After hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, a cook named Jose Andres wanted to find a way to help the people. With $10,000 of his own money and some credit cards he traveled to Puerto Rico and found a kitchen, bought supplies, and found volunteers to help serve. On his first day, he served more than 1,000 meals. Later on with some private donations and government funding Andres and the non profit he founded, World Central Kitchen, produced more than 150,000 meals per day from 26 different kitchens in Puerto Rico. Since then his team has prepared more than 3.7 million meals outpacing the Red Cross and Salvation Army. World Central Kitchen travels to places affected by natural disasters and provides meals. This a perfect example of a redemptive entrepreneur. Jose Andres used something he was good to start a nonprofit that helps those hurt by disasters.
Archive for Charity – Page 4
At the age of six, Cory Nieves combined his love for baking treats and problem solving to come up with the perfect all-natural cookie recipe. After getting a little help from his mom, Cory founded his business, Mr. Cory’s Cookies, in 2010. It all started after telling his mom that he no longer wanted to ride the bus to school, but he would rather buy a car and drive. He began making money for his car by selling hot chocolate in surrounding neighborhoods. His hot chocolate became very well-known all over his hometown of Englewood, New Jersey.
As hot chocolate sales began to rise, Cory decided to begin selling cookies. He and his mom formed the perfect cookie made from all-natural ingredients. Sales took off immediately, and the company was born. Since the launch of the company, Mr. Cory has added three more flavors: Double-Dark, Oatmeal Raisin, and Sugar.
As sales for Mr. Cory’s Cookies continued to grow, Cory Nieves had the opportunity to partner with several large companies, such as Macy’s, Pottery Barn, Whole Foods, and Mr. Marcus Lemonis (their current partner). The company has also done its share of charity work, donating profits and resources to Bergen’s Promise, a local NJ nonprofit, and the Children’s Aid Society of NYC.
An idea simply inspired by a passion for sweet treats has involved into a national business recognized by dozens of America’s leading companies. Cory is now only 15 years old, and he continues to show a true entrepreneurial spirit and drive as he strives to innovate and push forward his all-natural cookie company.
In 2014, 9-year-old Brandon and 7-year-old Sebastian Martinez founded Are You Kidding Socks, a sock company with a unique twist. The two kid entrepreneurs design and sell socks with unique, exciting designs. It all started with Sebastian, who loved wacky socks. By the time he was five, his grandmother had bought him over 100 pairs of colorful, fun pairs of socks. Sebastian’s mother remembers the very day she asked him, “Would you like to design your own socks?” On that day, June 25, 2013, Sebastian enthusiastically said yes.
Later that year, Sebastian began designing socks while his mother connected with a manufacturer in Guatemala to produce the designs. By 2014, Are You Kidding Socks was an established company, selling thousands of socks from the Martinez home. Sebastian was the CEO of the company, while his mother was the president. They brought on Sebastian’s older brother, Brandon, as the sales rep – due to his vibrant, outgoing personality. He was later promoted to the “Director of Sales” by his younger brother.
In recent year, the Martinez boys have made it their mission to raise awareness for national charities and organizations. Through the sales of their socks, they have raised thousands for nonprofits, such as Live Like Bella, SLAM ALS, Autism Speaks, and the American Cancer Society. They have designed specific socks that represent each cause they support.
The Martinez boys also care very deeply about local communities. They donate their time, resources, and socks to local schools and shelters during annual fundraisers and events. They also partner with local schools to host fundraisers and campaigns.
Since forming the company, the boys have received great recognition, from the mayor of Miami to interviews on CNN and Good Morning America. Sebastian and Brandon have taken a fun, simple idea and turned it into something very impactful.
Me & the Bees Lemonade is a company founded by 14 year old Mikaila Ulmer. She started the business at only 11 years old, after being sent an old recipe book from her grandmother for flax-seed lemonade. She started the business to help save honey bees from extinction. She accomplishes this by donating a portion of all her sales to local and international organizations trying to save honey bees from extinction. She currently sells to whole foods market, plus a growing amount of restaurants, food trailers, andfood delivery companies.
At just four years old, Mikaila Ulmer’s parents encouraged her to enter a children’s business competition. So, little Mikaila put her thinking cap on. She said, two significant things happened in that time period. She got stung by a bee twice and her grandmother sent their family her cookbook, which included the grandmothers lemonade recipe.
At first, Mikaila was scared of the bees, but then she became fascinated with them. She started researching them and realized that bees needed help. She thought, “What if I could help the bees by using my grandma’s lemonade recipe?”. Thus, Me and the Bee’s Lemonade was born.
At first, the venture was small and endearing, but now, at 14 years old, Mikaila is participating in large social entrepreneurship panels. She is also educating the public on how to better protect the honeybees. A percentage of her profits goes towards helping organizations fight to save the bees.
Me and the Bee’s Lemonade is now being sold at places like Whole Foods (an 11 million dollar deal) the world’s leader in natural and organic food. There are also a growing amount of restaurants serving her lemonade. Through connecting two very different ideas, Mikaila has been able to create a thriving business while striving to raise funds and awareness for the struggling bee population.
According to Pela Case’s website, they have a “big, hairy, audacious goal” where they want to create a future without waste, and it is that mission that informs their goals and business-practices. The founder of Pela, Jeremy Lang, says that he had the idea for the company when he was in Hawaii with his family and his son dug up a piece of plastic on the beach. This led Lang to think about the impact of plastic and waste on the environment, and from that the impact on human life and community.
Lang decided that he wanted to craft a company that combated this waste, while also raising awareness about it. This led him to found Pela Case, a company that produces eco-friendly recycled phone cases. The idea was to create something environmentally-focused and sound that you would hold in your hand every day. Their phone cases are durable and biodegradable.
The company is founded on and focused around four core values: community, creativity, consciousness, and courage. All of these are reflected in their business’ values and practices, but also in the culture they wish to inspire in their product.
This company interests me because I think it is an awesome example of an entrepreneur seeing a very specific need and finding a way to connect it with something tangible and very “human.” It’s a company that does not ask much of people–everyone needs a phone case, so why not get one that looks nice and also supports environmental causes? The company still seems like it’s pretty small, but I’ve seen a lot of ads for it on social media and I have begun to see more people with their product.
Bravo Company Manufacturing is a firearms manufacturer that was started in 2003. After serving in Iraq and being part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, former United States Marine Paul Buffoni began Bravo Company Manufacturing in his garage in Hartland, Wisconsin.
After 9/11, there was a massive increase in the demand of riffles and other firearms from people in the United States that were looking for tools to defend themselves and their families. At the time, there was only one large manufacturer that was making AR15 and M4 riffles for the commercial market, which was the legendary gun manufacturer, Colt.
Buffoni quickly recognized that there was a need in the commercial market for riffles that were professional quality and that people could rely rely on in literal life or death situations. This is exactly what bravo Company USA provides: they rigorously test each riffle, barrel, and upper-receiver that they produce in their factory, and if any one of their products does not meet 100% of their specifications, they immediately scrap the product and will not sell it to any customer.
Bravo Company has been based in Hartland, Wisconsin since 2003, and they are one of the largest employers in that area. Interestingly enough, Buffoni focuses on hiring people that thing more like mechanics or engineers, since they are able to help the company develop better, more innovated products to bring to the market. Bravo Company spends years developing new parts for their weapon systems, with the focus on making these products lighter and stronger than previous versions.
Paul Buffoni was able to recognize a real need in the firearms industry and used his expertise in this field to create high quality, affordable products that the market desperately wanted. Buffoni also helps out other veterans through some charitable efforts of his company, and he loves to spend time giving back to the great community of veterans that we have here in the United States. Bravo Company is an excellent company, with a great founder, that accomplishes it’s mission of being a premier gun systems manufacturer in a simple, and customer friendly way.
Happy, it’s a simple, five-letter word that everyone wants, but might not know how to achieve. What does it mean to live a happy life? A good way to live a happy life, many say, is to live a healthy life. The idea of a happy life built from a healthy one is something Halie Thomas has thought a lot about. So, where do we start? Well, when we think of happiness, it sometimes happiness that inspires us to have great ideas. Halie’s story begins with something that brings a lot of happiness- food.
Hallie’s m
other taught her to cook when she was five years old. In 2008, her father was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Since then, she and her family became devoted to living a healthy life, in their eating and lifestyle choices. Since then, they have been able to reverse her father’s diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.
Diseases like type 2 diabetes come from obesity don’t just affect adults. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 13.7 million children and teenagers suffer from obesity. Studies show that obesity rates are higher in communities with social and economic disadvantages.
Hallie decided to confront this problem head-on, by creating HAPPY (Healthy Active Positive Purposeful Youth) when she was just twelve years old. HAPPY is an organization that strives to educate and empower people to make healthy lifestyle choices. HAPPY provides school visits, tours, and summer camps where they aim to empower kids by educating them about nutrition and self-care. Kids learn about concepts such as healthy alternatives to unhealthy foods in ways that are fun and engaging.
Since the start of her company Hallie, now 18, has connected with over 15,000 kids and thousands of adults. Over the years, Hallie has, though her programs, worked to empower young entrepreneurs to pursue their passions. She created her own podcast, called “Girl Empowered”, where she interviews girls and women of all ages about their experiences. She created a Gen Z board on her HAPPY website, which is made of young entrepreneurs and activists who are driven by a passion to make an impact.
Hallie really is an entrepreneur who empowers others to see their potential and inspires them to be happy.
Vince Weishaus is a 11-year-old hair stylist in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Vince has his own salon in his parent’s basement. He started doing hair when he was 2 years old with braiding his mother’s hair and playing with his sister’s dolls. His favorite hairstyle to do was braiding. He gave his first haircut to his grandmother at the age of 5 under the careful supervision and assistance of his Aunt.
From there, Vince’s love for hair grew, so much so that his parents gave him his own salon for his 9th birthday. The supplies were donated from his old neighbor who moved to a different house. Vincent Charles Salon was open for appointments, all free of charge.
His Instagram has only around 2500 follower, but highlights a smiley, happy young boy living out his dream. Vince Weishaus enjoys being a stylist because he enjoys making people feel happy. While Vince is still young, he wants to become a celebrity hair colorist. The sky is the limit when you work hard and do what you love and continue to work hard. Vince figured out that is you love your work, you won’t “work” a day in your life.
Serengetee is a good example of the way that a company started by young people, especially college students, can grow to be something really cool, big, and impactful.
Serengetee today is a social venture clothing and accessories company that is known mostly for its tee shirts, but also for its hats, scrunchies, and more. Two college guys started it seven years ago when they met traveling abroad for a semester. When exploring local markets in different countries they were intrigued by the different fabrics they saw. They wanted to do something good with these fabrics and wanted to create a clothing company surrounding these fabrics and even though they had no previous experience in fashion they began to experiment with what they could do.
Their mission became this: they would buy fabric from all around the world, supporting local artisans and craftsmen, honoring generations-old traditions, and preserving and sharing these bits of culture and history by attaching the story of each specific fabric to the piece of clothing it became a part of. They then give 10% of their profits to social grassroots ventures across the world.
Serengetee is most known for their “pocket-tees”, which are colorful tee shirts with breast pockets crafted from the fabrics around the world. These tee shirts come with the story of the fabric and craftsmen who made it, raising awareness for that specific area. Sometimes these fabrics were made by people who were at-risk, or who are themselves part of a social venture.
Over the years they have expanded from tee shirts to hats, backpacks, scrunchies, beanies, socks, and even jewelry, but they stay true to their mission in everything they do.
I think that Serengetee is an excellent example of how to do a social venture well. I do not know much about the logistics of their business and how that all works, but from what I can see, they did a good job of starting focused in their mission, their goals, and their methods. In the years of growth since then, they have done what seems to me to be a good act of discernment in expanding certain aspects of their methods and goals by including diverse products, but not diverging too far from their brand, and staying true to their mission. Too many social ventures, especially by young entrepreneurs, are either far too specific or try to diversify themselves much too quickly. But from what I can see, they have avoided this pitfall.
I have followed the growth of Serengetee for the past three years or so and I am interested to see where they go from here, and what we can continue to learn from them.