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/

Interview With Sweet Cavanagh

Hello!  How are you?  Today I wanted to introduce you to a very special guest on the blog today, Rosalind, the programme coordinator at Sweet Cavanagh.  Sweet Cavanagh is a jewelry brand that is owned by Free Me, a London based charity organization that provides free care and support to women recovering from eating disorders and addictions.  When I was searching for a brand to promote over the holidays a couple years ago that gave support to women with eating disorders, I found Sweet Cavanagh.  As many of you know, this cause is really near and dear to me.  One of the reasons I started this blog was to be able to one day help those who are suffering from eating disorders with a charitable contribution in some way.  To show my support today, I wanted to share this interview with you and encourage you to make purchases from this brand.  I just purchased my first bracelet with a rose and aventurine bead and I love it!  I am super excited about this pretty little bracelet with a pink rose on it and wear it often as a reminder of the healing that is taking place through Free Me and Sweet Cavanagh.

So, here we go…

Hello!  Thank you for sharing your time with us today. 

Can you tell me your story of how and why the Free Me charity organization started?

Florence started Free Me after spending time in a residential treatment centre in South Africa for an addiction and eating disorder. After she returned she wanted a way to be able to spend time with her friends who were also in recovery where they could meet up and talk about the trials and tribulations of committing every day to your recovery, but without it being just about recovery. Whilst in South Africa, she had been introduced to beading, so when one of her friends was in need they met up, brought some beads and talked it all through.

Florence wanted Free Me to expand so that women across London could access a free, creative support network at a time when increasing funding cuts meant access to NHS healthcare was becoming harder and harder to get, and private therapy costs were too much for the majority of people. Sadly, the situation only seems to be getting worse. But we are so grateful to be able to provide the programme at Free Me as a small way to fill this gap in treatment options.

I personally came on board as programme coordinator a little over a year ago, having been through the programme myself three years ago. I experienced first hand the value of such an organization and was unbelievably impressed with what Florence had set up. To be able to use my experiences to help others now is amazing.

How did Sweet Cavanagh start and how does it help to empower women?

Well, with all this beautiful jewelry being made in the groups, and the struggle to get funding to turn it into what it is now, it only made sense to start selling the jewelry. Each woman who attends the Free Me programe has her own page on the Sweet Cavanagh website where we upload each piece of jewelry she has made and named. To be able to create something beautiful during a time of struggle is incredibly rewarding and to see it photographed and on a website is so empowering. Every time a piece sells you know you have made something that someone else values and cherishes, when you’re in the early stages of recovery these are feelings that don’t always come easy.

What kinds of support does Free Me provide?

Free Me offers peer support and jewelry making workshops to women in recovery. In addition to this, there is a group therapy session and access to nutritional support, and best of all, it’s completely free.

When I was browsing through the selections of jewelry pieces, I noticed names and stories.  Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

Sure, each woman has her own page and writes a short bio, giving a little bit of background on who they are and their journey so far. She will also name every piece of jewelry she makes in a unique way. Sometimes this could be a first name as the piece reminded them of someone in particular, sometimes it just evokes a feeling (like patience) or reminds the maker of a place or thing. Sometimes it’s just a funny play on words (a great example of this was Ellie’s piece called Ainsley Halibut – a necklace with a fish charm on). Being able to be a bit silly in the workshop is really important to us, we want to support one another through hardship, but we also want to have fun, drink tea and come up with silly puns. At the end of the day, if everyone feels a little bit better than they did when they walked through the door in the morning, we know we’ve done our job well.

I noticed that no jewelry pieces were replicated, what type of materials are used to create this jewelry and what is the quality like?

We use a huge variety of materials including semi-precious stones such as aventurine, amethyst, carnelian and rose quartz. Recently, we moved to a new studio where we have been able to expand our skillset, we are learning to work with metals and are hoping to produce some silver rings to sell soon (once we’ve really got the knack of it, so watch this space!) We also receive donations from other jewelers and crafters who give us beads and other objects to work with, we love this as anything to stop bits going to a landfill is a win. It’s great to give something a second life as well!

The women are all trained in how to make the jewelry to a standard that it won’t break and we try to use materials that won’t tarnish or wear.

Where can we purchase jewelry from Sweet Cavanagh?

Our main selling point is on our website www.sweetcavanagh.com We also sell a few select items on our Not on the High Street page  Keep an eye on our social media for updates of any other places we will be stocking.

If you’re U.K based we do pop up sales in London often and you can find us at empowering events — recent ones include the Women of the World festival and the Anti Diet Riot Club Fair

Where can we connect with Sweet Cavanagh and Free Me?

Find us on Instagram at sweetcavanagh Twitter @CavanaghSweet and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/sweetcavanagh/

You can email directly to Rosalind on info@sweetcavanagh.com to find out more about both the programme itself or the jewelry we are selling

Thanks so much for chatting to us, we’re so happy to feature on your blog and to spread our message of hope and empowerment to all those in recovery or wondering if it’s possible for them.

Thank you for taking the time to write this interview.  Hopefully, we can raise more support for Free Me.