Interview with CEO Laura Hertz of Gifts For Good - Charitable Business Gifts that Support Social, Economic, and Environmental Causes

Hello! Today I would like to introduce you to CEO Laura Hertz of Gifts For Good, a corporate
gift giving company.  Recently, I attended a meeting at the General Assembly in Santa Monica,
California and heard Laura speak on a panel of women entrepreneurs whose primary focus is on
using their brands to give back to social causes. Listening to these women speak really inspired
me to reach out and do more through my blog as well. Hopefully, after reading Laura’s interview
today, you will feel inclined to give back through your future endeavors also.

So, here we go…

Hi Laura! Thank you for sharing your time with us today. When I heard your brand’s story I was
immediately intrigued because I haven’t heard of too many brands that give back in the way that
you do.

Can you please tell us about your background?

I am a proud alumna of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and the USC Marshall School
of Business; as well as the federal community service program AmeriCorps National Civilian
Community Corps — the domestic Peace Corps. I have worked on both sides of the business
sector – nonprofit and corporate – including within financial services at one of the “Big Four”
accounting firms, as well as with Fair Trade USA.

How did you become interested in building a corporate gift giving company with a focus on
giving back?

I learned about the struggles of nonprofits to raise funds when I deferred my college acceptance
to join AmeriCorps, rebuilding homes in New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina, helping wildfire
victims, feeding and clothing the hungry and homeless, and teaching high school geometry to
inner-city youth. Later, after graduating from UC Berkeley, I worked for Deloitte, and noticed
how much money companies spend on gifts for employees, clients, and leads — and how these
gifts are often low quality stress balls and meaningless, branded paperweights.that end up in a
junk drawer.

That is why I founded Gifts for Good after completing my Master’s in Social Entrepreneurship at
USC. We use product sales of corporate gifts to fund the social missions of nonprofits, and scale
up the social impact of cause-based enterprises.

Specifically at Gifts For Good, how are you making an impact using socially
responsible practices in your day-to-day operations?

At Gifts for Good, we are reinventing the $90 billion U.S. corporate gifting industry as the first
source for charitable business gifts that support a range of social, economic, and environmental
causes. As a B2B marketplace, we sell life-changing products made by over 40 nonprofits and
social enterprises to businesses purchasing employee and client gifts in bulk. Our platform helps
companies send more meaningful gifts, while providing the B2B marketing team these
cause-based organizations need to better sustain themselves and grow their reach and impact.

I see that “empathy” is listed as one of your core values at Gifts For Good. Can you tell me
more about how your company incorporates this core value?

Empathy is a powerful emotion, allowing us to understand other people, their position, and their
needs. If you want to make a difference in this world, you need to understand the communities
you will be working in and how your efforts will impact them.
At Gifts for Good, my team and I believe in people over profit. We seek to always look beyond
ourselves, putting the interests of those in need above our own. We believe that all impact, big or
small, stems from our ability to put ourselves in another’s shoes.

One of my favorite quotes from your Instagram is

“Your Greatness Is Not What You Have, It’s What You Give.” 

How many countries have you been able to impact through
corporate gift giving at Gifts For Good and what types of social causes have you
contributed to?

Every gift we sell supports one of our six main causes in 65 countries around the globe:

● children-in-need
● women-at-risk
● economic development
● environment
● homelessness
● health

In the last year, Gifts for Good has provided 1 year of clean drinking water to 1,023 people; 392
days of schooling to children in Honduras; 18,000 children with enough Vitamin A for 1 year; 50
days of job training for women transitioning from homelessness; 3,639 hours of employment in
Haiti to help fight the child slavery crisis; 1,469 meals to children in-need... and so much more!

What kinds of considerations do you make when choosing a product for Gifts For Good?

At Gifts for Good, we like to say that we are a “product first” company. We choose quality gifts
that people will love to give and receive, which also happen to have an incredible social impact.
Every product we sell must be beautiful, functional, and meaningful.

We follow a very stringent vetting process when it comes to the nonprofits and social enterprises
we work with. When a cause brand submits a proposal to work with us, they have to provide
detailed information on their impact strategy and metrics at the product level (i.e. every water
bottle sold provides 6 months of clean drinking water in the Central African Republic). We meet
them in person, ask for references and verify the information through third-party sites likes
Charity Navigator and other sources. If a cause brand meets our stringent standards for both the
cause and the product, we invite them into our community.

If I wanted to customize a gift for my brand, how would I do that?

You can easily customize a gift for your brand by uploading your logo directly through our
ecommerce store, giftsforgood.com . Companies and professionals looking for assistance in
finding the perfect branded gift can also utilize our free gifting concierge service by calling
(877)554-1550 or e-mailing us at hello@giftsforgood.com .

Our complementary gifting concierge service helps companies find the perfect branded gift for
their industry, company size, demographic, corporate social responsibility initiatives, recipient,
occasion and budget. We work closely with our clients to identify their top needs, and curate the
perfect gifts for them that speaks to the causes their company cares about most.

If a company would like to participate in collaborating with Gifts For Good, how should
they contact you?

We love collaborations! Just shoot us an email at hello@giftsforgood.com. 􀀀We ask nonprofits
and social enterprises who want to work with us to visit the Partner With Us page.

If we would like to purchase gifts individually that give back for birthdays and holidays,
instead of in bulk for corporate use, can we still do that?

Yes, of course! Over 50% of the products on our website are available for one-off purchases like
birthdays and holiday gifts for friends and family. :)

Where can we find you? 

Gift + give back by visiting giftsforgood.com or follow us on social media @giftsforgoodHQ. If
you like our Facebook page, a tree will be planted in your honor!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giftsforgoodhq/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/giftsforgoodhq
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GiftsForGoodhq
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/17947311/