Riad, Convoy of Hope team up for unique fund-raisers

Riad Matar, owner of Riad on the east side of Park Central Square, recently modified his credit card sales receipts to include a line for donations to Convoy of Hope, a Christian nonprofit relief agency based in Springfield.

Matar is also planning an all-you-can-eat fund-raiser 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Sept. 24 to benefit Convoy. He said 20 percent of gross food sales from the event will go to the nonprofit. The cost is $12 for adults and $6 for children 12 and younger.

Kristin Kubitschek, Convoy’s director of public relations, said Matar approached the nonprofit with the fund-raising ideas earlier this year.

After a brainstorming session, Matar and Rick Waggoner, Convoy’s corporate relations director, settled on sales receipt donations and the Sunday buffet.

The revamped receipts, which debuted the last week of August, include a space near the gratuity that allows customers to make donations to Convoy, which raised $15.6 million in the most recent fiscal year. The relief agency’s 2005-06 operating budget is $22.7 million, Kubitschek said.

Matar said he decided to focus his charitable efforts solely on Convoy after watching the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s botched response to Hurricane Katrina last year. Relying on tax-funded government entities isn’t the answer, he said.

“I want to try to (draw) the disaster help from the private sector,” Matar said. “Really, that’s my motive. I just want to show the private sector can do our job.”

Convoy volunteers transported more than 21 million pounds of supplies to the Gulf Coast region following Katrina. More recently, the relief agency assisted victims of flooding in Pennsylvania and severe storms that knocked out power for days in St. Louis.

Starting in late September, Matar plans to regularly donate 5 percent of gross food sales to Convoy.

He’s also considering incentives for servers whose customers donate the most to Convoy as well as other cross-promotional efforts to raise awareness about the nonprofit’s work, which includes community outreach, food distribution and a global clean drinking water initiative.

Waggoner said Matar’s efforts mark the first time a local restaurant has approached Convoy about a concerted and ongoing fund-raising partnership.

“It’s a great pilot, and I could see this happening with other individual restaurants,” Waggoner said. “It’s really a perfect example of cause marketing. We’re happy to be a part of it.”

Money raised through the partnership with Riad is not project-specific and will go into Convoy’s general revenue, Kubitschek said.

Businesses that do their homework will find that Convoy is a legitimate nonprofit that’s making a difference, Matar said.

Convoy of Hope has received excellent ratings from two nationally recognized charity watchdog groups.

Charity Navigator gave the nonprofit a 4-star rating for sound fiscal management. The Independent Charities of America and Local Independent Charities of America also awarded Convoy the Independent Charities Seal of Excellence for meeting the highest standards of public accountability, program effectiveness and cost effectiveness. Less than 5 percent of American charities meet or exceed these standards, according to the organizations.

Corporate and private partnerships allow Convoy to leverage every donated dollar into $5 to $8 of actual relief product, Kubitschek said.