Making a Difference

A year ago, Randy Mead was making the rounds in Hong Kong, sourcing product for a multicultural doll initiative he was spearheading at Kmart. This winter found him busier than ever, again overseas meeting with manufacturers—but this time for an entirely new initiative, one that he's counting on to change kids' lives for the better.

In October 2007, Mead left Kmart to set up Toys for a Cure, which will bring to market this fall a line of toys that Mead hopes will raise thousands of dollars to fund children's cancer and diabetes research.

Mead was inspired to act by sports broadcaster Dick Vitale's weekly radio appeals to raise funds for pediatric cancer. “He was trying to raise a million dollars, and I'd been listening to that every Monday morning,” Mead tells Playthings. “And it all just sort of came together, and we started researching nonprofit companies like Newman's Own and pink ribbon products.”

Mead immediately noticed an opportunity among those business models, in which companies donate some or all after-tax profits to charity. “Breast cancer is a wonderful cause, but there are other causes out there that are equally important, and an area that there's zero being done with is toys,” he says.

Earmarking donations specifically for kids' causes “is a natural,” Mead says. “That's been our opinion all along, and that's really the foundation of our company: somebody in toys should be doing this for children's causes. If you're dealing with toys, nothing makes more sense than pediatric cancer and diabetes.”

Mead adds, “Charitable donations by Americans in 2006 exceeded $295 billion. Americans have been well trained by 25 years of Newman's Own sales and 10 years of pink ribbon sales. The American consumer understands that style of marketing and accepts it very well, so our way has been paved by those two wonderful cause marketing efforts.”

For these reasons, Mead believes his venture will be a success. “We started asking friends, family, acquaintances: If this type of product was out there, and you knew the profits would go to charity—cancer and diabetes research for children—would you support it? And it was such an overwhelming 'yes,' that we knew there was viability in how we wanted to go to market,” Mead says. “We believe the industry is ready.”

Toys for a Cure (www.toysforacure.com) has lined up two strategic partners, The Joshua Kahan Fund for pediatric leukemia and The Children With Diabetes Foundation, whose logos will appear on all toy packaging. The company's goal, Mead notes, is to align with charities that focus on curing illness, with nearly 100 percent of funds going to research. Additional monies will be allocated to related kids' charities.

The company's initial assortment will include 60 to 75 toys from Chinese manufacturers that have been carefully chosen for their solid safety records, Mead says, adding, “We will enlist all the proper testing to make sure there are no issues.” The product mix will be broad—from $1.99 die-cast cars to mid-tier “back-to-basics products like stacking rings and shape sorters” to $50 high-end toys—and will be at both mass and specialty.

Mead is hoping for a successful enough launch to be able to generate at least $300,000 for research this year. “Every step of the process, people have been very supportive because they know we're doing it for the right reasons … factories have been eager to help us, sales reps have been eager to help us. We just need the buyers to support it.”

Mead adds, “I love this industry and I want to see this industry be successful. If we can generate good feelings about the toy industry, that's part of making the world a better place. We believe that the toy industry needs good news now more than ever, and we hope that in 2008, we're that good news.”