Toner for Autism?
I stumbled across an online store that sells printer toner and ink and then donates 5% of every sale to organizations that support research and issues related to autism. It goes by the straightforward name Toner for Autism.
There’s been some confusion in the autistiblogosphere (I made that up) about where their money goes, but by the accounts I’ve read, this store seems legit and the prices are certainly competitive. Given the personal stake one of the founders has in this since his daughter is autistic, there’s great promise here, and I appreciate their goal of raising at least $1 million.
With most anything like this, people are right to wonder what charities they might be supporting with their shopping. Their site didn’t seem particularly forthcoming with that information. So I thought I’d put this out there and see if anyone else knew.
I’ve taken a couple of days off (off by my standards at least) from the computer for mental health reasons. Once I get caught up, I’ll contact them and see. In the meantime, if anyone knows more about them or has bought from them, I’d love to hear your experience. I’d like to be able to recommend them, but always want to make sure and vet these things first.
Also, if you know of other businesses who donate percentages of sales to autism charities, we’d love to hear about them.
1 comment
Tim -
Thank you for your post. As the co-owner of TonerForAutism.com I can tell you we are for real.
The short story on how and why we created the site is - we started a business in 1991 called Image One (www.imageonecorp.com). Joel and I ran it successfully and in 2004 sold it to a public company. In 2006, that company reapproached us and asked us if we would be willing to take Image One back. As we considered it we made a list of things we would do differently. One of those things was to make a serious difference in the world. We took Image One back in June of 2006 with that in mind.
When we learned Danielle (Joel, the other owner’s daughter) had the disease 7 years ago, we very quickly became passionate about this cause. Last November we thought - everyone needs to buy toner and ink, no one likes to buy it, if we provide great service and fair prices we could really make a difference supporting organizations who support autism by creating a place to purchase and make a difference at the same time.
The feedback has been fantastic. I’m glad you found us and I’m glad we found your post so we could respond directly.
Also, Image One has now dedicated 20% of profits to support autism as well. Danielle has helped us to see the world differently than we did before.
Please feel free to contact us at rdube@imageonecorp.com with any additional clarifying questions.
Have a great day!
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