Meet Laura Hertz of Gifts for Good in Santa Monica

Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Hertz.

Laura, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I learned about the struggles of nonprofits to raise funds when I deferred my college acceptance to join Americorps NCCC – a full-time federal community service program that has been deemed the Domestic Peace Corps. During my time in AmeriCorps, I fed and clothed the hungry and homeless during the holidays at the Sacramento food bank; taught geometry in an inner-city Los Angeles high school; built homes for needy families with Habitat For Humanity in post-Katrina New Orleans; and helped the victims of Southern California’s wildfires to rebuild their lives. I saw firsthand how following the financial crisis, more businesses sought to create sustainable financial models and more nonprofits sought to be less dependent on donations, grants, and subsidies.

Later, after graduating from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, I went to work for one of the Big Four accounting firms. In my time there, I saw how commonplace it was for corporations to give gifts to their employees, clients, business partners and leads. Most of these gifts were just throwaways and ended up in a junk drawer. They were never meaningful or thoughtful, just cheesy novelty products with a corporate logo on it.

Gifts for Good’s business model was built upon these insights — we use product sales of corporate gifts to fund the social missions of nonprofits, reducing dependence on donations, subsidies, and grants; as well as helping to scale up the reach and impact of social enterprises. We’re proud to be the only one-stop-shop for business gifts that give back to a variety of social, economic, and environmental causes!

Has it been a smooth road?
I don’t think any entrepreneur would speak of their time running a startup as a “smooth road!” Entrepreneurship is a long and bumpy road full of incredible peaks and deep gullies. Over the last year of building our e-commerce site, certain aspects of our business that my team and I thought would be relatively easy have turned out to be extremely difficult – such as finding the right developers and the right team to design our brand. There have been a lot of learning moments over the last year in terms of hiring, taxes, legal implications, pricing etc.

But these moments are the most exciting part of running an early stage company. Entrepreneurship is a vicious cycle of build, measure, learn. To bring an idea to life, you must fail fast and innovate quickly!

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Gifts for Good is a Los Angeles-based, online business gifting company with a social impact. We offer premium gifts for companies and individuals that are made by nonprofit or social enterprise partners who make and sell their own products to support their mission. More than 40 charitable organizations already participate, generating impact in 19 states and 65 countries around the globe.

We are proud to be the very first company anywhere to be solely focused on adding social impact to the already-existing and booming corporate gifting industry. Be it for a holiday, conference, client thank you gift, corporate retreat, or first-day-on-the-job branded swag, Gifts for Good has all corporate gifting needs covered. Today, the gifting market is estimated to be a $131 billion industry, representing around $1 in every $10 spent by Americans annually. Spending by corporations – just on promotional gifts/swag alone – represents 17 percent of the total gifting market, or $22 billion compared to $18 billion on corporate charitable giving each year. If every business purchased gifts that gave back – without spending any more money – companies could easily double their social impact.

December 9th, 2017 marked one month since our official e-commerce launch at Gifts for Good. During our first four weeks in business, we provided: funding for one year of clean drinking water to 857 people in the Central African Republic; 18,000 children with enough Vitamin A for one year; 450 days of job training for women transitioning from homelessness in downtown LA; the gift of hearing to 20 individuals in developing countries who would otherwise not be able to hear; 188 days of schooling to children in-need in Honduras; and planted 11 trees.

While we can’t disclose our clients’ information, we are extremely excited to already be working with some of the world’s most valuable brands. Our gifts have enabled our clients to better connect with their employees, customers and other stakeholders. Furthermore, they have enabled nonprofits and social enterprises to increase their reach and improve their impact. Our entire team has been astounded by our social impact in such a short time period, and we know that this is really just the beginning!

What are your plans for the future? What are you looking forward to or planning for – any big changes?
We are gearing up to expand our product offering in 2018 by partnering with several incredible new cause brands! Our team is excited to be increasing our social impact within our own community of Los Angeles this year, as well as to additional countries around the world – including Haiti and Jordan. We are also looking forward to expanding our product offering into the wedding market in the near future with wedding favors and bridal / groomsmen gifts that give back!

We have numerous local nonprofit and social enterprise partners because unlike most cities in America – and around the world – LA actually makes product. LA is also the epicenter of entertainment and culture, and thus has a large influence and a growing tech community. These things together make LA the perfect place for a startup, particularly one in the social impact space – people in LA truly care about making the world a better place!

Pricing:

• In the spirit of giving, Laura is offering VoyageLA readers 10% off on their future purchases. Use the code voyageLA at checkout to receive your discount. https://www.giftsforgood.com/discount/voyageLA
• If you “Like” Gifts for Good’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/giftsforgoodHQ/, they will donate a meal to a person in need!

Contact Info:

• Address: 401 Wilshire Blvd
  Santa Monica, CA 90401
• Website: https://www.giftsforgood.com/
• Phone: (877) 554-1550
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giftsforgoodhq/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/giftsforgoodhq
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/GiftsForGoodhq
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/17947311/

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.