Bakery’s Partnership With Charity Is Recipe for Success

Company: Fairytale Brownies, a Phoenix business that has 40 employees year-round and about three times that number during the holiday season.

How it gives: The company supports Kaboom, a Washington charity that builds playgrounds in neighborhoods nationwide. Fairytale Brownies donates 25 cents for every “Happy Birthday” or other special-occasion message it sells. It also donates gift bags to Kaboom that the charity hands out to volunteers and corporate sponsors. Last year, Fairytale Brownies added a page to its Web site that allows customers to donate a dollar to Kaboom when they make a purchase.

Company employees volunteer with Kaboom to build playgrounds in and around Phoenix. “For our employees, it’s a great eye-opener and builds awareness of their community,” says Eileen Spitalny, one of the founders. “For a lot of us, we feel we have never accomplished so much in a day.”

How it got the idea: When Ms. Spitalny and her business partner, David Kravetz, started the company, they received numerous requests from charities that wanted to work with them. For the pair, who met on a playground as kindergarten students, Kaboom seemed like the perfect fit. The charity was small but growing, like their company, and it worked nationwide.

How much it gives: The company has raised $3,900 in the past year through its Web-site donation program. It has also contributed more than 20,000 pounds of brownies, or roughly $60,000, and donated an additional $30,000 since the company started working with Kaboom in 2002. Fairytale Brownies employees have donated more than 1,000 hours of volunteer time.

How the business has benefited: The exposure the company receives through its donations of gift bags has helped drive sales, says Ms. Spitalny. Her business has generated more than $14,000 in the past two years from people who said they heard about the company through Kaboom.

Working with Kaboom has also helped Ms. Spitalny develop ties with some of the charity’s corporate donors, including Home Depot. “What charities can offer is the exposure they have to the business community,” says Ms. Spitalny.

The charity’s perspective: Darrell Hammond, founder of Kaboom, says working with Fairytale Brownies has increased public awareness of his charity.

The company publicizes Kaboom prominently on its Web site, and a year after Hurricane Katrina, the company gave Mr. Hammond space in its print catalog to write about continuing needs in Louisiana. “They are probably still one of the top 10 reasons people hear about Kaboom,” he says.

Why the partnership has worked: Fairytale Brownies employed about 15 people year-round when its founders approached Kaboom, and as it has grown the company’s employees have continued to develop new ways to work together. “It has to be an ongoing conversation about how we can help each other,” says Mr. Hammond.