Innovation

"Our concept was always, if you are going to sell a product why wouldn’t you use your business as an opportunity to influence consumers to do good." - Matt Richardson, CAUSEBOX Co-Founder

Started in 2014, CAUSEBOX is a quarterly subscription box that gives customers a surprise of seasonal life-style products. Every three months, subscribers receive a box filled with items from socially, environmentally, and ethically conscious companies. The products range from beach towels to coffee cups to nail polish and jewelry. The companies represented range from nonprofits to social enterprises to other for-profit companies that use reusable materials, support jobs for underrepresented minorities, and encourage growth in developing countries.

CAUSEBOX provides a way for consumers to learn about companies they can purchase products from in the future. Growing research suggests that consumers (especially Millennial consumers) are concerned with where their products are coming from and who those products are impacting. CAUSEBOX is meeting the needs of consumers looking for a subscription box that also want to learn about and shop from responsible companies.

Inspiration

CAUSEBOX co-founders Matt Richardson and Brett McCollum have a history of starting companies together. Throughout college they created several start-ups together and finally settled on one focused on gratitude. Gramr Gratitude Company was a subscription based stationary company that encouraged people to incorporate gratitude into their daily lives. As Matt and Brett looked for a better way to get their products into people's hands they noticed the growing trend of subscription based boxes that consumers received on a monthly or quarterly basis.

Matt and Brett searched for a subscription box that would include their gratitude focused products. During our interview Matt stated, "None of these [subscription box] companies were telling the story of social enterprise. There wasn’t a subscription box interested in telling our own story. So we thought let’s create the thing we needed. Let’s focus on the types of companies that we want to."

Matt and Brett started CAUSEBOX to solve the problem of there being no subscription based companies offering consumers socially responsible products. Initially they included their own gratitude stationary products in their quarterly boxes, but eventually they gave up the stationary business in order to focus fully on their growing company, CAUSEBOX.

Overall impact

"We were always looking for products in our own lives that we could buy in good conscious. Skin care. Accessories. Where are all these other things? We knew they existed, but where do you go?" said Matt.

CAUSEBOX supports companies that are doing good in the world. They want to support companies that make difficult decisions to be better - for society and the environment - that may come at the cost of profits. "It's harder to hear their story. To get that early support and viability," Matt said. The CAUSEBOX founders wanted to help consumers discover companies and tell the stories of the companies they are supporting.

CAUSEBOX is still growing. Matt stated in our interview that each season they think "oh this is how big this can be" and then next season is bigger. The company has thousands of customers that not only subscribe to CAUSEBOX, but then go on to purchase products directly from the companies CAUSEBOX promotes and supports.

Business benefit

"Our community is really engaged. More than any other company that I’ve been around. We are so fortunate to be serving a community that has these values." said Matt.

CAUSEBOX is serving a market of consumers that want to buy and know about ethical, responsible companies. "The market is encouraging," said Matt, "More people are adopting this consumer behavior. It's humbling. We don't take the responsibility lightly. People look to us to introduce them to companies. We are responsible for doing the due diligence." Consumers trust that CAUSEBOX is introducing them to companies they can feel good about purchasing products from.

As CAUSEBOX grows they are constantly making sure they are honing in on the right companies. Their goal is to do these companies justice by telling their stories and sharing their products. Matt said that CAUSEBOX wants to honor these companies and is looking for different mediums to tell their stories. "The future is story-telling focused." he said. "We are honoring the trust people put in us to tell their stories."

Social and environmental benefit

"We know from experience from having worked with 100 brands now, over the past 4 years. Almost all of them have approached us to ask if they can do another box. We also hear from companies when they insert a postcard that the redemption rates are better than anything else they have seen." said Matt. CAUSEBOX is helping society and the environment by supporting sales of companies that benefit society and the environment.

As a certified B-Corporation CAUSEBOX cares about their own impact in the world and as a subscription box company they care about the impact of the companies they are promoting. With each box sent CAUSEBOX helps companies tell their story and boost their sales. They help support jobs for women all over the world and jobs for disenfranchised minorities by incorporating products from companies such as Tribe Alive, Soko, ABLE, and Krochet Kids International. They support less plastic in oceans and landfills with products from Keep Cup and d.stil. They support safer personal care products from companies such as Honest Beauty and Juice Beauty. They support companies that give back, such as Banded that provides three meals for every product sold, and companies whose products are responsibly made such as Parker Clay's Ethiopian made leather products. And those are just a few of the many companies that CAUSEBOX has worked with.

As Matt said during our interview, "There is no future for companies that don’t care about people."

Interview

Matt Richardson, Co-Founder