We have always thought that we should really get certain things right from the start.  Well, one thing we didn’t make a decision on was what charities we were going to support. To be fair, we had an idea – you can see some of the causes we have already supported on this website. But it was the commitment going forward that we hadn’t agreed on. Not that there was any resistance to the idea – the founders sat round a table and all agreed that it would absolutely be something we were going to do – but we were too busy trying to get product sorted out, which we hoped would lead to some sales, and THEN we’d have the issue of what to do with some profits.

Well, Kresse’s involved in the launch of a new climate change charity, and Yew are almost certainly going to be a part of that (not surprisingly), but Jun’s being playing around with other ideas from the start. Should we give a proportion of profits (it’s a good way to ensure we don’t give money away unless we can afford it) or a proportion of sales (tougher commitment)?  Well, we figured the way to do it would be to bite the bullet and just say we WILL commit to supporting certain charities. As such, we’ve recently submitted an application to join 1% For The Planet – http://www.onepercentfortheplanet.org. Through this we can support environmental charities – we HAVE to support them. 1% of our sales each year will go towards this. After that, if we want to continue to support top flight (non-environmental) causes through Kiva or like CWS Nepal (see People Yew like), then that’ll be separate.  Hopefully this is a good thing, we’re saying we’re committed to being a responsible company and we’ll sign a contract to bind us into that commitment.