Two years ago when she was developing a nonprofit’s school program, Anne Kubitsky was on the hunt for something unexpected. Some of the students in the program had been going through tough times, so, instead of a standard card or a letter home, she took a leap and created her first Pop Up Cube.
“As I was working on developing the program with a bunch of kids, they loved it,” she said. “They just kept playing with the cube while I was trying to do some video interviews with them. As I noticed them enjoying the cube, I thought, I really need to revive that.’”
Last summer she did.
The author and founder of the LookForTheGoodProject.Org sought to recreate the unexpected pleasure she had seen in those students, only this time with donors.
“Basically, this cube was a way to encourage people to donate and to really connect with the school,” Kubitsky said.
Founded in Connecticut, LookForTheGoodProject.Org now runs gratitude campaigns in K-6 schools across the country. They’re intended to uplift the whole school climate, thus reducing violence and bullying by focusing on gratitude and acts of kindness.
The nonprofit, which is generously funded by donors, has impacted more than 67,000 kids in 20 U.S. states.
“What’s cool about many of the donors is that they don’t really care where the school is; they’re just looking to help,” Kubitsky said.
“I reused the cube’s structure to develop the shape of a school, so donors who sponsor a school through our school program get this cube in the mail that looks like a little school building. It reminds them every day of the school and the 500 or 800 or however many kids in the school they impacted.”
The cube Kubitsky designed has a panel that says, “Thanks for sponsoring ___” with a spot to write in the name of the school and the number of students. Another area refers to the gratitude campaign and includes, “We practiced looking for the good for 10 days and we wrote 12,000 messages of gratitude” or whatever it was that the school did.
“This piece helps the donor realize like, ‘Wow, my $500 really made a big impact’, Kubitsky said. “There will also be a note on the acts of kindness and whatever specifically aligns with that school. Basically [Red Paper Plane] inspired a really powerful gift that was affordable for the nonprofit.”
As of this writing, the Pop Up Cubes had not yet been distributed to the donors, but they were already making an impact.
“I love [the piece]”, Kubitsky said. “I actually brought it to my friend, my contact, who’s the VP at Network for Good, which serves lots and lots of nonprofits across the country. He was like, ‘Can you design some more of these for all of my other nonprofits because I think that people would really like that.’ That’s a huge compliment coming from him.”
Interested in learning more about LookForTheGoodProject.Org? Click here.
