Online Platform Helps Raise Funds for Tijuana Charities

<p> </p><figure id="attachment_48979" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-48979" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" src="http://laprensa-sandiego.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sonia-franko-la…; alt="" width="300" height="236" class="size-medium wp-image-48979" srcset="https://dev-laprensa.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sonia-f… 300w, https://dev-laprensa.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sonia-f… 1024w, https://dev-laprensa.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/sonia-f… 1944w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-48979" class="wp-caption-text">“La Cobija Azul” by Sonia Franko, one of the many art items on sale through Shop 2 Help Mexico</figcaption></figure><p></p>
<p>Through an online shopping platform, nonprofits and vulnerable groups in our border region can now reach more people interested in supporting their causes through the purchase of fundraising items.</p>
<p>The Shop 2 Help Mexico project offers a space on its website for groups supporting good causes to display their fundraiser items on both sides of the border and beyond, opening up a new avenue to help sustain their goals.</p>
<p>Project founder Patricia Pinzon spoke with La Prensa San Diego about this new outlet to help good causes in the region.</p>
<p>“The idea comes from wanting to help out these communities and promote their extraordinary causes and the products they make, which are just as extraordinary, and need a little push to so that it is easier to market these and making their goals better known,” she said. </p>
<p>Items on this shop are as varied as the causes they represent. Browsing through the Shop 2 Help Mexico store one can see handcrafted jewelry in benefit of Grupo Guia AC, a group which assists blind individuals in Tijuana, and coloring book kits which benefit a children’s autism center, among others.</p>
<p>“Someone who purchases the book might have a child with autism or might just be interested in helping out this cause,” Pinzon explained. </p>
<p>There are also items for the home, like the art of Sonia Franko, who paints as a form of mental therapy and to raise funds for her rehabilitation, and embroidered items by Claudia Lomeli, who has given her crafts and talents to several good causes in the border region. </p>
<p>The partnerships with some of the nonprofits on the site go back years, as Pinzon and her two other partners have a background in nonprofit and charity work.</p>
<p>“We have knocked on some doors but we also have a strong background in work with vulnerable communities and we already know some of these organizations,” Pinzon stated. “If there are any organizations interested in helping, we open the doors to them as well.”</p>
<p>Despite being online for just two weeks, the store has grown and made sales on both sides of the border and some other parts of the United States, including places as far east as Miami. The store has also experienced success in person at holiday markets in Tijuana.</p>
<p>Shop 2 Help Mexico currently ships to all of Mexico and the United States. Putting an emphasis on the cross-border nature of the project, shipping in Tijuana and San Diego is free.<br>
“We created a code, ‘border proud’, and when you input it at checkout shipping is free in the region, Pinzon mentioned.</p>
<p>In addition to the store, the site features a blog where visitors can learn about the many organizations benefiting from the sale of their respective items. </p>
<p>The shop 2 Help Mexico store can be found at https://www.shop2help.com.mx/</p&gt;