and Motorola.
Red partner companies contribute a percentage of the sales or portion of the profits from Red products to the Global Fund for programs in Africa, with an emphasis on women and children.
With Hallmark, "we were looking for a product that people buy every day" that is available at a lower price than the more expensive products of the brands of other partners, Shriver said.
Hallmark's (Product) Red collection includes greeting cards, gift wrap, cards with sound, note cards, electronic cards, customizable photo cards and holiday tree ornaments. Special Red cards will be offered for celebration days, including Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Christmas and graduations, according to a company fact sheet.
The line includes the handmade "Mali Mud Cloth Bag." The bag represents one of the largest export orders on record for Malian artisans.
The bags have generated jobs and income for hundreds of people, giving them money to pay their children's school fees and expand their businesses.
"We can buy things we weren't able to before," a mud cloth bag artisan said in a video produced by Hallmark.
In June 2007 a team of "Hallmarkers" -- company employees -- traveled to Mali to lay plans for making and selling the bags, form relationships with the artisans and gain an understanding of their working conditions.
"The project is the first in Mali to be developed through the African Growth and Opportunity Act," Frank Masterson, a Hallmark manager, said.
The team worked with the U.S. Agency for Development-sponsored West African Trade Hub and with Peace Corps and MBAs Without Borders volunteers.
Red money is already at work in Africa, providing anti-retroviral treatment for HIV-positive individuals, funding HIV-prevention programs, feeding and educating children orphaned by AIDS and providing the low-cost treatments needed to reduce the risk of transmission of HIV from mother to child.
Eight percent of sales from Hallmark's (Product) Red products go to the Global Fund. That means the sale of one (Product) Red card with sound priced at $4.99 will result in a contribution of 40 cents, enough to purchase one dose of a medication used to reduce the risk of transmission of HIV from mother to child during birth, according to the company.
Red is the color of "emergency," according to the brand's Web site. The parentheses in "(Product) Red" symbolize an embrace.
"Hallmark’s decision to partner with Red is in line with the company’s legacy of enriching lives and giving back," Jill Rosen, Hallmark director of licensing, said. "Red has brought mainstream consumer attention to the fight against AIDS in Africa."
Hallmark is the latest company to join (Product) Red.
The card company also creates, manufactures and distributes cards that benefit the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Through its Cards for the Cure program, the company raises funds for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a nonprofit group that supports breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment.
Hallmark's cards reflect local cultures and traditions, are produced in more than 30 languages and are available in approximately 100 countries.
In 1910 the company’s founder, 18-year-old entrepreneur Joyce Clyde ("J.C.") Hall, arrived in Kansas City from neighboring Nebraska. He began his business selling postcards out of two shoeboxes.
Hall's business skills led him to create what is now a $4.4 billion greeting card company that spurred the invention of modern gift wrap. The company also created the Hallmark Hall of Fame television movies series and the Hallmark Channel.
Information about Hallmark's partnership with (Product) Red is available on the company's Web site.
