Maybe you were one of the 151 million people to watch the Green Bay Packers victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in yesterday’s Super Bowl XLV. If you’re not a sports fan, surely you still enjoyed the cheeseburger sliders, nachos, great commercials, and good time with friends and family.
Certainly, there is nothing quite like American football that can split a nation by team, and then bring us back together for one unforgettable championship game. But that’s not the only reason to love the power of the Super Bowl. Any production that bids 30-second ads at around $3 million each is worth tuning into — if not for the spectacular cinematography, then at least for a hardy laugh or two.
And while the Super Bowl is the Holy Grail of American sporting events, it’s also a source of hope and help to thousands of people around the world — which is one reason why World Vision loves it.
Children and adults in Zambia receive new clothing from NFL donations. (Leah Missbach Day/WV/2007)
For the past 15 years, the National Football League has donated to World Vision its pre-printed championship merchandise bearing the name of the team that does not win the title. This means that right now, thousands of articles of merchandise, including t-shirts, sweatshirts, and ball caps, are being sorted by the NFL and retailers to be sent to World Vision.
Here’s how it works: The NFL pre-prints about 300 shirts and hats for both Super Bowl contenders for after the game. At the same time, retailers like Sports Authority, Dick’s, and Modell’s place their merchandise orders in advance according to the market location of their stores and the potential winning teams. Basically, a retailer in Green Bay, Wisconsin, would order the pre-printed Super Bowl Champion Packers gear the same way a retailer in Pittsburgh would buy pre-printed Super Bowl Champion Steelers gear. But a retailer in Florida might not order either contender’s pre-printed merchandise, because their market doesn’t have much of an interest in buying Super Bowl Champion gear for either team.
Volunteers at World Vision’s international distribution center in Pittsburgh sort through mislabeled Super Bowl gear. (Anne Duffy/WV/2008)
Once the gear is pre-printed, it is shipped from the printing center to the retailers’ distribution centers, where it is counted and distributed to individual stores. Once at the stores, staff members hold the gear until the winning team is determined, at which time shelves are stocked and gear is sold. This is where World Vision comes in.
At this point, all unused gear for the team that does not win is repackaged, shipped back to the retailer distribution centers, counted again, and donated to World Vision. As gear begins to arrive at World Vision’s international distribution center in Pittsburgh, as it will in the next couple of weeks, it is counted one more time and sorted by size, gender, and destination — meaning that a t-shirt might go to a country with a warm climate, like Nicaragua, and a sweatshirt to a country with a cold climate, like Mongolia.
World Vision identifies countries and communities in need overseas who will benefit from the gear. This year’s unused Super Bowl merchandise will make its way to Zambia, Armenia, Nicaragua, and Romania in the months to come. On average, this equates to about 100 pallets annually — $2 million worth of product — or about 100,000 articles of clothing that, instead of being destroyed, will help children and adults in need.
That’s 100,000 reasons to love the Super Bowl even more.
Read related post Football frenzy: A super (bowl) success
Read our latest updates to this discussion: GIK and development programming, The financial costs and benefits of sending a shirt overseas, Basic overview of World Vision’s strategy and structure and our U.S. GIK operations, and Response to GIK discussion.
I am not an aid worker but I do live in a developing country in Africa. There are TONS of people selling clothes including t-shirts all over the place. I assume that most of these clothing vendors are making enough to live on and not getting rich.
So, if you send t-shirts to my country aren’t you undercutting the local vendors? If you are giving them out for free, who is going to purchase them from the vendors? How do you prevent them from waiting for a free t-shirt the next time they need clothes instead of buying them and supporting the meager local economy?
Also, how does endorsing the NFL’s (or whoever makes the shirts) practice of printing thousands of unwearable shirts every year jive with aid & development work or the teachings of Christianity?
I’m fumbling for why giving out 100,000 t-shirts to poor people is a good idea. Please show me the error of my ways.
I also want to thank Amy for responding. However, two important aspects are missing from her response. First, no mention is made of how this move (highlighted as a “good” thing by WV on their website) actually encourages/supports the NFL and our American society to continue to overconsume beyond our means. The NFL might stop making 100,000 extras if the public (including large, reputable nonprofits) shamed them for doing so rather than praising them and giving them a tax write-off. Second, this move by World Vision is similar to a much larger problem within the international development field – that is the “dumping” of excess U.S. agricultural products in developing countries that provides cash for programs to international non-profits to do “good work.” My understanding is that organizations like CARE actually stopped taking excess US grains to re-sell because it is bad development practice. However, the government didn’t miss a beat because organizations like WV picked up the slack and added more to their program growth. Until we in the U.S. (and particularly international nonprofits) understand how our overconsumption patterns and distorted markets (particularly as it relates to ag. subsidies) impact global poverty on a large scale, we will continue to do more harm than good, even with the best of intentions.
[...] then, are you proposing to send 100,000 unwanted t-shirts from the losing Superbowl team to poor communities in th… (GIK?). We all know it’s bad practice. You know it’s bad practice. Please could you come up [...]
Seth, to be fair, I don’t think they meant $2 million in program costs – the post says $2 million worth of product. I’m sure it costs a lot to sort, ship, and distribute the 100k shirts, but hopefully not $2 million! Still, just think that if the shirts really *were* worth $2 million, the NFL could sell them for that amount (to gloating Packers fans maybe?) and donate the proceeds to World Vision. Then WV could take that money, along with all the staff time and expenses they’d say not shipping and distributing them, and implement some programs that are proven to help. It only makes sense in light of what’s been written about the incentives to use donated goods by Saundra. World Vision can and should do better!
Very disappointing, Amy. The Good Intentions article Brett referenced (http://goodintents.org/uncategorized/world-vision-the-new-100000-shirts) is spot on.
Certain supplies are probably well utilized (ie pharmaceuticals). But shirts? Come on…
And claiming $2 million in program costs for this is total crap. Ask you in-country employees what they would spend $2 million on, and they won’t tell you shirts.
Very unprofessional of World Vision. It’s one thing for the 1 million shirts guy to go down this road, but World Vision ought to know better. Unless WV is knowingly engaging in this practice simply to boost Charity Navigator ratings and get some media hits, which is even worse.