Online retailer looks to harness consumer loyalty to nonprofits

It's My Community Store LLC doesn't have much of a brand identity of its own yet.

Instead the young company headquartered in Sparks relies on the strong feelings that consumers have for their favorite charities, nonprofits and schools to help build the online retailer of technology, school and office supplies.

Jenifer Rose, a veteran of two decades in the technology and office-supplies business in northern Nevada, put together the business.

On the face, It's My Community Store looks simple.

When consumers and business managers place an order on its Web site, itsmycommunitystore.com, they are asked to choose a participating charitable organization that will receive an amount equal to as much 10 percent of the purchase amount.

By last week, about a dozen nonprofits in northern Nevada had signed up. The amount donated by It's My Community Store ranges from a low of 5 percent of the purchase price to the top of 10 percent.

Shoppers eager to help their favorite charitable cause or school are likely to spread the word about It's My Community Store to friends and family across the country.

The toughest part of developing the business, Rose says, came in selection of inventory.

Items need to appeal to a broad cross-section of people who are involved in nonprofits everyone from school children to executives of industry associations at the same time that the merchandise carries sufficient margins to allow It's My Community Store to peel off 5 or 10 percent of the revenues.

At the same time, Rose says the company's prices can't stray above those of competitors in an industry in which pens, binders and cell-phone cases generally are commodity items.

That demands close control of costs starting with the founder's salary.

"I need to make a comfortable living, but I don't need to be dripping in diamonds and furs," Rose says.

In the five years that Rose has been developing the business model, it's shifted in response to the desires of the nonprofits that provide much of its marketing muscle.

School officials who saw early versions of It's My Community Store, for instance, liked the idea well enough that they asked Rose to expand beyond simple listings of classroom supplies.

The company now is developing software that will allow parents to go to the site, click on the participating school and the grade attended by their child, get a recommended list of school supplies, revise it as necessary and place the order.

No more trips to the crowded school-supply section of a retailer, and the school will collect up to 10 percent of the sale.

As It's My Community Store rolls into new markets, it provides free marketing campaigns for nonprofits that choose to participate. The nonprofits, in turn, send flyers home to school parents or enlist their dedicated volunteers in the cause.

Starting from its base in northern Nevada, the company now is aligned with nonprofits in Idaho and California as well. A team of seven independent sales representatives works with the headquarters staff of five to open additional markets nationwide.

"We're scrambling to keep up," Rose says. "The response we have received has been amazing."

It's My Community Store doesn't operate its own fulfillment centers, but instead works with manufacturers and their distributors to ship directly to consumers.

And while Rose works 15-hour days to shape the company, she finds that the company and its work with nonprofits and schools is shaping her as well.

"At first this was about creating a new business," she says. "This is not a a business for me any more. It's become a mission."