Shop For Charity

In the month of October I find myself buying lots of products that come in pink packaging. It is wonderful to witness all of these large corporations come together during breast cancer awareness month and support a noble cause.

Imagine if all businesses were constantly putting awareness and fund-raising for charities in the forefront of their marketing campaign. A world where donating money and bringing awareness to causes was ranked up there with making a profit. Why wait till October to wrap their products in pink packaging? Although there are plenty of things I have issues with when it comes to McDonalds, I appreciate their efforts put toward Ronald McDonald House Charities. Whether you go through the drive through or a register inside, there is a donation box clearly displayed. However, they could go so much further by making the logo and information more prominent on their packaging. When McDonald’s Monopoly game come around, you can find links all over the internet but wouldn’t it be just as easy to make sure there were also a link to the charity house right next it. How much more would it cost to place small plugs of information into their normal advertisement campaigns? There are plenty of large corporations like Target with their donations for education program or Toys R Us and their partnership with the Make A Wish Foundation that could be brought to a whole other level without a significant increase in money or time.

Here’s the wonderful thing, there are lots of small companies out there who make helping others one of their main business goals. In the past I have written articles on companies like TOMS SHOES and WARBY PARKER who have a buy one pair donate one pair campaign. Our most recent article was on KROCHET KIDS, whose goal is to “empower people to rise about poverty”. Let’s encourage big business to make supporting causes a main business goal and support these small businesses who already do this grow bigger.

*The links below are for companies who make it a business goal to help others.

Better World Books: A new and used bookstore that for every book sold will donate a book to someone in need through different non-profit literacy groups. They also have a grant program called Literacy and Education in Action Program (LEAP), which funds literacy and educational nonprofits and libraries for specific projects. Environmentally they recycle any book they cannot reuse and offer a carbon offset shipping option.

Feelgoodz: A flip-flop company that sells sustainable shoes and donates a portion of their profits to shoka.org andTransFairUSA.org to create micro-finance, environmental, and fair trade programs.

FIGS Ties: With every tie purchase, FIGS gives a uniform to an underprivileged child in order for them to attend school.

Krochet Kids: They sell crochet hats and other clothing. They teach women in impoverished areas to crochet. They then sell these products while paying them a fair wage. For 3 years these women are also trained in budgeting, savings, loaning, and business management so that they have the power to rise above poverty.

Newman’s Own: 100% of the profits from their food and beverage products go to the Newman’s Own Foundation which gives the money to different charities around the world. Their food and beverages are fair trade and they have also have an organic line.

Revolution Foods: An organic food line for children’s snacks and lunches. Their mission is to bring healthy fresh foods to students on a daily basis. 3% of their net revenue goes to their school lunch program that help feed children in under-served schools.

TOMS Shoes: For every pair of shoes purchased TOMS will give a new pair of shoes to a child in need.

Warby Parker: For every pair of glasses sold Warby Parker donates a pair glasses to a person in need.

The Working World: A non-profit organization where you can buy shoes, shirts, dog clothes, and wait for it…balloons. They work as an inexpensive middle-man for democratic businesses in developing countries to bring their products to consumers. They use this along with micro-financing to alleviate poverty, create sustainable development and empower the powerless.

*Please use the comment box below to share your personal experiences with these companies. If you know of other businesses that are not listed let me know and I will be happy to add them to the list.