2018 was a year of transition and in short reflected a few years of hard work that led to the fruition of our original vision- to create a sustainable business that could produce cashflow with the primary objective of supporting non-profit initiatives that we believe in.
As some of you may know, b.a.r.e. soaps is a part time effort and we volunteer our time because we believe in the cause and product. In 2018, founder Jessie moved to Berlin for 10 months. This meant that our production and fulfillment would both be outsourced together for the first time and we would be operating the business remotely. We were able to still grow our sales and contribute more than 2017 to non-profit initiatives.
To be honest, there were some growing pains. Shipping times were longer than what we believe to be acceptable and we focused less on new products but more on profitability, given the additional fees associated with outsourcing. With 2019 now underway, we are looking to rectify the shipping times (back to 2-3 business days) and expanding our scents and flavors.
We partner with Sundara Fund in India to fund a soap recycling workshop. This initiative is the poster-child of everything that we strive to look for when supporting a non-profit initiative because we are able to achieve the following:
To quantify what this all means, if you bought soap in 2018, you helped fund the following:
10% reduction in school absentees
195 hygiene lessons taught
9600 bars recycled and distributed
1810 towels donated from hospitality partners, so that the children can dry their hands clean versus wiping them on their clothes
38 women employed time plus receiving heath benefits for themselves and their children
We are super excited to reveal a new initiative that we will be undertaking with Sundara in 2019. Some of you may remember plans to expand to Bangalore with a new soap recycling workshop. Unfortunately, there were a quite a few logistical hurdles that have put this project on hold, but that means that we can focus our efforts elsewhere. We will be announcing in 1Q19 what this new initiative looks like, so stay tuned.
Our partnership with Carepoint 68|5 through Point Community Church is really the genesis of why b.a.r.e. soaps started. We remain committed to helping the Carepoint on an as-needed basis. The Carepoint is in a rural village called Kaberamaido and supports around 150 children with a guaranteed meal a day in addition to tuition assistance and other essentials. While this type of support is funded by individuals who contribute $35 a month, we try to supplement when other "projects" come up. Some examples from the past include helping fund Hep B vaccines, shoes for the children, bringing solar to a local library, etc...
If you bought soap in 2018, your contribution helped raise money for the following:
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