"Do you, like, contribute to any organization or do volunteer work? People like to know that."
I have a bit of a blind-side when it comes to pro-social marketing. It's just kind of something I take for granted... I mean, if you have resources, you share them with others, right?
So when someone from one of my wholesale accounts asked that question, I kind of came up blank, stammering, "Um... nothing officially, but we personally do quite a lot." They advised me to make that part of our marketing.
That feels weird to me. Our business is about the products we make and we believe they are so amazing they stand on their own. Sure, we're good people, but we don't use that to sell you soap, we do it because we believe in being the change we want to see in the world (thank you, Ghandi).
Since it sounds like I should actually share this information, here's a run-down of the things your purchases support:
- Sierra Club: a little over a year ago, I made a commitment to contribute part of our company's revenue to the Sierra Club.
- SPCA (the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals): at the same time we made a commitment to give money to the Sierra Club, we also committed to give money to the SPCA (where we adopted Roxy, our VP of Animal Testing).
- American Cancer Society: last November, we contributed to the no-shave November campaign (ironic since we make shaving soap, right?)
- Small business articles on Pyragraph: a couple years ago, I agreed to write some small business articles for the art magazine, Pyragraph. These articles are intended to shed light on aspects of online businesses that many other small business owners (mostly artists) are not familiar with.
And then there are the informal contributions like my activity in the Indie Business Network, where I am eager to help with advice and experience or the personal help I give to friends who are small business owners when they need help creating a graphic or doing a quick code change.
My friends and colleagues know me as a person generous with my knowledge, trying to help whenever time allows.
In short, even though we're a tiny business with almost zero profits, we still find ways to contribute. Thank you so much for supporting us in this!
