Florida Rising Together: Launching a Merchandise Store for Revenue and Community Engagement

The Organization

Florida Rising Together is a statewide grassroots organization building multiracial, multigenerational power across Florida through community organizing, voter engagement, and policy advocacy. Operating across five regions—Miami, Broward, Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville—the organization works to advance racial and economic justice through direct member engagement, digital campaigns, and cultural organizing rooted in Black, Latinx, and Haitian communities.

The Goal

With a $33,333 grant from Vote Your Voice, Florida Rising is testing whether launching an online merchandise store can serve as both an alternative revenue stream and a new entry point for supporter engagement. The experiment asks: Can branded merchandise build organizational visibility, generate sustainable revenue, and convert casual supporters into active members?

Strategies and Tactics in Motion

The experiment centers on shop.floridarising.org, launched using the Fourth Wall platform with two initial t-shirt designs: "Joy is Revolutionary" and "We Everywhere." Current tactics include creating video and photo content featuring staff and members wearing shirts during door-knocking and organizing activities, distributing shirts to regional staff and co-governance leaders for social media content creation, and testing organic social media promotion before investing in paid advertising. The team is exploring Spanish and Creole translations of existing designs for Hispanic Heritage Month rather than creating entirely new concepts, allowing them to isolate language as a variable. Content captured during July and August Super Saturdays—including 9 videos across multiple counties and languages—is being edited for a soft launch beginning August 21st, aligned with voter organizing activities leading into the August 18th primary election.

Early Learning

Across the first several months of the Florida Rising engagement, a few consistent themes have emerged. Relationship-building and trust have proven foundational — early meetings underscored the importance of taking time to understand the organization's culture, priorities, and internal dynamics before moving into execution. The team has also learned that clear role definition and communication cadences are critical, as ambiguity around responsibilities created early friction that required deliberate recalibration. Capacity constraints on the client side have surfaced as an ongoing consideration, necessitating a flexible and adaptive approach to pacing and deliverable timelines. Momentum has been building steadily as trust deepens and workflows become more established. These early learnings point to the value of a patient, relationship-first strategy — one that prioritizes sustainability and co-ownership over speed.

In-Flight Multiplier Signals

• Between May and August, the store generated 229 sessions and 198 unique visitors, but only 3 carts were created and 3 orders completed, yielding $29 in profit.
• While conversion remains low, the experiment has already produced valuable infrastructure: a functioning e-commerce platform, a content creation workflow integrated with organizing activities, and early data on price sensitivity at the $40 price point.
• The team has identified that video content featuring people wearing shirts significantly outperforms static product images, with one Black Joy video generating 100+ Facebook engagements compared to 41 on Instagram.
• Positive qualitative feedback emerged when a member connected the "We Everywhere" shirt message to seeing an organizer at multiple community events, validating the merchandise as a visibility and belonging tool.

What We're Watching Next

• Key questions include whether the $40 price point is creating a barrier to purchase—sample shirts cost $17-23, raising concerns about affordability during economic hardship—and whether lowering prices to $30-35 or running holiday promotions will increase volume enough to offset reduced margins.
• The team is also determining whether to position merchandise primarily as a revenue generator or as a lead conversion tool, potentially bundling discounted shirts with $25 annual memberships.
• Additional questions include whether TikTok Shop integration will reduce purchase friction compared to external links, whether Spanish/Creole translations will drive engagement in Latinx and Haitian communities, and how to build post-purchase follow-up systems—such as welcome email series or county-based event invitations—to convert buyers into active members.

The team plans to hold pricing steady through fall to establish baseline data before testing adjustments around Giving Tuesday and year-end campaigns.

Why This Matters Now

At a moment when grassroots organizations face declining membership engagement and need diversified revenue streams, this experiment offers early insights into whether merchandise can serve dual purposes: generating unrestricted revenue while creating low-barrier entry points for supporters not yet ready to donate or join. By integrating merchandise into existing organizing work—rather than treating it as a separate fundraising campaign—Florida Rising is testing whether cultural visibility tools can strengthen both financial sustainability and movement-building capacity. The experiment's emphasis on building infrastructure first, testing systematically, and learning iteratively models a sustainable approach to revenue innovation for capacity-constrained organizations.