As a teenager, I (Chris) had big dreams for my life. I imagined I’d live somewhere overseas, learn a new language, immerse myself in a different culture, and work on projects that met people’s deepest needs. In other words, I wanted my life to have purpose.
I met Lydia in my sophomore year of college. Though I always knew I wanted to get married, I didn’t imagine it would happen when I was 21, before I had even graduated. Instead of living the semi-nomadic life abroad that I had imagined, we ended up living in Los Angeles.
I soon came face-to-face with the need to make money. Getting a “real” job in the business world was something I thought I never wanted to do, but to my surprise, I found that I loved working in sales. Sometime in my early working years, I started dreaming about starting a business. I thought it would be fun to be my own boss and have a business that could make a valuable impact.
Then, changes at my job created the opportunity for us to move back to my hometown of Fort Collins, Colorado. Though I continued to work (remotely) for the same company, something in my subconscious told me that working for a big company wasn’t the long-term plan. I also saw my Dad aging out of corporate America, which added to my discomfort.
Within a couple of years of moving to Colorado, I got serious about starting a business and launched Beeline.
Though I didn’t have nonprofits in mind when I started Beeline, that’s who we helped from the beginning. Our first project came after I had volunteered to help a local nonprofit with their marketing. Little did I realize that this would open the door to allow me to do the things I wanted to do when I was younger—live a life with purpose and do good in the world through serving people.
So, what is our big purpose?
Our Core Belief, the Problem, and the Solution
Belief: Giving and living for others brings joy and purpose to life. Nonprofits are uniquely positioned to help other people discover this joy by being a channel to give and live for others.
Problem: Nonprofits have a hard time attracting new people and have to make tough decisions on how to effectively market their organizations with limited time, knowledge, and money.
Solution: Provide more effective marketing by helping nonprofits attract and retain donors with the same efforts (time), coaching nonprofits so they can do as much of their own marketing within capacity (knowledge), and thereby only fully managing what they actually need and not more (money).
Why Bees?
Bees are part of our name and our branding because we feel that many of the attributes of bees are similar to those of our company.
Bees pollinate plants, allowing them to grow and multiply. In the same way, we help nonprofits grow their organizations and multiply the good they do in the world!
We also connect with bees because they are a part of the natural world and we can experience them through a variety of different senses—we can see their activity, taste their honey, and even feel their stings. Digital marketing can sometimes feel disconnected from reality. We wanted the symbol of our company to be something that was connected to the senses.
Our company is made up of real, hard-working people who, like bees, have important jobs to do that have an impact on our world. We aren’t “corporate” and we don’t pretend to be something we aren’t. If that sounds like a marketing company you’d like to work with, we’d love to hear from you!
Where We Are Going
Our goal is to teach thousands of nonprofits how to become more effective in their work and fundraising by unifying their marketing strategy with their mission. We’re actively pursuing this goal by working with well-known companies in the industry to teach these principles through podcasts, webinars, blogs, and conferences. For those organizations who are a good fit, we’ll work with them directly to help advance their mission and consistently grow their donor base every month.
We are always brainstorming new ways to help our clients make a bigger impact in their respective work.
