We recently connected with Jeff Hitzler and have shared our conversation below.

Jeff, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

In the fall of 2020 I was doing some online research for something else I was thinking about when I came across nonprofits in the County I live in. I discovered there were about 300 nonprofits in the County where I live in Wisconsin, and I found that amazing and a bit troubling. I say troubling because my Wife and I participate with and support several nonprofits in our area, and after looking into some of the nonprofits, it was astonishing how many I had never heard of. I then wanted to find out how many nonprofits there are in Wisconsin and found out there are about 25,000, and there are about 1.5 million in the United States.
As I continued to look into the nonprofits I could find, it was amazing and wonderful the work that they are doing to help so many people, and it was sad that I had never even heard of them.
I was wondering if this was a common problem, or just me. So I started asking people how many nonprofits in your area can you think of, and most people could only come up with around 6, and I thought to myself that is so sad.

I started looking into the biggest challenges facing nonprofits and found that volunteers and funding were the two biggest challenges. It occurred to me that if more people knew of them and could engage with them their challenges would be lessened. So I started considering ways I could help more people find and know about the nonprofits all around them, and after going through three other options, I came to the realization that far more people are online shopping than are looking for a nonprofit. Through my research I found that many nonprofits sell some unique and fantastic items ranging from jewelry, coffee, pet supplies, hand crafted items, and so much more. So in February of 2021 I launched what you see today at UpDeeds.com.

There are several other sites that have lists of nonprofits and a few that do sell some items offered by nonprofits, but none that I found that combined the two things together. What is even more unique about UpDeeds is that everything I do is designed to give people more information about a nonprofit, and to get them to go to the nonprofits website.

Jeff, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve a creative person for as long as I can remember, and that includes artistic outlets and product design outlets. I’ve created a couple of products that have received US Patents, and have made it to market. I enjoy watercolor during my free time for my artistic outlet in creativity and am a member of the Northeast Wisconsin Watercolor Society. Several years ago I helped start an app based business with another individual which is on the market, and this digital product made me realize that if I can dream up something, it’s likely it can be brought to life digitally.

The majority of nonprofits in the US are small to medium sized and it’s a continual struggle for them to market their organization so more people can engage with them, and hopefully support them. Knowing how many nonprofits there are and the truly wonderful work they do, I just knew I needed to find a way to help as many I could.

UpDeeds has two main side to it, and those are the Marketplace and Explore Nonprofits. The Marketplace is where I share some of the items that nonprofits sell online already, but I do it with a twist in their favor. When someone finds something they like and clicks on an item, they are taken to that nonprofits site to make the sale. This makes it easier for the visitor to learn more about the nonprofit, and the nonprofit keeps all the proceeds from a sale. Explore Nonprofits is listing of nonprofits broken into different categories, and includes information about the nonprofit, where they are, their site address, a link to a blog if they have one, a link to their Facebook page, a link to their Amazon Wish List, and a link items they sell.
In addition to the Marketplace and Explore Nonprofits, I have a nonprofit resources page which has a growing list of services and service providers that can help nonprofits with their journey.

I don’t charge nonprofits to be on UpDeeds because it’s about helping them, and I don’t want to add to their budget challenges.

I am very proud that I’ve been able to help nonprofits find a wider audience, and it is so gratifying when I receive a testimonial from them thanking me for what I’m doing. That is truly a gift.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

As I mentioned earlier I started this journey in the fall of 2020 with the idea to help. I started with the idea of creating a new messaging platform for people to share texts where the background image was of nonprofit they supported. I dug into what it would take to launch such a venture and the prospects of success, I decided against that. I them moved to creating smart emojis which a person could include in their texts using their existing texting platform, and these emojis would represent a nonprofit the person supported and be a link to that nonprofit. I did receive quite a bit of positive feedback from nonprofit for this, but I was concerned that it would be too much of a fad and people would tire of using it, and that would defeat the goal. Next I was hoping build on the community and inclusion aspect that many businesses what to include in their way of doing business. I created essentially a newsletter that highlighted 3-5 nonprofits, what they do, where they are from, and how they help, and would send this to the business every month for them to share with their employees. Sadly after contacting many many businesses I only had one that agreed to take part in this, and that’s not a sustainable business model.
I took a couple of months off to think about what I wanted to do and how to make it happen. I analyzed what people do and where they spend their time, and that’s when it came to me to create what you see today. The shopping brings people in, and once on UpDeeds they have an opportunity find and learn about nonprofit that likely they never knew about.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I believe what has helped me gain the confidence of the nonprofits is that I’m still here after two years. It’s not surprising that a nonprofit would be skeptical to include their name and reputation on a site they just heard about. Now that I’m still here and growing after two years, they have more confidence in me and what I’m doing. I want UpDeeds to grow and help for a very long time and that means I need to better understand business and my customers, so it sought the guidance of a SCORE mentor. They were very helpful in finding better ways for me to enhance my standing with nonprofits, and one of those ways was to create an Advisory Council. The Advisory Council is made up of nonprofit and business leaders who I respect and value their input. The Advisory Council has helped other nonprofits know that I am here to serve them and to fashion UpDeeds in a way that best helps them achieve their goals.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.updeeds.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/updeeds1
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/updeeds
• Other: I also am a member of several Facebook groups in the nonprofit sector, where I’ve learned more about nonprofits and their challenges.

Image Credits
Jeff Hitzler