Our commitment to giving back
Starting in 2020, we have leaned hard into social equality and giving back from our own pockets.
We approached this with an ongoing commitment to giving 2% of our revenue back to causes we believe in. We're also running campaigns to generate additional funds for those causes.
We chose to base our giving off of a percentage of revenue rather than profits for transparency and ease of calculation, and we chose 2% as a number that stings a little but allows us to run our business sustainably.
Our other campaigns for 2020 included donating all of our Black Friday revenue; and starting up an ongoing charity raffle program. The details of both of those are further down the page.
For 2021 we are continuing with our 2% commitment but with a slight change. Half of that will be given out on a monthly basis, with the remained being pooled and donated to RUNWAY (more details on that extraordinary organization here).
The causes we support are listed and linked below; all of them can always use a little extra help.
2021 Donations
Year to date, we have given a total of $29,610 to the following causes:
→ IAHV - Covid Relief in India
→ New Mexico Foundation - Native American Relief Fund
→ Oakland Undocumented Relief Fund
→ RUNWAY
→ TLC / Black LGTBQIA+ Migrant Project
→ Vietnamese American Community Center of the East Bay
2020 Donations
In 2020 we gave $97,441.02 in both cash and donations over the course of the year to the following causes:
→ ACLU
→ Communities in Schools of New Mexico
→ Interfaith Community Shelter
→ LifeLink
→ Marsha P. Johnson Foundation
BLACK FRIDAY 2020 Campaign
For Black Friday in 2020 we donated 100% of our revenue to charities that benefit the unhoused communities in Oakland and Santa Fe.
Our donations went to Operation Dignity in Oakland and Interfaith Community Shelter in Santa Fe. Both non-profits support people who are unhoused or otherwise struggling right via meals, housing and other direct outreach.
The donations were given in part cash, and part in socks and tees (among the most requested items for shelters). We purchased 1,000 pairs of socks from Arvin Goods, along with 1,000 tee shirts from Fresh Clean Tees to donate to both shelters.
Our Charity Raffles
Starting in December 2020, we kicked off our charity raffle series by raising nearly $17,000 for food banks around the country. Every $10 donated to your local food bank counted as an entry to win one of two Ship John Waxed Canvas Wills jackets or one of two pairs of Wesco Waxed Flesh boots.
The March 2021 edition raised a whopping $34,710 for COVID-19 relief funds. We upped the ante from our first raffle to three full outfits - a leather jacket by Simmons Bilt, shirts from Freenote Cloth, jeans by Indigofera, and boots from Viberg. On top of that we added in other prizes including a custom leather jacket by Freenote Cloth, belts by Hollows Leather, and S&S gift cards.