While it’s no surprise anymore to see businesses that both embrance and practice corporate social responsibility, it’s certainly noteworthy when a business includes philanthropy right into their corporate DNA.
Such is the case with online organic food and household product retailer DonateNaturally.com. Based in Toronto, Ontario and started by a mom who became increasingly frustrated with the endless burden of ineffective school fundraising ideas, DonateNaturally.com promises its customers that 15% of the value of each and every order they place, will be donated to the charity, not-for-profit, school or organization of their choice.
Co founder Jasmin Von Teichman states on the website that “I was tired of staying up until midnight frosting cupcakes for a school fundraiser, only to raise next to no money. I’ve been working with charities all my life and I’ve always been startled at the amount of effort it requires to raise a relatively small amount of money.” Out of this frustration, the realization was born that by combining her love of natural and organic food with her desire to support causes that she and others believe in, there existed the potential for a better way to do things.
After operating now for about a year and a half, it seems that her intuition was absolutely correct.
With about 700 different items available for purchase ranging from perishable fresh market items like milk, bread and eggs to grocery, health & beauty, household, infant & child, lifestyle and even items for those requiring gluten free, nut free, dairy free or vegan the offerings are wide and varied.
To add a little nostalgia into the mix, the company offers free delivery within the GTA and the organic milk is typically sold in 1 litre glass bottles, just as it was a generation ago. For those with larger dairy needs, they do also sell organic milk in biodegradeable bags.
DonateNaturally.com does ship its products across Canada as well (non-perishable items only) and offers next day delivery. Thus far the company has donated over $19,000 to an extensive list of beneficiaries with schools tending to make up the majority. Christine Curtin who is responsible for Customer Care and outreach explained to me that if a customer does not see the charity of choice listed all they need to do is provide them with information about who they want to donate to and it will be set up. She noted that donations are made on a quarterly basis.
An obvious question when something like this presents itself is whether or not the prices are inflated to allow for the ability to donate, and Christine was emphatic in telling me that this is absolutely not the case. She explains that while they do have preferred relationships with some of their suppliers, they create significant cost savings by not having a retail location, minimal staff and a marketing strategy that is based more on word of mouth and social media outreach than anything with heavy costs associated to them.
Proof of this comes from the fact that DonateNaturally.com offers a Price Match Guarantee when compared to other organic and natural food retailers such as The Big Carrot, Whole Foods, Loblaws, Sobeys & Noahs.
Christine noted that future plans include the addition of organic meats to their offerings thanks to their sister company Grandview Farms being added to the product list. They also are looking at the potential of expanding their local food delivery service with Ottawa as a likely second metropolitan service area.
From my perspective, the idea of combining healthy eating/living along with perpetual philanthropy into a business model is not only progressive, but perhaps almost cutting-edge. When a company doesn’t have to regularly assess it’s ability to support local initiatives, or need to go through the difficult process of selecting a particular cause to support – because regular giving in engrained in their philosophy and is directed by their customers specifically, it makes the business model stronger is so many ways.
I’m personally impressed in my Enviro Dad Review of DonateNaturally.com, and I believe others will be as well.
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