News

Sonic kicks off annual public school fundraising program

September 24, 2012

With class in session for students across the country, Sonic Drive-In is re-enrolling its commitment to education with the official launch of the 2012 Limeades for Learning campaign.

The 2012 edition of the cause branding initiative, in partnership with DonorsChoose.org, begins today and allows the public to vote online at LimeadesforLearning.com for their favorite public school classroom projects and direct more than half a million dollars in Sonic donations to local schools.

Sonic has donated more than $2 million to public school classrooms through the program since 2009.

"The rush and excitement that comes with the start of a new school year can quickly change if teachers aren't equipped with the resources to inspire their students to learn," said James O'Reilly, chief marketing officer for Sonic. "For that reason, Sonic's commitment through Limeades for Learning is a true partnership with our communities and lets our customers and the public direct our dollars to the public school classroom projects that mean the most to them."

The classroom projects with the most votes each week in the five-week campaign are fully funded by Sonic. Anyone with a valid email address can vote online once per day at LimeadesforLearning.com from Sept. 24 through Oct. 29, with every 10 votes unlocking two bonus votes awarded via email. In addition, customers can visit their local drive-ins and with receive two extra votes via special bag stickers with any Sonic purchase.

Two incentives are in place to motivate voters to vote daily: If four million votes are cast by Oct. 29, Sonic will unlock an additional $100,000 to fund more classroom projects. The four million vote mark also earns all voters a coupon for a free medium Cherry Limeade.

The number of Sonic teacher projects was nearly 6,000 as of September 24. According to the study, public school teachers spent an estimated $3.5 billion on educational products during the 2009-10 school year. Teachers' personal money is the most common source of money for classroom educational products according to the report.

Read more about cause marketing.