In this edition of Beauty Independent’s ongoing series posing questions to beauty entrepreneurs, we ask 14 founders and executives: What’s an organization or cause you’ve supported, and why?
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Michelle Vidal Founder, Alkaglam We have partnered with QMP INC to donate to the Clean Water Foundation. Water is the basis of our product, and we believe all people should have access to clean water. I also wanted to make sure that the water filters that we are contributing to are made ethically in the USA. I believe all people should have clean, ethically-made water filters.
- Joshua Scott Onysko Founder and CEO, Alpine Provisions
We dedicate 5% of sales to a scholarship fund that gives youth full rides to Outward Bound three-week leadership programs in the Rockies. My time spent exploring the wilderness has not only shaped my own life and given me a deep appreciation for the earth, but I have also been able to share my passion for nature through the products we create throughout all of our brands.
- Bill Hovard Founder, Hudson Made
A portion of our sales are donated to non-profit organizations who advance clean water, and health and hygiene initiatives in the developing world. Millions of children can be saved by providing access to clean water and promoting hand washing. In 2018, we partnered with Kids of Kathmandu.
- Jacqueline Schaffer Founder, Schique
A sandwich can mean something very simple to most people, but to some it can make all the difference in the world. I founded A Sandwich A Day when I was 25 and still a med student. I was walking home from one of my rotations when I saw a homeless woman the same age as my grandmother.
As I walked past the woman, I realized I was at a crossroad in my life and had to make a choice. Do I help or walk away? I kept walking, but each step was harder and harder to take. I quickly realized this was my crossroad and felt the need to help her. This experience is what led me to create A Sandwich a Day with a mission to help others with compassion, sensitivity, and respect. To date, the organization has served 1,000 sandwiches and will continue to push until it reaches 1 million sandwiches.
- Melanie Petschke Co-Founder, Crunchi Cosmetic
We are incredibly proud to be partnered with Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, a science-based advocacy organization that works to prevent breast cancer by eliminating exposure to toxic chemicals. At Crunchi, our goal is to educate consumers that what they put on their bodies matters and lowering the toxic body burden can contribute to disease prevention. Our partnership with BCPP is one way we are reaching this goal, and we are honored to be working alongside this phenomenal organization.
- Patrice Rynenberg Co-Founder, Asarai
We believe that nature has the power to nurture a lifestyle that is happy, healthy and vibrant. We are an official partner of 1% for The Planet, which is an international organization that works towards a healthier planet. We’ve pledged a portion of our sales will always go toward helping the planet and feel it’s our responsibility to always give back and protect our environment.
- Becca Stevens Founder, Thistle Farms
This holiday season, Thistle Farms, a non-profit serving female survivors of prostitution, trafficking, and addiction, has partnered with ABLE, a lifestyle brand focused on ending generational poverty for women.
Headquartered in Nashville, ABLE and Thistle Farms are like-minded companies that have invested in a shared mission to empower and employ women, both in their hometown and around the globe, by creating spaces for women to heal, connect, and ultimately reclaim their purpose. We have partnered to create three gift sets for the 2018 holiday season featuring ABLE leather goods and Thistle Farms body-care products.
- Valeria Cole Co-Founder, Teadora
We are proud to be an activist brand focused on stopping the impact of climate change by protecting and saving the Amazon rainforest. To support our efforts, we have partnered with the Rainforest Foundation US, an organization started by Sting over 30 years ago, in a multiyear project to replant 1 million trees and preserve 75,000 acres.
For every product sold, a tree is planted and acreage is saved in an area of the Amazon that is home to many endangered species and indigenous peoples. Our mission is to be the Patagonia of beauty. We are B Corp-certified and proud winners of 2017’s CEW Sustainability Award, Vegan, Toxin-Free, Cruelty-Free.
- Molly Beane Founder and CEO, From Molly With Love
We have supported two organizations this year that are near and dear to our hearts. This summer, we donated a portion of sales to RAICES and its Families Together Fund, which keeps families together as they navigate through the many obstacles presented by our immigration system. RAICES provides legal representation and comprehensive case management services to migrant families.
We also donated a portion of sales from our limited-edition PRIDE box to San Diego Trans Pride. We're a San Diego-based company and strive to make our marketing inclusive, including featuring trans people as models for our products. My best friend has an 8-year-old trans child, and I am passionate about making sure that this is a safe world for my friend's daughter to grow up in.
- Erika Shumate CEO and Co-Founder, Pinrose
For the remainder of the year, for every Secret Genius Shimmer Mist Travel Spray sold on our website, we will donate a pack of petals to Project Glimmer, a San Francisco-based non-profit that helps empower at-risk teenage girls and women through confidence-building workshops, community volunteerism, and meaningful gift-giving programs.
Earlier this year, I joined an inspiring panel of female professionals for the organization's Share Your Glimmer, Day of Empowerment event in Mountain View, Calif. The event brought at-risk teenage girls and women a day of building confidence, inner beauty, and real-life career skills via professional beauty and hair touch-ups, professional photos, a resume/LinkedIn station, and culminated with an inspiring panel discussion.
- Faith Freeman Co-Founder, Primal Elements
For almost 15 years, we have partnered with Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times. This organization provides a cost free supervised camp experience and a fabulous Christmas Party for children with cancer. Being the parents of two healthy children, we can’t imagine what any family must go through when a child is stricken with a terrible disease. This is the least we can do to show support for those that have so much to contend with.
In addition, we partner with Children’s Hunger Fund. The Freeman family believes in the importance of giving back to the community. We also believe that giving be done in a way that does not call attention to ourselves, but to the cause. Over the past few years, we have joined forces with this unique organization that provides relief to those children and families struggling in the U.S. in addition to 224 countries around the world.
To date, we have donated more than 25 tons of soap to families in extreme poverty, victims of natural disaster and to those non-profits that serve the homeless community. We have a strong connection to this group as we believe no family should be without basic hygiene needs. It is with great pride that we wait for the Children’s Hunger Fund truck to pull in to our parking lot to pick up its next ton of soap.
- Heather Urquhart CEO, Huna Apothecary
Over the holiday season, Huna Apothecary is a corporate sponsor for The Shoebox Project. The Shoebox Project for Women, supported by Dream, collects and distributes gift-filled shoeboxes to women impacted by homelessness in communities across Canada and the U.S.
Each thoughtfully-created and decorated shoebox is filled with items valued at $50 that can enhance self-esteem and reduce feelings of isolation for women in need. This is a charity that is near and dear to my heart as I’ve been volunteering and donating to the organization for many years. I’m a proud feminist, and I strongly believe in women supporting and helping other women.
I first became involved with The Shoebox Project because I wanted to help women that were most in need in my local community. This year, we donated over $1,000 in Organic Cocoa Lip Balms to add to the boxes, and our lab and office location are serving as a drop-off site for donations.
In addition, Huna employees are compiling and donating shoeboxes they’ve put together for a special woman in need. It’s something we do together as a team, knowing we’re helping the most deserving and in-need women in our local community brings a smile to our faces and a warm fuzzy feeling to our hearts.
- Christina Kelmon Founder, Belle en Argent
After working in banking for a few years and never feeling like I truly fit in the boys club, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I was determined to find a place I not only felt comfortable, but a place where I was supported. This led to me literally Googling “Latina Women in Finance." I came across an article featuring Natalia Noguera, the founder and CEO of Pipeline Angels.
At the time, I knew I wanted to connect with her, but I had no idea that I’d be recruited as a member in her angels group. Pipeline Angels is changing the face of angel investing and creating capital for women and non-binary femme social entrepreneurs. It is also creating a community of investors and entrepreneurs who feel truly supported in an industry where a Latina like myself have never felt genuinely welcomed.
With my first two investments, I followed my passions and invested in a financial services company and a beauty company. The first company was CNote, a financial platform that makes it easy for you to invest in the causes and communities you care about. The next investment was Mented Cosmetics, a cosmetics company for women of color. I’m so very proud that I was able to support these two amazing businesses focused on inclusion in each of their respective industries.
At Belle en Argent, it is important that we also used our platform to support inclusivity. We have created the BEA Muse Project, a grant program committed to the advancement of women who write, photograph, film, act, direct and produce. By uplifting women in the arts, we hope to ensure authentic and empowering representations for years to come.
- Amanda McIntosh Founder, Take My Face Off
Take My Face Off will be partnering with the local SoCal charity Heal the Bay for our BeautyKind launch early next year. Together, we want to draw attention to the harm that disposable beauty aids cause to the environment. All Take My Face Off products are more sustainable, more effective alternatives to disposables like wipes and cotton balls. These cleansing aids impact the environment in a multitude of ways, but their impact on oceans and water sources might be the most dramatic.
Heal the Bay is a wonderful, dedicated partner and does such a great job on both the soft side (outreach and education) and measurable results (events like clean ups and supporting scientific research). We’re thrilled to be working with such an inspiring and accomplished organization.
If you have a question you’d like Beauty Independent to ask beauty entrepreneurs, please send it to editor@beautyindependent.com.
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