Direct Selling Companies Donate Nearly $15 Million to TODAY Show Toy and Gift Drive

November 25, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


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Washington, D.C. (Nov. 25, 2013)—The Direct Selling Association (DSA) helped ring in the holiday season by presenting the direct selling industry’s collective donation to the TODAY Show Holiday Gift Drive this morning at NBC Studios in Rockefeller Plaza.

Twenty-six direct selling companies donated a total of $14.9 million in products and cash to the Drive. Of the 26, seven have been or will be featured in their own spots on the TODAY Show during the holiday season. In its 10 years of participation, DSA member companies have donated more than $117 million in products, services and cash to the Drive.

Participating companies donated items from stuffed animals, e-readers and fashion accessories to clothing and kitchenware for children and families across the country.

“The TODAY Show Holiday Gift Drive is just one example each year of how direct selling serves as a force for good in our communities, across the country and throughout the world,” said DSA Chief Marketing Officer Amy Robinson. “Participating in the TODAY Show Holiday Gift Drive has become a tradition for many of us in the direct selling industry. The outpouring of support for this effort over the past decade has been incredible. Even more, many of these companies also contribute to a wide variety of charitable and philanthropic causes throughout the year, and each fosters positive change in the world through the products and opportunities they offer.”

The TODAY Show Holiday Gift Drive is a project of the Today Show Charitable Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Donations are matched with the needs of more than 200 organizations with which the Today Show Charitable Foundation works. As part of this year’s Drive, DSA member companies will send items to dozens of organizations in states from California to New York.

The following direct selling companies donated products to this year’s Toy Drive:

About the Direct Selling Association

DSA is the national trade association of the leading firms that manufacture and distribute goods and services sold directly to consumers. Among its more than 240 active and pending members are companies selling both via a party-plan method and in the traditional person-to-person style. In 2012, U.S. direct sales were more than $31.6 billion with nearly 16 million direct sellers nationwide. The vast majority are independent business people—micro-entrepreneurs—whose purpose is to sell the product/service of the company they voluntarily choose to represent. Approximately 90 percent of direct sellers operate their business part-time.

For more information on direct selling, DSA and its Code of Ethics, please visit DSA’s website, www.dsa.org.

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