CauseTeam has had a very busy week, with the Adnan Syed’s case being vacated leading to a pick-up in business due to contracts the team had with people involved with trying to free Syed.
Amanda Rhomberg, co-founder of CauseTeam, explained that she met Rabia Chaudry, prosecutor and the host of the podcast Undisclosed, in 2019 when Chaudry came to present on the Syed case at the Englert Theatre. She met Chaudry through a friend, Katy Brown, who now serves as marketing manager for Chaudry and her podcast.
“I hadn’t known about the [Adnan Syed] case prior to that, but my husband [John] and I attended and got to meet Rabia and hear her story,” Rhomberg said. “At that time, she needed someone to print merch for her podcast, Undisclosed. Katy connected us, which lead to Rabia starting a fundraising page with donations going to the legal defense fund to free Adnan.”
CauseTeam started with printing t-shirts that originally said #FreeAdnan back in 2019.
When news of Syed’s freedom might become a reality in the past few months, Chaudry reached out to have the page changed and a new custom t-shirt made, with the words #WeFreedAdnan.
“We had the CausePage ready to go, inactive until we got the green light that he was, in fact, walking out of the courtroom a free man,” Rhomberg said.
That result happened last week, when charges were asked to be vacated by the prosecutor’s office in Maryland as new evidence pointed doubts in several facts in the original case.
Those events also led to a very brisk business for the t-shirt company based in uptown Mount Vernon.
“Just an hour after we launched the site, Google analytics showed more than 700 active users on our website with orders coming in two per minute for a while,” Rhomberg said. “While orders have slowed down, they are still coming in. We are scheduled to print about 800 t-shirts in the next couple of weeks and that number keeps growing.
“A couple of other CausePages just launched as well and have taken off nicely, so we may be needing to schedule some night shifts to keep up. I’m grateful for the exposure and the business, and we have a great team up at the shop, so we’ll work together to get it all done. It just might take us a little time.”
Rhomberg said that this case is one of the reasons CauseTeam has formed in the first place, to help people do good in the world and through their fundraising platform.
“Fundraise for good. Do some good. Make a difference… are just a few of the phrases you’ll often find in our own marketing and social media efforts,” Rhomberg said. “It’s been fun, on our end, to see the outpouring of support for so many causes that we’ve been fortunate enough to help with, whether it’s a medical cause, a church, a non-profit, a school. While crowdfunding is always an option on our CausePages, the big way we’ve been able to step in is through our t-shirt fundraising campaigns. Giving is great — but wearing your support is pretty special, too.”
Rhomberg said most CausePages last between 60 to 90 days, but for non-profits that can happen year round.
“If the CausePage is active and still raising funds, CauseLeaders often ask us to extend it,” Rhomberg said.
Purchases of a t-shirt or support for Adnan Syed can be made at Adnan’s Cause page at https://www.causeteam.com/causepages/detail/we-freed-adnan. Forty percent of all t-shirt purchases goes to help fund Syed’s cause right now.
“We are always looking for ways to grow our business and expand our reach,” Rhomberg said. “I’d love for everyone to keep us in mind not only for fundraising, but for online custom shops and custom bulk t-shirt orders as well.”
Syed’s case was featured on the first season of the well-known Serial podcast and was also one of the cases featured on Chaudry’s own Undiclosed podcast. Both podcasts highlighted issues with the case and the evidence against Syed being the killer. Syed had been serving a life sentence for the charge of murder against classmate Hae Min Lee, a charge that has now been vacated.
Chaudry announced in an interview on this week’s “On the Media” podcast that the case against two other suspects in Lee’s killing may move forward before the end of this year, as the two were named in the vacate ruling in Syed’s case.