When Patagonia, a popular outdoor clothing and gear store, announced that it would donate 100 percent of its global sales from Black Friday the firm never expected the record-breaking numbers that it experienced.
Folks were calling it a “fundraiser for the earth” and they came out to support it in droves. Patagonia admits it expected about $2 million in sales, but in fact received five times that amount. This amount was gathered from the eighty retail stores that Patagonia operates globally and the company’s website. Every penny will be going to grassroots nonprofits to help protect the Earth’s natural resources worldwide.
“We’re humbled to report the response was beyond expectations,” Patagonia said in a statement about the event, “The science is telling us loud and clear: We have a problem. By getting active in communities, we can raise our voices to defend policies and regulations that will protect wild places and wildlife, reduce carbon emissions, [and] build a modern energy economy based on investment in renewables.”
The company reported that it saw a large increase in new customers that had never purchased from Patagonia before. This signals that there is an interest among consumers to make buying decisions based on a company’s standards as they relate to the environment. It seems that these consumers are interested in being directly involved in environmental change.
The supported organizations are overwhelmed by the massive resources that Patagonia will be able to infuse into their efforts. Many of the grants that the company provides are to underfunded and often overlooked groups, and will go toward addressing important issues like climate change.
Patagonia is a member of 1% for the Planet, an organization that commits 1 percent of a participating company’s annual sales to these environmental groups. All this is in an effort to protect natural resources and minimize the social and environmental impact of industry on the planet.
