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The Direct Selling Association (DSA) helped ring in the holiday season by presenting the direct selling industry’s collective donation to the TODAY Show Holiday Gift Drive on Nov. 25 at NBC Studios in Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.
Twenty-six direct selling companies donated a total of $14.9 million in products and cash to the Drive. Of the 26, seven were featured in their own spots on the TODAY show during the holiday season. In its 10 years of participation, DSA member companies have donated more than $110 million in products, services and cash to the Drive.
The TODAY Show Holiday Gift Drive is a project of the TODAY Show Charitable Foundation Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Donations are matched with the needs of more than 200 organizations with which the TODAY Show Charitable Foundation works. As part of this year’s Drive, DSA member companies sent items to dozens of organizations in states from California to New York.
DSA is the national trade association of the leading firms that manufacture and distribute goods and services sold directly to consumers. Among its more than 240 active and pending members are companies selling both via a party-plan method and in the traditional person-to-person style. In 2012, U.S. direct sales were more than $31.6 billion with nearly 16 million direct sellers nationwide. The vast majority are independent business people—micro-entrepreneurs—whose purpose is to sell the product/service of the company they voluntarily choose to represent. Approximately 90 percent of direct sellers operate their business part-time.
The following direct selling companies donated products to this year’s Toy Drive: 4Life, All Dazzle, Amway, Arbonne, Avon, Bona Clara, Clever Container, CUTCO, DeTech, Initials Inc., Jewel Kade, Jusuru, lia sophia, Living Fresh Collection, Mary Kay, Nu Skin, PartyLite, Princess House, SeneGence, Shaklee, Southwestern Advantage, Stampin’ Up!, Team National, Thirty-One Gifts, Vantel and Yor Health.
For more information on direct selling, DSA and its Code of Ethics, visit DSA’s website, www.dsa.org.