VOTE for one of these groups to receive our $1000 Yearly Award!
Like every other small business, we depend on word of mouth for our business to thrive. Nothing means more to us than one of our clients who thinks enough of our service to recommend us to their friends and family, and we try our best to say ‘thank you’ through our Referral Reward Program. When a new client says you referred them we call you and make a donation to whatever non-profit group you choose. But the Program doesn’t stop there… one of those groups will receive our $1000 Yearly Award! Which one? Only you can tell, because OUR CLIENTS VOTE FOR THE WINNER!
(Scroll down for the Voting List)
Our Referral Reward Program so far
Before we get started, just a little history. Since we started the Referral Reward Program in 2014, we’re proud to say we’ve donated over $30,000 to hundreds of organizations large and small. Here are the past recipients of our Quarterly and Yearly Referral Rewards…
2014- The Program was just starting, and we didn’t have Quarterly Awards yet.
2014- Yearly Award – Oregon Food Bank
2015- Quarterly Awards – Artichoke Music, Janus Youth Services, Madison High School, RoseHaven
2015- Yearly Award – HealthCare for All Oregon (HCAO)
2016- Quarterly Awards – Medical Teams International, Randall Children’s Hospital, Friends of the Columbia River Gorge
2016- Yearly Award – Planned Parenthood of Columbia/Willamette
2017- Quarterly Awards –Dougy Center, ACLU of Oregon, no 3rd award
2017- Yearly Award- Southern Poverty Law Center
2018- Quarterly Awards- p;ear, Multnomah County CASA, no 3rd award
2018- We ended quarterly awards and started the Yearly award. Our first Yearly winner was Immigration and Refugee Community Organization
2019- We increased the Yearly Award to $1000, and our Yearly Winner was Pongo Fund
2020- Yearly Winner- Oregon Jewish Museum and Holocaust Education Center
Which brings us to today! Pick the group from the list below that you think is most deserving and email your choice to Charles@TomDwyer.com. (If you particularly care about one of these groups, call your friends! We encourage groups to coordinate their supporters to vote, and it certainly worked for Pongo Fund and Oregon Jewish Museum!) Now, without further ado, we give you the 2021 list of groups for our Yearly Award. Good luck to all the groups, and thank you for your participation!
2021 Yearly Award Voting List
Returning Veterans Project MPN Research Foundation
Portland Fruit Tree Project Portland Rescue Mission
Equitable Giving Circle SOAR Immigration Street Books
Raleigh Hills Elementary Feral Cats Coalition
Annie Ross House Central City Concern Restore Oregon
MPN Research Foundation Portland Fruit Tree Project
Human Solutions Willamette Riverkeeper Oregon Wild
Regional Arts&Culture Council Friends of Hopewell House
North Coast Land Conservancy Sellwood Middle School
Against Malaria Foundation Operation Tiny Home
Pick your favorite and email your choice to Charles@TomDwyer.com, and thanks for your vote!
2021 Candidate Links and Information
New this year, we asked each of our Service Advisors to nominate a group for the Yearly Award.
Ken chose the Returning Veterans Project, which supports the healing and health of veterans and military communities by connecting post-9/11 veterans, service members, and their military families with free, confidential mental and physical health services.
Kyle picked Oregon Wild, which protects and restores our wildlands, wildlife, and waters as an enduring legacy for future generations.
Dean nominated Sellwood Middle School, a 6-8th grade neighborhood school in our own backyard.
Perry chose Operation Tiny Home, which assists people struggling with severe housing instability to maintain a life of dignity through custom high-quality tiny housing
And these were groups chosen by our clients for their own Individual Referral Rewards.
MPN Research Foundation– Helping people with an MPN live a better quality of life as we work toward answers to prevention, progression and a cure for polycythemia vera (PV), essential thrombocythemia (ET) and myelofibrosis (MF) – blood cancers collectively known as myeloproliferative neoplasms.
Portland Fruit Tree Project– Portland Fruit Tree Project increases equitable access to healthful food and strengthens communities by empowering neighbors to share in the harvest and care of city-grown produce.
Portland Rescue Mission– Since 1949 Portland Rescue Mission has been here to give hope and restore life to men, women, and children struggling with hunger, homelessness, and addiction.
Against Malaria Foundation– We protect people from malaria by funding nets and ensuring they are distributed and used properly. We monitor and report their use and impact.
Operation Tiny Home– Operation Tiny Home is a national nonprofit that assists people struggling with severe housing instability to maintain a life of dignity through custom high-quality tiny housing solutions and empowerment training programs.
Equitable Giving Circle- Our aim is to empower BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities in Portland by leveraging economic deposits from communities of privilege to empower BIPOC communities and begin to move towards economic equity.
SOAR Immigration– Since 1992, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon’s SOAR Immigration Legal Services has provided culturally competent, immigration-related legal representation and education to refugees and immigrants with limited income throughout Oregon.
Street Books– Street Books is a bicycle-powered mobile library, serving people who live outside
Raleigh Hills Elementary– Throughout its long history, the Raleigh Hills School community has valued the achievements of each child and the partnership between families and educators to support each child
Feral Cats Coalition– The Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon (FCCO) is a spay/neuter program for cats. Our services are donation-based for feral, stray, and barn cats. We serve Oregon and SW Washington.
Annie Ross House– The Annie Ross House is the only shelter for families experiencing homelessness in Clackamas County. Annie Ross House can serve up to 8 families at a time, each of whom receives a private room equipped with a bathroom and kitchenette for maximum privacy and dignity throughout their shelter stay.
Central City Concern– By providing housing, health care and jobs, CCC is ending homelessness in Portland and helping people achieve their highest potential.
Restore Oregon– Restore Oregon’s mission is to preserve, reuse and pass forward the historic places and spaces that reflect Oregon’s diverse cultural heritage and make our communities inclusive, vibrant, liveable and sustainable.
MPN Research Foundation– Helping people with an MPN live a better quality of life as we work toward answers to prevention, progression and a cure for polycythemia vera (PV), essential thrombocythemia (ET) and myelofibrosis (MF) – blood cancers collectively known as myeloproliferative neoplasms.
Portland Fruit Tree Project– Portland Fruit Tree Project increases equitable access to healthful food and strengthens communities by empowering neighbors to share in the harvest and care of city-grown produce.
Human Solutions– Human Solutions envisions vibrant, healthy neighborhoods where all people can share in the security, hopes and advantages of a thriving, supportive community.
Willamette Riverkeeper– For 25 years Willamette Riverkeeper has proudly served as the eyes, ears, and voice of the Willamette River. Our programs, together with your support, enable us to effectively generate positive change.
Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC)– Regional Arts & Culture Council supports the creative economy in greater Portland by equitably providing funding and services to artists and art organizations; managing and growing a diverse, nationally acclaimed, public art program; and developing enduring public and private partnerships.
Friends of Hopewell House– Caring for those with the greatest need and the fewest options, we strive to help people live well while dying.
North Coast Land Conservancy– Helping to conserve Oregon’s coastal lands, forever
These Groups Were Not Eligible For The Yearly Award
We want this award to matter to the group that receives it, and while $1000 is a lot to a small group it can get lost in the budgets of the bigger groups. Though we gladly give to groups of any size in our Individual Rewards, we take the larger groups out of the running for this Yearly Award. These were the larger groups we gave to in 2021…
PETA Oregon Food Bank Cancer Society of America
Planned Parenthood of Col/Wil Red Cross Portland Oregon Humane Society
Referral Reward Program details
For each new client you refer to us we’ll donate 20% (up to $50) of the qualifying purchases from their first invoice to the non-profit group of your choice.
We’ll be thankful for everyone you send us, but oil changes, tires, and batteries won’t count toward their qualifying purchases.
At the end of the year our clients vote on a Yearly Winner from all the groups we donated to through the year. We make an additional donation of $1,000.00 to that cause.
The person you refer must have a 15-years-old-or-newer vehicle of a type we service. Sorry, but our 15-years-old-or-newer policy still has to apply, and we can’t help with their Lamborghinis or semi-trucks. (We should remind you that the “15-years-old-or-newer” restriction applies ONLY TO NEW CLIENTS. If you’re an existing client and we’ve been servicing YOUR older vehicle, we’ll gladly continue to do so!)
Referrals don’t have to come singly; you can coordinate your group to come in as a whole. In fact, we have a sample letter you might want to use to tell them about the program.
You can pick any group or organization, preferably with a 501c3 designation, but that’s not required. They can be political, social justice, environmental, recreational, religious, educational, or any other purpose YOU care about.
We prefer (but don’t require) donations to smaller groups. Big groups like the Red Cross, Mercy Corps, or Oregon Food Bank do amazing work. Many of our clients choose these groups and we gladly give to them, but our donations aren’t huge (max $50) and may get lost in the noise of their bigger donations. Smaller, usually local, groups don’t have the operating budgets or ability to go fund hunting, and $50 to these groups can be a huge boost.
Are there groups you WON’T donate to?
We reserve the right to say ‘no’ to any group for any reason, but we’ve only rarely had to do it. Our Referral Reward program is designed to thank YOU, so we do our best to donate to any group YOU care about. If for ANY reason we decide not to accept them we’ll have you pick another; in the UNIMAGINABLE situation that we couldn’t find ANY group you wanted to give to then we’d turn your Referral Reward into an in-shop credit for future services. Like we said though, our goal is to give to the people YOU think need it most.
We won’t donate to a group that won’t ACCEPT our donation. For example, several clients wanted us to donate to Bernie Sanders but the Bernie campaign isn’t allowed to accept corporate donations (and Tom Dwyer Automotive is a corporation). We found a ‘support Bernie’ group instead, BerniePDX, which worked out even better… one client is now an active member of the group!
We won’t donate to a group if we CAN’T FIND them. One client wanted to donate to a small relief group in Nigeria (which sounds like a scam, but turned out not to be). After several attempts over about two months we finally gave up and donated to Mercy Corps instead. International donations can be tricky; we’ll try if you want but we’ll recommend a US-based (or at least large and well-known international) charity instead.
No one’s ever asked and we don’t expect our clients ever would, but we won’t donate to hate groups. No KKK, Proud Boys, Nazis, or suchlike. If you want to pick one of these groups then you can go pound sand. We’ll give you a coupon for an oil change at a Quick Lube (because we’re still grateful for your referral) but you’ll never hear from us again.
Why haven’t I gotten a Referral Reward? I’ve referred lots of people!
First, we’d like to apologize… your word-of-mouth keeps our doors open, and we would love to be able to thank EACH person individually! Unfortunately, we don’t always know who’s doing the Referring. The only way we know how a new client found out about us is to ask them on their first visit, and we use their answer as their Referral source. Even if you sent someone to us they may not give your name as the Referrer. While they may have first heard about us through you, they may have later checked us out on Yelp or finally decided to come in just because we were convenient. When we ask, they may tell us “Web search” or “convenient location” instead of your name, and then we don’t know there’s a Reward to issue. We can’t guarantee all your Referrals will give your name as a source, but if you want the charity you care about to get your Reward then it’s up to you. Make sure your friend knows to “tell ‘em I sent you!”
