Bill Veeneman, the president and CEO of the Go Kids Day Network, says his online marketing business creates a win-win-win situation for consumers, local businesses and the Stillwater community as a whole.

The Go Kids Day Network is a shop local, give local program that promotes the patronage of local businesses through daily, weekly and monthly deals that are showcased online, Veeneman said. A percentage of the sales are then reinvested in local schools and causes, all while supporting local environmental conservation.

“This is highly unusual to create a win-win-win,” Veeneman said. “The customer wins with a discount, the business wins by getting business and schools and local causes win by being supportive and being supported.”

The site is all about patronage of local business because that’s important to the economy, he said. When dollars that are spent locally that contributes to the welfare of the community—it’s estimated that for every dollar spent locally $.68 stays local through employment or buying products it takes to run a business and taxes—whereas only $.43 stays local when buying at a chain and nothing stays local for any kind of online shopping.

“Our vision is to retain some of those dollars and to help more dollars stay in the community,” Veeneman said. “We then reinvest that into education and local causes.”

There is a program called Go Local Good where the businesses sign up and if a customer uses the coupon, the business will make a donation to a cause of the customer's choice in the Stillwater area (that includes Community Thread, Valley Outreach, the Stillwater Public Library and local schools). 

“It’s all about building community and supporting one another,” Veeneman said. “Because that’s what this country was founded on—but we’ve lost a little bit of that.”

Currently the Go Kids Day Network is in five communities—White Bear Lake, Hudson, River Falls, Woodbury and Stillwater.

The marketing company serves more than 200 businesses—with the goal of growing the number of businesses, but also the number of communities “who embrace the mission of strengthening local business as the underpinning of community sustainability.”

The Go Kids Day Network launched Aug. 1 in Stillwater and have a $2,000 check ready to go to area schools, Veeneman said. That’s because the first 10 percent of the company’s sales are given to local schools and services in the community.

“The site is all free,” Veeneman said. “Customers don’t buy anything, they are utilizing the coupons—while local businesses pay a small fee for the marketing done by the Go Kids Day Network.”

Deals are passed along through Facebook, on Twitter, on their website and through email. In January, the group will be launching a fundraising program where schools will sell special coupons and keep 100 percent.

“So it’s all about giving back and building a sense of community in each town that we’re in,” he said. “We support the local Chamber of Commerce and work with them. They do business to business and we do business to consumer.”

The Go Kids Day Network is also endorsed by the University of Wisconsin Institute for Sustainable Communities.

“If we give people reasons to keep it local, they don’t burn as many carbon emissions, there is less wear and tear on the car, they save time and have more time for their families,” Veeneman said. “So we’re contributing to the triple bottom line: we contribute to the economy, we contribute to the environment and we contribute to the social community—and we’re very proud of what we do.”