Christian Retailing

GIFT NEWS Print Email
Written by Christine D. Johnson   
Wednesday, 02 March 2011 11:49 AM America/New_York

DaySpring achieves landmark goal

Cardmaker DaySpring has achieved its long-standing goal of touching 1 billion people in a year with its products—a figure the company hopes to replicate each successive year.

Several years ago, company leadership envisioned DaySpring’s products and services touching 1 billion people annually by 2010, and that goal was reached last December.             

“Touches,” one way the company uses to measure ministry effectiveness, are initiated by a consumer purchase.

Ministry touches are calculated by product “touch” factors, with both the sending and receiving side counted. DaySpring Web site touches are represented by the number of individual sessions initiated by site visitors.

Products such as gift tissue or bows that do not have ministry value do not qualify for touches. Contributions to the prison ministry, American Rehabilitation Ministries (ARM), are not included in the calculations, either.

In February, DaySpring reached a cumulative total of 85 million cards given to the ministry since it started donating.

When retailers return unsold cards for credit, rather than sorting them, DaySpring makes the returns available to prisoners to keep in touch with loved ones.  ARM volunteers also enclose a gospel tract with each card.

ARM personnel have received letters from prisoners who have stated that their present walk with Christ began with such a simple thing as going to chapel to get a card.