About Us

4RKids Inc began in 2004 when two young men who were working for a Bloomington based toy distributor, were invited to help local Marines find warehouse space for Toys for Tots. During the process of working with area Marines, the two learned just how many kids experienced the holidays without a gift. They were even more surprised to learn how many kids begin the school year without any school supplies or back packs. It was with this in mind that steps were taken to develop a means to address this great need, and in May of 2005, 4RKids, Inc. was granted 501(c)(3) status and officially recognized as a Minnesota Non-profit Charitable Organization.

The mission of 4RKids is to give underprivileged kids the necessary school supplies and toys that their contemporaries enjoy each year. Identifying the need and developing partnerships with existing non-profits who were already attempting to fulfill these needs was the easy part. What proved to be most difficult was establishing and maintaining a revenue stream large enough to sustain the growing number of underprivileged kids.

4RKids has benefitted greatly from corporate support, enabling the non-profit to apply over 80% of all funds raised through its retail partners and community events to be used to purchase toys and supplies at wholesale pricing. The result is two and three times the purchasing power of every donated dollar.

In 2005, 4RKids distributed almost $375,000 in school supplies and back packs to over 25,000 kids. Additionally, just fewer than 13,000 kids received toys valued at almost $100,000 during the holidays.

4RKids recognizes the challenges ahead, including the shrinking donation dollar and tougher economic times. But we also recognize that with these tough times, comes a drastic increase in need, and therefore will strive to continue developing new revenue streams in order to reach our goal of no kids without a toy during the holidays and no children unprepared for their first day of school.

The specific role of 4RKids Inc. is to raise funds to purchase the toys and school supplies needed as identified by each of our non-profit partners. 4RKids currently has a 5 member Board and employs one full-time Director.