Buy-In Clear Lake

Wednesday, March 18th
By Stacy Doughan, Chamber President & CEO

**UPDATE as of 10:15am on Thursday March 19th we have several generous sponsors funding over 500 additional Buy-In Clear Lake gift cards. Gift Card sales will go live at 2pm today (3.19.20) until sold out. Please be mindful of what business you think needs your support most at this time. Limit 5 gift cards per person. If you purchased card yesterday, please let others take advantage of this opportunity to support our business community.

**UPDATE as of 5:32 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18th – GIFT CARDS ARE SOLD OUT – Thank you Clear Lake! We’ll see if we can secure funding for additional gift cards tomorrow! **

I’m excited to share we’re launching an initiative called Buy-In Clear Lake today.

The idea came about based on a conversation I had with Austin Pehl of Atura Architecture this morning. We were discussing how we can work together to positively impact our local economy.

Here are the details of “Buy-In Clear Lake.” The Chamber is going to help the community purchase gift cards to local businesses through our website. Here’s the exciting part, when an individual spends $20, they will receive a gift card for $30.

How’s that possible? Atura offered to “sponsor” or cover the $10 gap for 30 gift cards. With their seed money to get this initiative off the ground, we started reaching out to a few other businesses to sponsor gift cards. So far, we have 220 gift cards sponsored by 5 businesses. If we sell out of all 220, we’ll have infused $6,600 right into our local economy.

If your company wants to get involved, let me know how many gift cards you’d like to sponsor. Gift card sponsors will be recognized on Facebook. We will simply invoice you for your commitment.

Here are our current investors:
Atura Architecture
Clear Lake Bank & Trust
MBT Bank
CL Tel
The Funky Zebras

If your store, restaurant, or business could benefit from this initiative, all you have to do is share the link with with your customers, and ask them to write YOUR business name in at checkout. If your business is selected, we will reach out to you to swap money for the requested gift cards.

Here’s the link to buy>> https://squareup.com/store/clearlakeiowa/item/gift-certificate

How Buy-In Clear Lake will work:

  1. The Chamber has built an online store to collect gift card purchases through 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 25 (or until cards are sold out). The buyer simply needs to note what business they would like a gift card from at checkout. We are limiting 5 gift cards per person at this time.
  2. On Thursday, March 26 we will be in contact with the businesses regarding how many $30 gift cards were purchased. We will then issue checks to those businesses and retrieve the gift cards.
  3. On Friday, March 27, buyers can retrieve their gift cards via curbside pickup at the Chamber barring future restrictions. Any cards not picked up will be mailed. If further restrictions are put in place, all cards will be mailed.

If you don’t currently offer gift cards at your business, we can work with you to design a solution.

I love that this campaign will benefit the consumer (money saved) and local businesses (quick cash). The Chamber is simply operating as a central pass through. We want every penny to go back into the community.

Please reach out with questions. We’re here to help.

All the best,

Your Clear Lake Chamber Team

Here’s the link to buy>> https://squareup.com/store/clearlakeiowa/item/gift-certificate