In a world where it is too easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of working and living for ourselves, Willie Morris refused to settle in the monotony. After leaving his corporate jobs, Willie set out on a mission to create opportunities to work on something more fulfilling. After committing to go all in and leave his comfortable life, Willie worked to create work impacting others while serving his greater purpose – creating the month-to-month impact now known as Faithbox.
FaithBox: Where It Began
Willie throughout his life was searching for something more, something with meaning. He followed his own path through the twist and turns it took him on, until he reached a moment of clarity , leading him to his faith. Following his passion to live a life as a servant to his faith, Willie left his career to build the community he craved. Willie decided to move to New York to pursue his dream and build Faithbox.
I wanted to create something new and meaningful. I had a journey of re-affirming faith, and wanted to gear towards the faith community.
When he put his business plan together, Willie searched for ways to ensure that every box purchased would make a difference in the world. After researching organizations, Willie partnered with Rice Bowls to create a plan so that every box purchased could provide three meals to a child-in-need. Beyond the incredible choice in charity, Willie felt compelled to fill every box with products from ethical businesses as a way to prove that every individual can create a positive impact. Now with every purchased box, the individual has made the world a better place, even if it’s just by drinking coffee from an earth and people respecting company.
In the very beginning, Faithbox joined Cratejoy in a beta program to test the subscription service with limited availability to consumers. The testing was a success. A couple of months later and Willie’s Faithbox was live and flying off the shelves on January 1, 2015.
Building The Community
When Willie founded Faithbox, he knew he didn’t just want monthly subscribers, he wanted to create a community where he could interact with his subscribers easily. The interactions consist of intimate conversations around Faith, shared devotion, and feedback regarding what members of this community crave. Not only is Willie participating in these conversations, he’s also activating on them. An example of this was the spike in demand for more robust reflection and prayer cards for devotionals. FaithBox now writes and publishes a monthly devotional book called “Everyday Faith” for every box.
We don’t have customers, we have members. We are all in a community helping each other grow in faith. It’s much deeper and more intimate than a one-off purchase.”
Acquiring the Members
After developing the business model and creating his boxes, Willie began with a single press event on news program “Fox & Friends” in December 2014, about a month before Faithbox went live. During November and December of 2014, Faithbox operated under testing, therefore, delivering only about 31 boxes per month. Willie elaborates on beginning tactics,
We wanted to gather feedback and make sure the product was meaningful and rock solid before we started spending against it. The first four or five months were basically word of month and bloggers”
However, as the press efforts has ended and word of mouth promotion began, Faithbox went live in January 2015. Upon the official Faithbox launch, members began subscribing to Faithbox due to the initial press on “Fox & Friends” and the spread of word-of-mouth from the small test group of subscribers. In their first month of production, Faithbox sold and delivered 360 boxes. Faithbox was not actively pursuing any press outreach at the time. As members began to blog about their Faithbox experience, and word of moth continued, the Faithbox population grew.
While Faithbox is currently unable to divulge total number of subscriptions sold to date, the amount of charitable donations speak for itself. After August 2015, just 8 months after the very first box sold, Faithbox will have provided over 30,000 meals to children in need. Willie continues to look for ways to build a better box and subscription for his members,
I’m a huge fan of constantly iterating and testing, so we’re generally trying something new, even if it’s a really small change, and seeing if we can improve our efficiency or experience.
Social Media
As the Faithbox community began to grow, along with the impactful message they carry, Willie and his team began utilizing social media tools. This is where the family of Faithbox gathers to share personal testimonies, feedback on their box, or an open forum for discussing faith. Aware of the positive impact Faithbox was creating, Willie wanted to find ways to continue to reach a wider audience,
We’ve gotten Faithbox to a point that I believe it is making a difference in our members’ lives and our members share amazing stories about it, so we’ve started spending via social channels to get the word out en masse, and recently pulled in a PR team.”
Subscription Model: The Only Answer for FaithBox
Willie attributes the success of Faithbox to the community that was born from its creation. Faithbox was built carefully by mastering the messages to ensure that every member fully understood the meaning and importance of Faithbox. As Willie explained , it was in the DNA of the subscription model,
Building a community was the most important thing and the subscription model lent itself to that. It wasn’t just selling a subscription product, it was building a community that could have an impact on different levels.
The success of Willie’s subscription business was so rapid; he found that one of the biggest obstacles was ensuring that every order was being filled. To solved for the fast acceleration, Willie researched vendors carefully with the ask of short notice shipments to be available. Faithbox also introduced a “Welcome Box” for new subscribers allowing an extra month of buffer while providing the entry experience every Faithbox member deserves.
The Faithbox team relied on the month-to-month subscription business a major help in not only creating the community they serve today, but also the partnerships that have been born from the success. There are already plans for boxes to be co-created with mega names in the Christian community like Joyce Meyer and Jefferson Bethke.
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