Innovation

Founded in 2010 by Laurien Meuter, a former investment banker who left the corporate world in search of meaning, Tiny Miracles operates at the intersection of business and community empowerment. The organization began by enrolling children living on the streets of Mumbai into schools. However, Laurien quickly learnt that lasting change is only possible if parents are empowered through employment (SDG 8) and families can break the cycle of poverty (SDG 1), creating a net positive effect.

This realization led to the creation of a dual structure: a foundation addressing root causes of poverty through healthcare, education, and community engagement, and a for-profit entity offering dignified employment via manufacturing partnerships with brands like Rituals Cosmetics (SDG 17). The company co-designs its programmes with community members to ensure relevance, inclusion and participation. Employment is intended to be both an incentive and a pathway to self-sufficiency.

Tiny Miracles specifically focuses on the most marginalized people living under bridges, in slums, without identification or opportunity (SDG 10). Their approach is comprehensive, combining fair wages and flexible jobs with long-term personal growth. The organisation also promotes change through regular group sessions for self-reflection and raising awareness of unequal gender dynamics (SDG 5). They also support education and healthcare (SDG 3 and 4), all within the work environment.

Inspiration

Laurien Meuter’s inspiration emerged from deeply personal encounters while volunteering with street children in India. One moment stood out: a close bond with Kiran, a seven-year-old boy who later disappeared. Sharing his photo during our interview, she described how she searched the streets for him. “I just started running behind the central station, asking people if they’d seen him. That moment planted the seed,” she recalls. “Half the world is just begging for food every day and the other half has unlimited choices. It’s just not right.”

Returning to Amsterdam, Laurien pitched a concept to Rituals Cosmetics “Tiny Rituals”, a children’s product line and secured their first support for school hygiene initiatives. She quickly learned that education alone wasn’t enough. “The parents were pulling their kids out of school to work. So, I thought, of course, they need jobs. That was the start of empowering through work.”

Her journey was never driven by a grand plan, but by action. “Everything was learning by doing,” she explains. “You act upon what’s necessary in the moment.” This pragmatic, human-centered approach remains at the heart of Tiny Miracles.

Overall impact

Tiny Miracles measures its success using three pillars: Dignity (being seen, heard, and valued), Agency (freedom to choose and access opportunity), and Well-being (health, safety, financial security). These dimensions are assessed through in-depth interviews and annual surveys with members, made possible by the deep connection Tiny Miracles has built with the communities.

According to Laurien their programs have both short-term and long-term effects. The short-term effects include a transformation in community dynamics: women gain employment and self-confidence, children are taken off the streets and go to school, and families gain access to medical care and documents for the first time. To illustrate this, Laurien described how a group of about 600 women were trained to make 2.7 million tassels for the company Rituals, many of whom were unable to leave their homes, now having access to dignified work through a decentralised, community-based system. She reported that this system is designed around flexibility, personalized payments, and social support.

The long-term impact is evidenced by generational change. Children who used to live on the streets are now attending university or working abroad. “We had our first student graduate from university, that was a really cool moment,” Laurien shared. “Some of them now work in real estate. For them it’s a dream come true.”

Business benefit

Tiny Miracles’ approach has unlocked new business opportunities while staying true to its core values. By focusing on high quality, design centric manufacturing, they’ve transitioned from being seen as a charity partner to a reliable, competitive supplier. They have partnered with companies to produce products like bags and bracelets, ensuring high volume work hours with consistent workflow. In total, over three million products were stitched and 708 full time jobs were created during the year. The arrangement with Rituals to pre-finance production ensures financial stability and helps avoid cash flow problems, which are common within social enterprises.

Laurien emphasized that being certified as a B Corp (score: 91.2), has strengthened Tiny Miracles' credibility and opened doors to more global partnerships with brands that also prioritize working with certified companies. As Laurien puts it, "It makes commercial sense. You show that it works, and others follow."

Social and environmental benefit

For Society, Tiny Miracles offers a roadmap for deeply inclusive development. Their work positively changes family structures, gender dynamics, and educational outcomes through tailored, community-first engagement. "We invite other companies to copy us," Laurien insists. “This isn’t just a project, it’s a new way of doing business.”

Tiny Miracles has learned that creating lasting impact is not just about growing their own operations, but about inspiring others to do the same. Aware of their own limited capacity, they began collaborating with other social initiatives and NGOs that were missing access to resources and market. For example, they have partnered with the Indian Cancer Society which supports women cancer survivors who have been rejected by their communities. The Society had the infrastructure, such as sewing machines, but lacked the market connection and product orders. Tiny Miracles trained the women, ensured ongoing orders and paid fair wages, making their impact model scalable and replicable to different communities.

They are also exploring micro-enterprise opportunities, helping current employees to start their own small business. In this way, employees can eventually support themselves to stay out of poverty and gain financial independence.

All in all, Tiny Miracles has the potential to act as a true role model in a world still deeply affected by poverty. It serves as an inspiration for a new vision of what business can be, a force not just for profit, but for profound, measurable and human change.

By creating solutions that are inclusive, scalable, and dignified, Laurien Meuter and her team are not only breaking poverty cycles but challenging the very idea that social impact and financial success must be separate paths. Her journey from personal empathy to systemic innovation shows that transformative impact does not have to start with grand strategies, but with deeply human responses to inequality.

As the world looks to 2030 and beyond, Tiny Miracles is already living the future many hopes to build: where businesses listen, act, and transform lives from the inside out.

Interview

Laurien Meuter, Founder