Darkness to Light

Darkness to Light is a nonprofit organization created to reduce the incidence of child sexual abuse through public awareness and education. Based in Charleston, SC, Darkness to Light provides educational materials and training programs to empower parents, educators, youth center staff and others to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to sexual abuse situations.

Darkness to Light’s workbooks, brochures and training kits are utilized by organizations and individuals across 47 states in the US and 10 countries worldwide. Requests for educational materials come in daily via the company’s Web site, ranging from a dozen pieces for a small training workshop to thousands for an organization-wide training initiative. Traditionally, Darkness to Light used local print vendors to pre-print materials, stocked all collateral in-house and packaged and shipped as requests came in – a time consuming and inefficient system.

“The fulfillment process was truly a full-time job,” said Jolie Logan, Chief Operating Officer for Darkness to Light. “We had boxes of printed materials stacked in the office in very tight quarters. As orders continued to increase, it was impossible to keep up. We realized that we needed a better way.”

Since local print shops were not equipped to inventory and ship large volumes of collateral and did not offer an online ordering system, Darkness to Light decided to outsource the print fulfillment process to one partner.

Darkness to Light partnered with Staples due to its ability to act as a single source for the organization’s printing, warehousing and shipping needs. Other key selling points were Staples’ competitive pricing, StaplesLink.com® – its proprietary Web site for online ordering – and the responsive Staples team.

Staples pre-printed and warehoused select Darkness to Light collateral based on last year’s demand, eliminating upfront printing costs for the organization. Staples also provided on-demand printing for specialized items that needed to be produced, assembled and shipped quickly. By offering a hybrid of pre-printed items and on-demand services, Darkness to Light benefitted from a flexible, cost effective solution to address its wide-range of printing and fulfillment needs.

Staples Document & Copy Services team implemented a document catalog with item numbers for each printed piece, allowing Darkness to Light to select items via the Staples Web site and input a purchase order number with shipping details. Staples streamlined all aspects of the fulfillment process, resulting in the delivery of top-quality products in a timely and coordinated fashion.

After partnering with Staples, Darkness to Light has experienced significant cost savings. Previously, printing and shipping costs represented 32 percent of the organization’s sales revenue. Today, printing and shipping comprises 21 percent of total sales – an 11 percent improvement to the bottom line. In addition, the cost of printing Darkness to Light’s most sold item – its training kits – dropped by 63 percent, even though volume increased, with Staples printing and shipping 80,000 kits in the last year.

“We wanted to eliminate the pain associated with Darkness to Light’s printing and distribution and allow the organization to focus on their core mission,” said Raj Dwivedi, Print District Sales Manager with Staples. “Today, orders are rapidly fulfilled and we hear again and again that Darkness to Light is confident in our ability to ‘just get it right.’”

Darkness to Light has partnered with Staples for its office supplies and is consolidating its printing and office product orders via StaplesLink.com to further automate business operations. Through the Staples Web site, Darkness to Light will gain additional insight into inventory levels, easily manage returns and benefit from consolidated invoicing.