Building a CANpaign

Can collection in Bloomington

When I first pitched this idea, it was a simple “scheme” among friends. Now, I am happy to report that it has exploded into so much more. In just two short months, we have gone from four girls with a crazy idea to a strategically selected team of six at “headquarters” in Indianapolis, two “franchised locations” in Denver and Lexington, with climbers in Chicago and Germany, a pending partnership in Indonesia, support from Bloomington, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, and an upcoming feature in an adventure podcast. All of this and we still have day jobs!

My incredible mother, who is the mentor that taught me to dream big but never leave my dream as dreams, directly told me that she thought this was the best idea yet. I agree because in many ways my team is “leveling up” with this project which is more complicated than past ambitions. Historically, I have lead single groups towards one goal dealing directly with donors/customers that each contribute once to reach that goal. However, this time, we have added many moving parts to the mix. We are now working toward benefiting more than one community with multiple small teams and donors that support continuously.

Take my last project as an example. Project Nourish was an auction and benefit banquet that my team of 16 and I built from the ground up. Over 10 months we contacted over 600 locations to make a one-time in-kind donation of items for the auction or food for the banquet. We then sold tickets to attendees that would be at the event. Through these efforts we were able to raise $22,000 in a single night to support The Patachou Foundation, a local organization that brings farm-to-table meals to children who otherwise might not get dinner.

This was an amazing experience (in fact 2/3 of the Indianapolis Cans for Kili team was on that project) but with Cans for Kili, we are now expanding our focus. Rather than a single benefactor, we are working to benefit both Indianapolis and Tanzania. Rather than one-time donors, we are working with partners who are offering continual support for the next year, at least. Rather than a single 4-hour event, we are leading up to a 10-day climb halfway across the world.

Christina Zerfas colding a small coca cola can saying superstar

But Indianapolis seems to have been waiting for this opportunity. With the city developing so quickly on multiple levels (such as being one of the top-10 tech cities and the #1 conference city in the nation) the metropolis is changing. Yet there is no explicit green effort that I am aware of that has taken root and the city wants to see one. To date, 100% of all the businesses or households we have approached have agreed to be a partner. Never has it been truer to say that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure! Turns out it is easier to ask for someone to donate their garbage than their cash. However, we now are faced with the logistics that this incredible growth demands as well as balancing the awesome out-pours of ideas that the community keeps sending my way. This project is engaging and invigorating in all the right ways, and our team in working hard to ruthlessly prioritize all that must be done to reach our goal.

Needless to say, it is going to be a challenging and exciting next two months and I can’t wait to see what that time will hold!

Send your crazy ideas my way,

The Schemer