Cleaning for a Reason

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Comments

  • Kathryn_in_MN
    Kathryn_in_MN Member Posts: 1,252 Member
    Buckwirth said:

    Start up
    Can be a loose term. The company I work for started in 1999 and turned its first profit in 2009, at any point in-between it might have been called a start up.

    Of course we are all looking at a thread from 2009, so it is hard to judge how they are doing today...

    Nay's post was January 2011 - got no response from them
    I think our definitions of "start-up" for a business are quite different. Profitability and start-up are not one in the same.
  • Buckwirth
    Buckwirth Member Posts: 1,258 Member

    Nay's post was January 2011 - got no response from them
    I think our definitions of "start-up" for a business are quite different. Profitability and start-up are not one in the same.

    It was 2011
    And faxed by her doctor.

    After my colostomy it seemed that no one was ordering supplies, it took a while, but we figured out that they had the wrong address. Luckily my WOCN always had extras in her trunk. Never did figure out if the address problem came from the doctor or the hospital, and even after we corrected it it would pop up again. One experience does not equal a trend.

    And yes, I was using startup loosely.
  • Kathryn_in_MN
    Kathryn_in_MN Member Posts: 1,252 Member
    Buckwirth said:

    It was 2011
    And faxed by her doctor.

    After my colostomy it seemed that no one was ordering supplies, it took a while, but we figured out that they had the wrong address. Luckily my WOCN always had extras in her trunk. Never did figure out if the address problem came from the doctor or the hospital, and even after we corrected it it would pop up again. One experience does not equal a trend.

    And yes, I was using startup loosely.

    Not one experience
    Sorry - you don't have the information going back a ways. This isn't the only thread ever posted about this company. I know many people that were on this board and other boards, other cancer patients in my area, people on cancer list-serves, and other places that had no luck with this company over the last 2 years. No answers, or slow answers. Being told they were accepted, and then much later being told there was no one in their area (myself included in this).

    I have received more emails about the service than I can count - so I can see how they became overwhelmed. And maybe they are finally starting to get caught up and reply to people.

    One thing that really bothered me about them is that they charged the cleaning services who were volunteering their services. They had to pay for the privelege to volunteer. ??? And they were getting lots of donations to run the charity, which didn't seem to be getting much accomplished. I don't see any mention of charging the volunteers anymore on their site. This is a very good thing if they aren't still charging them. But I wonder what the situation is because on their 990 they still have a line for membership dues and assessments on the 2009 form, with income of over $92,000 in that category. It is now noted the amount of donated cleaning value, plus cleanings were purchased through donations. This was not clear in previous years - that they were using donations to pay for cleanings also. This makes much more sense to see that they are doing that now.

    I just went to their website today and find it has much more information, there are many more board members, lists of cleaners by location, and it seems to be more organized. (Start up date is listed as May 2006.) They have more information about their process and notes about demand being higher than they can assist.

    It seems someone had a great idea, but word spread too quickly and they couldn't keep up, and they didn't have things set up in the best way at first. But they seem to have made a lot of progress looking at what they are doing now, and the way it seems to be run now. But still demand is too high - understandably. If I got a hundred emails about this service, how many emails has every other women with cancer gotten about them? How many women with cancer know about them? A lot of demand!
  • concerned_cleaner
    concerned_cleaner Member Posts: 2
    Cleaning for a Reason is for PR and Marketing
    I am reluctant to even share this but after reading the many posts on this board and others from cancer victims I feel compelled to share my experience with Cleaning for a Reason from a cleaning service perspective.

    One thing is true, Cleaning for a Reason is a legitimate organization, paper work filed, volunteers, and all that jazz, blah blah blah.

    While it does do some good, it excels at its main purpose. It is a PR machine for the consultant that founded it and her consultant friends she placed on the board. They all do business together and shamelessly use Cleaning For a Reason to promote their businesses.

    Dig a little deeper and you will also see her husband serves on the board, along with her best friend and one of her actual employees. Not much for over sight of the actions of the board. There are a few others on the board that do not profit from the industry, but they donate money to the organization.

    I talked with someone that used to be on the board that was “asked to step down” and she said no one can even disagree with the founder without her husband nearly threatening them, very intimidating.

    It is the cleaning service owners that do the real good, donating free cleanings and pay for it out of their own pocket most do it for the right reasons, but many others sign up just to get the logo on their marketing digs.

    My cleaning service used to be in it and paid the $25 a month for the privilege of giving our services away. I don’t do it anymore; I prefer to do “good” on my own. I have tried to raise questions about this but lordy let me tell ya, you don’t want to bad mouth the group they will come down on you like the plague.

    I wish more would speak out and tell the truth about this to all of the maid services that try so hard and give so much to make it work. None of the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars they take in goes to the cleanings, where does all of that money go? No one knows.
  • Doc_Hawk
    Doc_Hawk Member Posts: 685

    Cleaning for a Reason is for PR and Marketing
    I am reluctant to even share this but after reading the many posts on this board and others from cancer victims I feel compelled to share my experience with Cleaning for a Reason from a cleaning service perspective.

    One thing is true, Cleaning for a Reason is a legitimate organization, paper work filed, volunteers, and all that jazz, blah blah blah.

    While it does do some good, it excels at its main purpose. It is a PR machine for the consultant that founded it and her consultant friends she placed on the board. They all do business together and shamelessly use Cleaning For a Reason to promote their businesses.

    Dig a little deeper and you will also see her husband serves on the board, along with her best friend and one of her actual employees. Not much for over sight of the actions of the board. There are a few others on the board that do not profit from the industry, but they donate money to the organization.

    I talked with someone that used to be on the board that was “asked to step down” and she said no one can even disagree with the founder without her husband nearly threatening them, very intimidating.

    It is the cleaning service owners that do the real good, donating free cleanings and pay for it out of their own pocket most do it for the right reasons, but many others sign up just to get the logo on their marketing digs.

    My cleaning service used to be in it and paid the $25 a month for the privilege of giving our services away. I don’t do it anymore; I prefer to do “good” on my own. I have tried to raise questions about this but lordy let me tell ya, you don’t want to bad mouth the group they will come down on you like the plague.

    I wish more would speak out and tell the truth about this to all of the maid services that try so hard and give so much to make it work. None of the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars they take in goes to the cleanings, where does all of that money go? No one knows.

    C4R and Men
    I'd be real interested to see a response from a cleaning service to the question coloCan raised in Oct 2009. Why can't men get this service from C4R? Before leaving Flagstaff, Merry Maids provided cleaning service for me. But when my onc faxed the request and I contacted them neither of us got a reply. Only when I went to their website did I find out that it was for women only. There are a lot of single men that could use these services.