Three's a trend, folks, so watch for this story to show up soon on the evening news.
While the more industrial parts of the Baby Industrial Complex are busy fatcatting around a golf course somewhere, stuffing stock options into their pockets and hitting their quarterly numbers with analysts, the parent/owner/founders of a new generation of baby gear companies are not in it for the money. Or not just for the money.
They're pledging corporate support--usually a percentage of profits--to charities and causes that are, presumably, dear to the owners' hearts. And, it's planned/assumed/hoped, their customers. Just like Ben & Jerry and The Body Shop before them, if they can do well by doing good, they're only too happy to incorporate their corporate largesse into the brand message.
I'm sure tiny hippie companies have been doing this for years, and not having a tithing campaign in place doesn't make a company Virtucon; it could just as easily be a sign of bootstrapping or a preference for private giving. But what I see here are three seemingly well-capitalized, sophisticated business plan-executing baby startups that prominently Here's who's supporting what. Please add quotes and links below if you know I'm missing some:
The first company I noticed doing this was ducduc, whose site's splash page reads, "Social Responsibility: in an effort to be good corporate citizens, we will contribute 10% of ducduc profits for the year 2006 to charitable organizations focused on children and families in need. below is one of such programs: New Alternatives for Children, Opening Doors for Children with Special Healthcare Needs."
Then there's boon, whose site says simply, "10% of our profits are donated to children's charities." [emphasis in original]
And while Victoria Staten's company Madamar doesn't actually have products in the market yet, as you can expect from a former Kenneth Cole marketing exec, they do have a corporate philosophy: "By providing the luxury market with what they so desire The Company plans to give young Native American children what they desire-- food, shelter and safety. This nation's indigenous culture is in grave danger. Madamar Productions will donate a percentage of its profits to Native American causes."
Also: David Netto gives to Room to Grow and Oeuf to Unicef.
we should support these companies