Owning a start-up with a mission to give back can feel weighty, especially in the early years. You want to get out of debt while maintaining integrity of the product while also raising brand awareness, while also longing to give back.
As Tillage Clothing participates in various markets and pop-up events, one question we get asked at least once at each occasion is, “What percentage do you give back to your non-profits?” We want to answer that question as frankly with you now as we are with those potential customers. Our starting point give back percentage is 1% of your purchase. If you buy $120 worth of product, we give back $1.20.
To be honest, answering the question is humbling as we’d love to give so much more. But in seeking expert business leaders as well as follow the model of other highly reputable give-back brands, we felt at peace about this percentage. It grants us the potential for sustainability as a brand for the long-hall vs. giving back more at the cost of the company and then losing our platform to make a difference.
Also, a special secret we’d like to share with you now is before we ever became a clothing company we did a year’s worth of research to give back to the fight against human trafficking as a third wave coffee company. However, as we crunched numbers and realized the translation of dollars per percentage of cups of coffee sold we could give back would be so small, we followed the direction of our other passion—fashion.
And there you have it. We give a dime. Actually 10-12 per pair of pants sold. And we hope you will, too. As we advocate for our partnering non-profit, we will also give you opportunities to make direct donations to them throughout the year.
Thanks so much for your continued support. Please let us know if you have any other questions.