Many students at DU are quick to express how fortunate they are to attend such a prestigious university and how many impressive opportunities this affords them. Some students seek out ways to give back to the community and those who are not quite as fortunate as them. One DU student, along with his brother and his friend attending different universities, have taken the idea to give back and turned it into a successful growing business.
Alex Olmanson, a senior majoring in finance from Wayzata, Minn., his twin brother Chris, who attends Boston College, and his friend Jack Angell, who attends the University of Wisconsin, created WOOF (Working On Our Future) Supplies in August of 2013. WOOF sells notebooks for $4.99 online and in multiple college bookstores—including the bookstore at DU—and for every notebook they sell, they donate a one-subject 70-page notebook to the Kids In Need Foundation, who give it to a student in need in the United States. The Kids In Need Foundation is the main non-profit organization associated with donating school supplies in America; they give the notebooks to schools with 70-80 percent of students on free and reduced lunch programs.
“It’s basically like a retail store. Each teacher comes in from that school and they’re able to get an equivalent to $400 of school supplies for free,” said Olmanson.
This system aims to reduce the burden of students, parents and teachers in these struggling communities. When their children have adequate school supplies, parents no longer need to make the choice between buying notebooks or their kids’ next meal. Teachers are relieved of the task of paying for their students’ supplies out of pocket, which is often the case, according to the WOOF website.
In addition to their primary concept of donating notebooks, WOOF Supplies also features an environmental component. For every tree that is cut down to make the notebooks, WOOF donates to an organization called Plant-It 2020 to plant two new trees.
According to Olmanson, the business has received a widely positive response and grown significantly since its birth in 2013.
“Basically, in August we were selling notebooks out of our dorm rooms and hand delivering them to every single person who bought them. We originally started selling them online with hand delivery at our campuses,” said Olmanson. Knowledge of the business spread by word of mouth as the founders built relationships with college bookstores.
Although WOOF notebooks just started selling at the DU bookstore three days into winter quarter, Olmanson is enthusiastic about the possibilities of further growth through this partnership next quarter. He intends to have a publicity event toward the end of the quarter to continue spreading the word about WOOF Supplies on campus.
“It’s grown from the dorm room to a few bookstores which is huge,” said Olmanson.
According to Olmanson, each of the founders brings a slightly different skill set and vision to WOOF Supplies. Olmanson is the entrepreneur of the group and is most passionate about its social aspect and giving back to different communities, especially in his home state of Minnesota where the Kids In Need Foundation is based.
“We’re providing a service to kids in the United States who wouldn’t necessarily have the opportunity to get this anyway,” said Olmanson.
A significant part of why the business started up was Olmanson’s brother Chris’ study abroad experience in El Salvador.
“He really realized the importance of education while in El Salvador,” said Olmanson. While the poverty level was high in El Salvador, his brother felt called to meet the needs of the 16 million children living under the poverty level back at home in the U.S., according to Olmanson.
Olmanson stated that while some businesses with a similar model to WOOF, (such as Toms, which donates one pair of shoes to a child in Africa for every pair bought)have positive intentions, they sometimes end up destroying the economies in the communities where they donate. According to Olmanson, the donations of shoes, for example, greatly diminishes the business of local shoe vendors in the places where these shoes are donated.
“We tried to balance that out and not hurt the business community as far as notebooks go because these students would not normally have gotten notebooks,” said Olmanson.
Olmanson has high hopes for the future of the business. He wants to continue expanding to different college bookstores and donate through the Kids In Need Foundation to schools all across the country. He also hopes to start selling out of retail stores like Target.
“I think it’s a company that people will support and a product that people will buy because it’s really price competitive and it provides a social good to people, so I would hope we would be able to expand nationwide,” said Olmanson.
WOOF notebooks are located in the back-right corner of the DU bookstore near the technology section. The notebooks are also available for purchase online and students are encouraged to read more about the WOOF vision at the WOOF Supplies website, Facebook page or follow them on Twitter at their handle @WoofSupplies.
