Destination Nature
Ken Keffer and Stacy Tornio are children’s authors and outdoor play advocates. Together, they make up the team, Destination Nature.
Ken grew up in Wyoming, fully bearded at an early age. He went on to study wildlife biology at the University of Wyoming, and he’s been an environmental educator for more than a decade, studying animals in places like Alaska, Mongolia, Maryland, and Ohio. He’s especially fond of birds.
Stacy grew up in Oklahoma, gardening and enjoying a country life. She went to the University of Oklahoma and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to earn her journalism degree. She’s been working as an author, writer, and editor for 12+ years. She loves getting outside with her own two kids, and sending them “back to the county” every summer with her mom. She especially loves gardening.
Together, Ken and Stacy are huge outdoor advocates. All six of their combined books are related to getting more kids and families outside, and this is their true passion. They are looking to take the success of their award-winning book, The Kids’ Outdoor Adventure Book, and translate it into a viable business that will get kids outside and in nature.
Destination Nature started as a simple website from authors Ken and Stacy because they wanted to get more kids and families outside.
Just recently, Ken and Stacy decided to form Destination Nature as a LLC to turn it into something more. This summer, Destination Nature will launch a robust new website, which will feature their new product, TREE MAIL.
TREE MAIL is a postcard delivery service for kids, and it’s targeted at parents with children between the ages of 4 and 12. The way TREE MAIL works is that parents sign their kids up for a postcard subscription, which can range anywhere from 3 months to a year. Each month’s postcard has a theme (birds, gardening, butterflies, hiking), and it gives kids a “checklist” of items to do outside.
Once they do these items, kids can go online to earn their badge and unlock additional interactive features. These online items are exclusively for TREE MAIL subscribers, and they might include games, puzzles, cool facts, coloring sheets, and more.
TREE MAIL is like a mix of publishing and these popular box subscription services that are popping up all over the internet. But it’s at a much more affordable rate, and it gets kids outside!
The goal is to grow TREE MAIL into a robust subscription service with more than 10,000 subscribers in a year. In addition, Ken and Stacy plan to grow other aspects of the Destination Nature website, which will include content, eCommerce, sponsorships, and a writing/consulting service.
Launching a successful Kickstarter campaign is essential in establishing our business. We plan to use it to get everything we need in place, to launch our campaign by September 2015. Specifically, the funds will go to these key areas:
-Hire a PR manager who specializes in Kickstarter campaigns
-Hire a designer to create exclusive products for the Kickstarter supporters
-Pay an attorney to ensure Destination Nature and TREE MAIL is properly set up