Redemptive Cycles

At Redemptive Cycles, our mission is to redeem the streets. We believe getting people on bikes makes Birmingham a more connected, comfortable, and livable city. Bicycles are affordable transportation, which not only fight congestion, parking shortages, and pollution in the city center, but also boost individual health and fitness!

Through our non-profit bike shop we sell new and refurbished bicycles at an affordable price, provide professional-quality repairs and maintenance services below market rates, and use a sliding scale for those in need. Through our “Earn-A-Bike” program, those in need can work at the shop, learn how to repair and maintain a bicycle, and leave with a bike of their own.

Since opening in July of 2013, Redemptive Cycles has operated as a nonprofit organization, and received its 501c3 status in September 2014. So how does a nonprofit bike shop work? In our case, it looks and operates mostly like a normal bike shop: new and used bikes are for sale along with parts and accessories, and we offer full service repairs. What makes us different is the variety of nonprofit services we offer to Birmingham-area cyclists: the Earn-a-Bike program, sliding scale repairs, free monthly mechanics classes, and a free public workstation, not to mention many volunteer opportunities and a community of cyclists eager to help one another.

 
Our nonprofit sustains itself in a variety of ways. First and foremost is through the bike shop itself. Shop revenue not only allows us to give bikes and repairs away, it also helps keep our doors open, but used bike sales and discounted repairs are not enough, and we look to our community for support when shop revenue falls short of the bottom line.

From our community we get support in a few key ways. First of all Redemptive Cycles relies heavily on volunteer labor. Without the resources to pay a full staff we look to our awesome and dedicated staff of volunteers to provide much of the labor necessary to keep the bike shop running at full steam. Volunteers are integral to Redemptive Cycles’ continued success.

We also rely on our community to provide the majority of our used bike and part offerings. Bike donations are our bread and butter. They provide us with both a well-stocked, affordably priced, used bike selection, and a supply of bikes to utilize through the Earn-a-Bike program. Without frequent bike donations Redemptive Cycles would struggle to maintain a good used bike selection.

Finally, we look to our community for support through monetary donations. When revenue from the bike shop falls short, Redemptive Cycles asks the community to help make up the difference. Our annual fundraiser and individual donations enable us to continue offering bicycle related services to the Birmingham area, and in the future, with the help of grants, we hope to further expand our outreach.

In 2015 Redemptive Cycles expects to bring in $150,000 in revenue, and we need to raise at least $50,000 through fundraisers, private donations, and grants in order to sustain our charitable services.  Combining the bike shop and nonprofit is the most efficient way to help those in need of bicycle related services. Revenue from the bike shop goes directly towards sustaining our charitable services, and because things like rent and utilities are shared, the nonprofit costs only a fraction of what it would otherwise take to operate.

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Redemptive Cycles


  

11 Advantages Of Blogging In The Classroom

  Advantage 1

Using a blog makes education focused on students

  

Advantage 2

 Using  a blog helps students, parents, friends and others learn anytime and anywhere
  
 Advantage 3
 Using a blog encourages learners to work / learn continuously
  
 Advantage 4
 Blogging helps people reflect and think critically

   Advantage 5
 Blogging helps people improve communication skills  

   Advantage 6
 Blogging helps people develop creative thinking

   Advantage 7
 Blogging helps people learn to work with people

  Advantage 8
 Blogging makes learning less formal

   Advantage 9
 Blogging opens up learning

  Advantage 10
 Blogging encourages students to experiment with different media
  
Advantage 11
 Blogging makes learning / working / living come together




 

Resources:
 Slideshare

Photo Credits:
Teacherschwartz

Lowell Milken Unsung Hero Art Project

Unsung Hero: One who has created positive change in history by improving the lives of others and has yet to be recognized. The individual’s impact must have stood the test of time.

Iqbal Masih was about the age of 5 when he started working in the carpet factory. He worked from morning until evening and was treated bad. When his mother needs money she took out a loan from a carpet factory owner and the loan was in Iqbal's name. He owes Ghullah the money that his mother was loaned. Now Iqbal was a slave and the factory owner was in charge of his life. Years later Iqbal was liberated from debt slavery. He started attending the bonded labour liberation front school. Iqbal talked to his friends who worked at carpet factories and spoke at meetings. He gave many carpet worker children the courage to leave their owners.

Iqbal was shot in Muridke, Pakistan on 16 April 1995, shortly after returning from a trip to the U.S. He was 12 years old at the time. Some say who? that he was shot by a farmer, some say that he was murdered because of his influence over bonded labour. Citation needed his funeral was attended by approximately 800 mourners. The Little Hero: One Boy's Fight for Freedom tells the story of his legacy.
 Iqbal Masih is a hero because he took action on behalf of child slaves and bonded laborers around the world. Despite his short life, his message encouraged thousands to seek freedom and inspired many more around the world to join in his efforts. There are still an estimated 75,000 slaves in Pakistan Today. One organization, Free the Children was started by a Canadian youth named Craig Kielburger who had heard about Iqbal’s story and wanted to help make a difference.

Resources:
moralheroes.org
worldschildrensprize.org\
lowellmilkencenter.org


Photo Credits:
moralheroes.org
worldschildrensprize.org
pakistaan.pk
dol.gov

Corprate Branding

Corporate branding refers to the practice of promoting the brand name of a corporate entity, as opposed to specific products or services. The activities and thinking that go into corporate branding are different from product and service branding because the scope of a corporate brand is typically much broader. It should also be noted that while corporate branding is a distinct activity from product or service branding, these different forms of branding can, and often do, take place side-by-side within a given corporation. The ways in which corporate brands and other brands interact is known as the corporate brand architecture.

Corporate branding affects multiple stakeholders (e.g., employees, investors) and impacts many aspects of companies such as the evaluation of their product and services, corporate identity and culture, sponsorship, employment applications, brand extensions (see study Fetscherin and Usunier, 2012). It therefore can result in significant economies of scope since one advertising campaign can be used for several products. It also facilitates new product acceptance because potential buyers are already familiar with the name. However, this strategy may hinder the creation of distinct brand images or identities for different products: an overarching corporate brand reduces the ability to position a brand with an individual identity, and may conceal different products' unique characteristics.

Corporate branding is not limited to a specific mark or name. Branding can incorporate multiple touchpoints. These touchpoints include; logo, customer service, treatment and training of employees, packaging, advertising, stationery, and quality of products and services. Any means by which the general public comes into contact with a specific brand constitutes a touchpoint that can affect perceptions of the corporate brand.

It has been argued that successful corporate branding often stems from a strong coherence between what the company’s top management seek to accomplish (their strategic vision), what the company’s employees know and believe (lodged in its organizational culture), and how its external stakeholders perceived the company (their image of it). Misalignments between these three factors, may indicate an underperforming corporate brand. This type of corporate brand analysis has been labeled the Vision-Culture-Image (VCI) Alignment Model.

 

Changes in stakeholder expectations are causing an increasing number of corporations to integrate marketing, communications and corporate social responsibility into corporate branding. This trend is evident in campaigns such as IBM Smarter Planet, G.E. Ecomagination, The Coca-Cola Company Live Positively, and DOW Human Element. As never before, people care about the corporation behind the product. They do not separate their opinions about the company from their opinions of that company's products or services. This blending of corporate and product/service opinions is due to increasing corporate transparency, which gives stakeholders a deeper, clearer view into a corporation's actual behavior and actual performance. Transparency is, in part, a byproduct of the digital revolution, which has enabled stakeholders—employees, retirees, customers, business partners, supply chain partners, investors, neighbors—with the ability to share opinion about corporations via social media.

Resources:  

  

Corprate Branding Wikipedia

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Letterhead Wikipedia

Truck Driver Wikipedia