Listen to this articleBelow is our recent interview with Sherry Zhao, CouponBirds Digital Marketing Manager. CouponBirds, launched in 2015, is a free coupon site for users searching for coupons. In the past five years, CouponBirds has accumulated over millions of users. It also seeks ways to return back to society and communities in order to show gratitude to their five-year support. We interviewed Miss Zhao, and she gave us the answers to the questions we want to know about.
Q: What is your role at CouponBirds?
A: Hi everyone, my name is Sherry Zhao, the marketing community manager of CouponBirds. I’m responsible for social media and community operation, so social media campaigns and community program operations are my main duties.
Q: What inspired you to do this job?
A: What inspires me the most at my work is the sense of responsibility and passion. We really have a wonderful team, young, passionate, and hardworking. I enjoy the people and the job.
Happy work environment and hearty colleagues motivate me every day. And also as you know, we have a big online community with over 4 million shoppers every month. Contributing to the community and helping people are so great things, and that’s what I’m doing now.
Q: What CouponBirds has done to give back to the community?
A: So far, CouponBirds has given back to the community through CouponBirds “Help to Save” Scholarships and CouponBirds Seedling Project to help those in need. CouponBirds “Help to Save” scholarship program started in 2016, intended to assist college students in reducing their tuition fee burden and collect their smart ways of saving money. Through this scholarship initiative, CouponBirds aims to make life more affordable for exceptional students who actively use CouponBirds services. Warm prompt: the application deadline in 2020 is October 10th.
We know these are really difficult times for all charity organizations as COVID-19 became a pandemic. CouponBirds want to give a hand to the individuals and communities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, CouponBirds initiated The Seedling Project in March 2020.
It is an online fundraising program that helps nonprofit organizations raise funds for free. The money is raised from millions of CouponBirds community shoppers who are willing to help others during COVID-19.
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Q: Why lunch these two projects?
A: In the past five years since CouponBirds was founded, it has benefited from millions of its shoppers and users. Therefore, returning back to the community is its duties and a must-to-do thing. We are trying to find out different ways in these years. CouponBirds “Help to Save” Scholarships Program and CouponBirds Seedling Project are the two projects we launched to begin our attempt.
I mentioned my student experience just now, and in our daily lives, there are so many students suffering from lack of school fees or having a difficult time. That is the reason why we launched the CouponBirds “Help to Save” Scholarship Program. We aim to help students who are in need. By applying for the scholarship of CouponBirds, they can relieve the stress from life to a certain degree. And up to now, CouponBirds “Help to Save” Scholarship Program has funded many students from universities for years. As long as we can fund more students, we will do it until the day we can’t.
2020 is a hard year for everyone in the whole world because of the COVID-19, especially for those non-profit organizations. We launched the CouponBirds Seedling Project, on the one hand, we want to encourage people to search for coupons they need and earn money when they stay at home, and to donate part of their earnings to the nonprofits; on the other hand, it can improve user engagement for CouponBirds. When users win cash and donate to certain non-profit organizations, they could realize that the platform makes a good way for them to contribute and give back to the community.
Q: How do these two projects work?
A: As a matter of fact, these two projects work differently.
As for CouponBirds “Help to Save” Scholarship Project, it requires the participants to complete a small survey and upload a 3-5 minute video about their habits during the shopping season and thoughts on the relationship between shopping season and coupon websites. Individuals with the best ideas and responses will be chosen to give a presentation at our site, and the person with the most intriguing ideas will receive a grand prize.
And in terms of CouponBirds Seedling Project, it requires the registered charity organizations to create an account in CouponBirds Charity Portal and submit their non-profit organization information and wait for the project team to review and verify. They will be included in the CouponBirds nonprofit list after verification and approval. And then CouponBirds users start to donate to these charity organizations. These non-profits will get donations every payment quarter, and CouponBirds has made the second-quarter donations of 2020 in July.
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Q: What are the top ways to give back to the community in your opinion?
A: Actually, people can give back to the community in different ways, by giving money or contributing time. No matter how you do it, giving back to the community will change many people’s lives.
For business,
1. Share skills and experience
As a business owner in your community, you possess a wealth of valuable talent, expertise, and knowledge. Put those skills to good use by teaching classes or a specialized skill. For example, as a leader in your industry, you likely have an area of expertise that’s of value to others. Consider teaching classes on entrepreneurship to local residents or offer to teach a specialized skill that could be of value to those who have been out of the workforce for a while.
2. Sponsor students in need
There are many students who need help with their tuition fees. Once your company finds students who need financial support, you could help them out with the funds that they need. Your support will change their future life. Such as helping someone learn English can expand his or her horizons.
For the individuals,
1. Volunteer at a hospital
Hospital volunteers provide important support to hospitals, and also offer comfort and convenience to patients, families, and doctors. Volunteer opportunities include collecting information, chatting with patients who are homeless, helping with food service, or pushing wheelchairs, and so on.
2. Donate blood
Saving a life can be as simple as donating blood. Donating blood is a safe process and people should give or receive blood without hesitation. Being a blood donor can be helpful to you, too. Donating blood can benefit both your physical and emotional health. However, don’t forget to learn how to be a healthy blood donor, such as how often can you donate blood?
Q: In the future, will CouponBirds launch other projects to return back to the community?
A: Yes, of course. CouponBirds won’t stop its steps to launch other projects to thank the support from the community. In society, there are many people who work to guard our health and safety, and also many people are always in need. During the difficult time of COVID-19, doctors, nurses, and other related people work against the virus without any hesitation and leave them at risk of infection. Therefore, we should thank them, and we have a plan to launch a project to honor the people who make contributions during the epidemic. Also, we want to do something for the veterans and military for they ensure our safety in our daily life. All in all, CouponBirds will do its best to return back to society, and we also hope we can gain more support from the community.
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