Aeration promotion raises funds for GreenCare for Troops

Lawn-Plus, a GreenCare for Troops volunteer, raised more than $2,300 for the organization.

The company’s management team met last summer and identified a way to support GreenCare for Troops while also providing a service to its customers. To raise money, Lawn-Plus committed to donating 15 percent of the total cost of any new fall aeration job sold between August and September to Project EverGreen and the GreenCare for Troops program.

“We looked around the table and said, ‘Why not give back to a cause we strongly believe in but also tie the fundraiser to a service we know customers are interested in buying,'” said Austin Schmidt, sales and marketing manager for Lawn-Plus.

The company is located in West Alexandria, Ohio, about a half hour from the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

“We thought the promotion would go well because anytime in the past we’ve done an effort on behalf of the military, it has been well received,” added Schmidt. “Our customers responded and stepped up to the plate.”

Lawn-Plus promoted the offering through multiple posts on social media — mainly Facebook and Instagram — and provided call center representatives with a promotional script. Schmidt said that the success of the offering was due, in part, to its connection with a service that appealed to customers as well as being diligent when it came to tracking sales and scheduling the service in a reasonable time frame.

“The best thing we did was make the process simple,” Schmidt said. “Customers didn’t have to know about the promotion to have a chance to donate. Regardless if the customer was aware of the promotion, everything sold was automatically donated.”

According to Schmidt, Lawn-Plus is already looking at how they can give back to GreenCare for Troops and the community in 2019.