Team Rubicon Challenges Americans to "Go Grey" on Black Friday 2020

Nonprofit leads movement for consumers to Go Grey on Nov. 27 making a positive impact by donating and giving back to their community

News provided by

Team Rubicon

Nov 19, 2020, 10:13 ET

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Team Rubicon, a veteran-led disaster relief organization, today announced its "Go Grey on Black Friday" campaign, urging people everywhere to turn this year's Black Friday into a day of giving back. The campaign's challenge to consumers is to identify a way to live in the Grey, a notion of putting service before self that their volunteers, known as Greyshirts, currently live by. Participants can get involved by donating to Team Rubicon to help them continue to get veteran volunteers on the ground to serve vulnerable communities following disasters. If donors want to double down on their commitment, Team Rubicon challenges existing donors to "earn their grey shirt," the one item that can't be bought on Black Friday but rather must be earned.

Team Rubicon encourages communities to Go Grey on Black Friday. Visit http://teamrubiconusa.org/gogrey to learn more

Traditionally held the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday is one of the most profitable retail days of the year and is followed by several more days of shopping that culminate in Cyber Monday; in 2019, the National Retail Federation reported that 190 million consumers shopped during Thanksgiving weekend. This year, Team Rubicon wants members of the community to think about the annual shopping holiday in a different way and put the focus on charitable giving rather than on retail.

"This has indisputably been a tough year for our country, but it's not too late to end it on a better note by helping our neighbors on Black Friday," said Jake Wood, CEO, and co-founder of Team Rubicon. "Rather than scanning Black Friday ads for deals, we hope this year people will scan their hearts for generosity. We want to make Nov. 27 a day of social good instead of a day of shopping, a day of thinking about volunteerism instead of a day of consumerism. Imagine the good that could be done this year if hundreds of millions of Americans gave back this Black Friday."

Team Rubicon's "Going Grey on Black Friday" movement nods both to the organization's volunteers, whom they call "Greyshirts," and to the notion of "living in the grey"—finding purpose by serving your community. Since its founding in 2010, the 501(c)3 organization helps vulnerable communities before, during, and after disasters and humanitarian crises. The nonprofit has done so more than ever during COVID, aiding delivery service for food-insecure populations, coordination and logistics support for COVID-19 testing, and encouraging individual acts of volunteerism through their #NeighborsHelpingNeighbors campaign.

This year, Team Rubicon has stepped outside its core services and served over 2.73 million meals and delivered nearly 50 million pounds of food to families in need at over 149 communities across the country, while continuing to help rebuild the communities devastated by a record-breaking hurricane season in the Gulf Coast.

The Go Grey movement is another example of how Team Rubicon pushes boundaries and pivots in new and unexpected ways. "People who volunteer experience a renewed sense of purpose and empowerment, and that's something we all could use as we wrap up a historic year," said Lorey Zlotnick, CMO of Team Rubicon. "Amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic, people won't be lining up in stores the way they used to, so we're encouraging people to Go Grey and give back instead. There is an opportunity for all Americans to make a larger difference by investing in Team Rubicon to build resiliency across the country." A social media toolkit will be available encouraging groups of like-minded individuals to share the notion of going grey and giving hope across their social channels.

Ways to give back through Team Rubicon on Black Friday:

To donate, please visit http://teamrubiconusa.org/gogrey or text us through our Text to Give Program:

Text the word RUBICON to 20222 to donate $10 to Team Rubicon.
Text the word TEAM to 20222 to donate $25 to Team Rubicon.

To earn your grey shirt, please visit http://teamrubiconusa.org/volunteer.

For more information on how your organization can get involved with Team Rubicon, please contact Nicole Capossela, Chief Development Officer, at [email protected].

About Team Rubicon

Team Rubicon serves communities by mobilizing veterans to continue their service by leveraging their skills and experience to help people prepare, respond, and recover from disasters and humanitarian crises. Founded following the Haiti earthquake in 2010, the organization has grown to over 137,000 volunteers across the United States and has launched over 790 operations both domestically and internationally. Amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, Team Rubicon has not only pivoted to be able to continue to deliver disaster response and rebuild services in core mission areas, but has also expanded their scope of missions to meet community needs brought about by COVID. Visit www.teamrubiconusa.org for more information.

SOURCE Team Rubicon