Retail ROI Celebrates Five Years Of Helping Children
By Anna Rose Welch, Editorial & Community Director, Advancing RNA
After five years and seventy worldwide initiatives, RetailROI announces next SuperSaturday fundraising event
The Retail Orphan Initiative (RetailROI) has announced it is celebrating its fifth year of helping children in the U.S. and around the globe. Founded by the late Paul Singer (CIO for Target and SuperValu) and IHL Group’s president, Greg Buzek, RetailROI brings together retailers, analysts, and technology vendors to raise awareness and implement solutions to aid orphaned and at-risk children.
For the past five years, Retail ROI has provided education, computers, food, and medical care to more than 139,000 children in need. The initiative has raised funds for charities that provide orphan care, adoption relief, and foster care support, and rescue children from human trafficking. So far, RetailROI has initiated 69 projects, including ones that built new schools in Liberia and Haiti, funded clean water projects and children’s homes, and provided meals to orphans in famine areas, among other projects.
According to Randy Cucerzan, Sr. Director of IT/Enterprise Services, Genesco, “RetailROI was founded to bring awareness to the plight of 142 million plus orphans by using resources of the retail community and retail technology leaders to help break the cycle of poverty for these children. Through donations and services, volunteers have helped schools by offering their skills, business acumen, and advice, as well as through donations of goods and supplies.”
Every year RetailROI holds a key fundraising event called SuperSaturday, one day before the NRF annual show. At the event, attendees learn about the latest data and retail trends in marketing, technology, mobile, and social media. Proceeds from vendor sponsorships are donated directly to RetailROI. According to Forbes writer, Paula Rosenblum, while the tech community has been more active in the cause, the retail community’s involvement is expected to increase. There are currently new initiatives in the works to make it easier for retailers to support charities at store registers. So far, RetailROI charitable events have raised more than $1 million that has been distributed in the form of grants to U.S. and worldwide agencies.