Throughout the holiday season, Smartwool is pledging to donate to Protect Our Winters and SOS Outreach. At the same time, Smartwool employees are tackling hands-on projects to show their support for Colorado families experiencing food insecurity, members of the military serving overseas, and underserved youth around the country. These donations and ongoing acts of advocacy demonstrate the company’s constant commitment to giving back.
“At Smartwool, we recognize there are many ways for both companies and individuals to give back. We want show our support to those in need through both monetary and in-kind donations as well as volunteer time,” said Jennifer McLaren, president of Smartwool. “All of these hands-on volunteer projects were organized and led by our dedicated employees. We try to demonstrate our commitment to advocacy through every employee, every action, every day.”
Black Friday and Gift Bag Givebacks
While outdoor enthusiasts shopped on Black Friday to gear up for the cold months ahead, Smartwool donated three percent of its online sales on the biggest retail day of the year to Protect our Winters with a minimum donation of $3,000 and a maximum of $8,000. For every dollar spent in the Smartwool Banff store, the store owners matched with a donation to Protect Our Winters Canada. These donations support the nonprofit in its work to lead a community of athletes, thought pioneers and forward-thinking business leaders to affect systemic political solutions to climate change.
Smartwool is offering an option to include a gift bag wrap for $5 on every order form Smartwool.com. Smartwool will donate all proceeds from this extra service with a minimum donation of $1,000 and maximum donation of $3,000 to SOS Outreach, which builds character and leadership in underserved youth through mentoring outdoors. Both POW and SOS are Smartwool advocacy partners which the company supports with monetary donations, in-kind donations and volunteer hours. Consumers can learn more at www.protectourwinters.org and www.sosoutreach.org.
Generosity Feeds
In October, more than 120 Smartwool employees, sales reps and industry partners traveled to Steamboat Springs for the company’s biannual sales meeting. The group took a break from presentations and meetings, bussed over to the gymnasium at the Steamboat Boys & Girls Club and collectively packaged 10,000 meals in less than two hours to feed local children in need. The nonprofit behind the effort is Generosity Feeds, which is working to feed hungry children in every county across America by mobilizing groups like Smartwool to package meals. Sales meeting attendees donned hair nets, beard nets and latex gloves, divided into teams, and scooped, measured, and sealed 1,515 pounds of beans, rice and seasoning into individual servings. The 10,000 meals were packaged up and distributed through the local school system or food pantries to children who go hungry outside of school hours.
The Big Thank You
Smartwool employees also pulled out their pens to hand write letters of gratitude to U.S. servicemen and women deployed outside the United States. The effort organized by The Bert Show is called The Big Thank You. Over the course of week, employees came together and wrote dozens of thank you letters.
Can’d Aid Foundation
In October, Smartwool employees used some elbow grease to assemble and build 60 brand new bicycles for the first-grade class at Alicia Sanchez International Elementary in Boulder, CO. The Bike Builds is one of many people-powered, do-goodery initiatives organized by Colorado-based Can’d Aid Foundation. The non-profit also organizes volunteers in Towns, Tunes, Treads & Trails and Love Yur Mama efforts nationwide.
“We hope these donations and volunteer projects brighten the holiday season for those in need. Smartwool will continue to use its business to fuel its ability to effect positive change in the world through projects big and small,” added McLaren.
