Problem
We need your help to make Keep Social Enterprises Flourishing!
Hi there! Here at Social Stories Club we have been shining a light on social enterprises and their incredible stories of impact for two years through our exciting gifts supporting lots of social causes such as empowering individuals with disabilities, and providing education for girls. We have helped our social enterprises to grow and are so excited to see them flourish. Now we want to shine a light on some of the much smaller social enterprises, who have been most impacted by COVID. We have spoken to small social enterprises across the UK to understand the challenges they face to try and help them out.
Challenges small social enterprises face:
- Small social enterprises need a longer lead time and can take a month or longer to prepare an order. Many customers demand a lead time of less than a week and therefore cannot work with them at this stage.
- Small social enterprises may not be able to meet larger orders. Customers will go elsewhere to find a company that can.
- Smaller social enterprises have struggled with generating sales over COVID.
Our Solution
With this crowdfunder, we will work around the social enterprises to their capacity and timescales and create a gift box filled with products from these small social enterprises. Through this crowdfunder the smaller social enterprises will have the lead time they need to prepare the order and will know exactly how many products they will have to make in advance giving them the time they need to prepare. If they can only make 20 candles, no problemo! We will work around that. Not too long after you order your box, we will send out a survey to you asking questions about the recipient and we will design the perfect box for you based on this. Each box will be slightly different but all will be supporting multiple social causes.
And saving the best news for last….. We are so excited to announce that we will be hiring individuals with barriers to employment to lovingly pack your boxes. Providing employment opportunities to those furthest from the labour market was so important to us from the start.
The Small Gift Box - £35
The small gift box will be filled with products supporting different social causes. Every box will be slightly different depending on the recipient. The sorts of products the box could contain include gorgeous candles, beautifully smelling soap, delicious chutneys and spreads, handmade jams, handmade notebooks, dried fruits, and more.
The Medium Gift Box -£50
The small gift box will be filled with products supporting different social causes. Every box will be slightly different depending on the recipient. The sorts of products the box could contain include gorgeous candles, beautifully smelling soap, delicious chutneys and spreads, handmade jams, handmade notebooks, dried fruits, fresh coffee, beeswax lip balms, reusable tote bag and more.
This will give many of these small social enterprises a great boost right before Christmas. The products currently available on our website are from slightly more established social enterprises and support a variety of social causes such as educating girls in tea growing regions and reducing food waste.
The Large Gift Hamper- £100
The large gift hamper will be filled with products supporting different social causes. Every hamper will be slightly different depending on the recipient. The sorts of products the box could contain include gorgeous candles, beautifully smelling soap, delicious chutneys and spreads, handmade jams, handmade notebooks, dried fruits, fresh coffee, beeswax lip balms, reusable tote bag and more.
This will give many of these small social enterprises a great boost right before Christmas. The products currently available on our website are from slightly more established social enterprises and support a variety of social causes such as educating girls in tea growing regions and reducing food waste.
What do Social Stories Club do?
Every product inside a Social Stories Club gift box or hamper supports a social cause such as education for girls or empowering individuals with disabilities. Inside your gift you will receive a story booklet so you can learn about the social impact your gift is making.
How does this work?
1. Make a pledge for a social enterprise gift box/boxes
2. In October we will send you a survey asking for delivery details and more information on the receiver of the gift. Delivery is free across the UK, but if your recipient is elsewhere we will send you a link to make the additional payment for shipping internationally. If you purchase multiple gift boxes, these can be sent to different addresses across the UK.
3. Using the information from the survey we will select the perfect products for your gift tailored to your recipient. The best part? It's all a surprise!
4. In early December your gift will be dispatched to your recipient who will enjoy their gift box, the products inside, and the incredible stories.
What is included in each box?
Each box is different and we will create a box individual to each recipient. Each product will be from a social enterprise and have a story of social impact. These products may include tasty dried bananas, beautifully scented candles, delicious chutneys, beeswax lip balms and more. In each box a story booklet is included so the recipient can learn about the impactful story behind each product in the box.
What makes our project great?
We are a registered social enterprise and are lead by our social mission to spread the word about social ventures and their amazing stories of social impact. Our gifts are unique in that every product supports a different social cause, each with their own story of social impact. In this gift you will find products that aren’t available on our website as they are from smaller social enterprises. Each box will be a little bit different as we work with the social enterprises at their pace and quantities, and we send you a survey, closer to the dispatch day, to find out more about the gift recipient to create something they will enjoy. If this crowdfunder is successful we will launch this surprise box supporting small social enterprises to be available on our website over Christmas and help small social enterprises this way.
The social enterprises we are partnering with
There are many more to come!
Edinburgh Candle Company
Edinburgh Candle Company provides a platform for refugee women in Edinburgh to re-enter the labour market. Our team provides these women with one-on-one mentoring, teaching them employability skills through candle making. Edinburgh Candle Company helps them seize work opportunities with interview preparation sessions, CV building workshops, and information technology training supported through candle sales.
Chashi
Chashi is a socially & environmentally responsible enterprise that produces 100% natural dried fruits and vegetables. Their products are made from farm produce bought directly from rural farmers. Through fair trade practices, they support rural farmers in Zimbabwe, and help in reducing post-harvest losses.
Slurp
Slurp is a student-run social enterprise working alongside those affected by homelessness and raising awareness of its root causes. We hold bi-weekly cooking sessions at Steetwork, a communal space where people in difficult circumstances can access basic amenities and receive individual support from Streetwork staff members, and run campaigns on campus at Edinburgh University to raise awareness of the challenges surrounding homelessness. Slurp and the work we do from cooking sessions to events, hand-outs of flasks to rough sleepers, campaign production and everything in-between, is funded by selling reusable shopper bags, made from sustainably sourced cotton, and cooking vouchers.
Linda
Linda comes from a Kiswahili word which means "protect" and our aim is to shield and protect young people from early teenage pregnancies and other related sexual and reproductive health issues due to lack of information. And like our tagline says, we are ready to lead through the uncomfortable because this is a topic rarely talked about and we are here to boldly demystify such myths and taboos.
Palma
At Palma Soap, we use all natural ingredients to create a small bar of soap with a big social impact. Each bar of soap purchased allows for the production of at least 12 bars of mosquito-repellent soap in Malawi & Rwanda, simultaneously targeting Malaria prevention and the economic empowerment of our beneficiary communities.
Harvest
Harvest tackles the issues of post-harvest loss among small-scale farmers in Malawi by bridging the accessibility gap to effective storage solutions. As farming is the main source of income for Harvest's beneficiaries, reducing harvest losses means increasing the farmers' profits and financial stability, consequently improving the lives of the families and the whole community.
Gateway Collective
The Gateway Collective CIC works to see thriving people and communities in Bootle. We increase well-being, create social connections and make Bootle a better place for everyone using the tool of community gardening. Our work brings local people together to work alongside each other and collectively support each other, increasing personal well-being and creating collective care communities.
B4Biodiversity
B4Biodiversity make balms with 100% beeswax from Liverpool apiaries. We use 100% natural ingredients which have not been tested on animals. We will also be teaching beekeeping to 50 young local Liverpool people and employing a local young person to help make up the 2000 balms for our key workers.
Our Background and Story
We are Karis Gill and Aayush Goyal and we founded Social Stories Club because we have a passion for social enterprises and their stories. Karis grew up in Leicester and Kent, and has a background in marketing and sales. Karis served as a holiday representative abroad for three summers in Tunisia, Greece, and Spain. During these summers Karis learnt customer service and sales skills. Karis also led the marketing team for a charity Party Well in Vancouver to sell out events; the team threw parties and used the proceeds to build wells.
Karis came up with the idea for Social Stories Club on her 21st birthday. She knew at this point that she wanted to combine her interests in entrepreneurship and charity, and social enterprise was the answer. Karis led the events team of her local Social Enterprise Club and became fascinated with all the social enterprises she met and their incredible stories of impact. Karis was so inspired by these stories she wanted to share them with the world. When Karis came back to Edinburgh for her final year of university, she dedicated her dissertation to researching social enterprise. Karis met up with an old friend Aayush who had recently won the social enterprise competition Make Your Mark at the University of Edinburgh.
Aayush grew up in India and his first flight out of Asia landed him in Edinburgh to start university. Aayush’s background is in finance, charity and operations. In his first year at university between 2014-15, Aayush raised over £11,000 for four different charities. To encourage university students to get involved, he designed several creative events to raise funds including pillow fights for mental health. In August 2019, Aayush was shortlisted as the ‘Social Enterprise Champion’ by Social Enterprise Scotland. Simultaneously, Aayush helped create Edinburgh University Business School’s student council board. He led as the cluster representative of International Business Year 1. In his second year of university, Aayush served as the president of the Edinburgh Bright Futures society, where he collaborated with businesses such as Apple to host workshops to develop students’ skills.
In their 4th year at university Karis sat in Aayush’s kitchen and they discussed their future. Aayush was struggling applying for graduate jobs and Karis had her plan for Social Stories Club. The conversation was short and beautiful Karis asked Aayush if he wanted to join and immediately he said yes.
Karis and Aayush make the perfect team with Aayush leading on operations, finance and admin, and Karis leading on marketing, sales and HR.
Karis Gill and Aayush Goyal, were Runner-ups in the ‘Entrepreneurial Spirit Award’ category of the Great British Entrepreneur Award. The selection was based on the ability to take action, growth mindset, willingness to find solutions to challenges and problems, strong work ethics, leadership in tough situations, and an example of what a good entrepreneur looks like.
The Future
Social Stories Club is young but growing - 700% this year! We are always looking for new ways to create social impact and we are very excited to be hiring individuals with barriers to employment to pack our boxes this Christmas.
Our Impact
Social Stories Club is on a mission to share social ventures and their amazing stories with the world. We are a speciality gifting company and create gift boxes and hampers. The products in our boxes are all from social ventures and support different social causes. With each gift bought, our customers are empowering artists with disabilities, reducing landfill waste, providing education for young girls in tea growing regions, and more. We include a story booklet with each gift so the gift recipient can learn about the impact and discover our social venture partners.
We are introducing individuals to social ventures:
“Social Stories Club is the most beautiful combinations of hand-selected high-quality ethical gifts that are then curated into a gift box to bring joy to anyone no matter what the occasion. Each item in the collection has its own documented social story. I found my gift box to be a superb introduction to social enterprise products that I may well never have found.” - Celia Hodson - Founder, Hey Girls.
We are helping social ventures to reach new markets:
“The Social Stories Club is a great concept which introduces a customer to a variety of high-quality social enterprise products without having to look for them all over the place. We are quite pleased to have our tea cartons included in their gift boxes. Our packets of tea have now reached new audiences and customers who would probably have been out of our reach otherwise.” - Neeraj, Tea People
Our Packaging
All our packaging is sustainable with either a biodegradable box or a reusable hamper. Printed on our boxes are the words "this box supports different social causes". Our boxes are beautifully illustrated with designs of figures carrying out the UN's sustainable development goals, which is a great way to educate people on social causes.
The wood wool which fills our gifts is sourced from sustainable timber forests. We encourage all of our recipients to get creative and find an interesting afterlife for their box.
FAQS
What if I want to ship outside of the UK?
We offer free delivery across Mainland UK. For delivery across Europe, please choose our "Delivery Across Europe for 1 Gift" option. If you are looking for delivery outside Europe, please get in touch with us at [email protected] and we will arrange this for you.
What do I get inside my box or hamper?
The contents of the gifts will equal the value of the price you pay. We will send you a survey closer to the dispatch date to find out what sort of treats the gift recipient likes.
