Screen Printed T Shirts have been used for many years to help get the word out to help charitable causes, whether they are specific-cause based, as in raising funds for an area hit by a natural disaster, or organization-based, to help raise funds for an organization.
Visibility is the key to any institution’s success, but this might be a problem for charitable organizations who relies solely on donors and philanthropists for funding. Utilizing mainstream advertising can cause thousands of dollars that will only be aired for a limited period of time. A good solution to this is the use of affordable printed T shirts to get your cause publicized in the public eye.
Unfortunately, naturally occurring disasters are becoming commonplace recently.
Now after Hurricane Sandy, The recent Oklahoma tornado is the latest in a series of weather-related disasters to hit the U.S.
“The tornado was estimated to be at least two miles wide at one point as it moved through Moore, in the southern part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area… The preliminary rating of the tornado was at least EF4 (166 to 200 mph), the National Weather Service said.”
With global warming becoming a real problem, we’re seeing more and more of these occurring. It’s a sad situation. But people are banding together to create charities to help the victims of these disasters.
How Screen Printed T Shirts Can Help
The use of printed shirts has been employed by businesses, causes, and charitable institutions for years since it’s a more cost effective way of getting the message out. This is because shirts as they are worn give a more humanized approach to advertising. Your message is conveyed as the person moves around to do their daily routines without bothering them or paying for every minute of exposure.
People mainly wear cause shirts as a way of showing support but they may also wear them to remember their participation in an event, or as a sign of unity, as colors and uniforms create a distinct identity. It also does two things at one time, because it publicizes and clothes at the same time.
Printed Shirts for All Sizes
Creating presence for charities can be a pain due to their limited financial capacity or size. But this can be solved by using the institution’s or cause’s innate resources. Charity institutions that have volunteers and partners can have people wearing the printed shirts while taking part in events and fund-raising activities aside from giving them away or selling them.
Selling them is a great way to raise funds, because you are offering something back to people who are donating. You can offer an option where if a donor donates X amount of dollars, they get a special t-shirt as a gift.
For small charities that are less known and have fewer donors, affording printed shirts for their cause may be a problem due to their limited budget. In this case, since resources are scarce within the institution, tapping other institutions like food establishments and other businesses as sponsors is the key. By doing so, the printed shirts can be a double edged sword for the charity and the sponsors in gaining presence in their own niches.
Getting actors and celebrities to acts as spokespersons for your cause can make a difference as well, and if they can be photographed wearing a shirt supporting the cause, that can be a huge boost to your fundraising.
Depending on the agreement between the charity and the business, profit can be solely taken by charity or shared with the business. Conditional promotions that promise a certain amount for each purchase to the charity or cause are good examples of this set-up. Sometimes, the sponsor will only ask for their trademark or logo to be placed in the t-shirts themselves or in the event’s banner, this can be seen in runs for a cause where shirts are commonly sponsored by sportswear brands.
Getting psychological for a moment, this form of promotion can take advantage of “bandwagon theory”, where the number of the majority becomes the appealing factor in people’s decision making. This can be observed in game shows with multiple players with fixed answers A, B, and C. If a player does not know or is in doubt about the answer to the question, and there are more people who answered C than B and A, the player will most likely choose C.
The Nuts and Bolts of Screen printed T shirts
Printing shirts has evolved through the years, from hand crafted to machine operated. Traditionally, shirts were printed through stencilled designs and were pressed into the fabric by an iron, a process that can still be done today. But with the increasing demand for mass production, automatic pressers are now used to evenly apply the ink to the fabric through an emulsified screen with a digitally rendered image.
The ink used for printing on shirts may vary from water-based ink to Plastisol, depending on preference of the printer or presser. Water-based ink, as its name says is primarily made of water with suspended pigments or dyes, which is cured by drying or evaporating the water. On the other hand, Plastisol is an ink made of PVC or polyvinyl chloride that is cured through heating at a range of 300 to 330 degrees Fahrenheit.
Costs Of Custom T Shirt Printing
Lowering costs for printing can be a good way to earn more funding. This can be done by choosing to print with one color alone. The cost is lowered not only due to the reduction in the colors to be used but also in the decrease of the number of screens that will be used. This is because each color is equal to one screen, so if there are eight colors in the design, eight screens will be used.
This doesn’t mean that the appeal of the shirt will dramatically be reduced. The secret to creating beautiful printed shirts is in color combination and design. This means that it is essential to hire a good artist to render the design and keep in mind the principle of striking and neutral combination when choosing a color.
If you have a charity that needs to raise funds, printing low-cost t-shirts can help you raise more funds for your cause or organization. We have numerous charity-based organizations as clients of ours. Please contact us for more information.