Giving Back
Our mustard milestone: Reaching over £100,000 donated to Beam
Since 2019, we have been lucky enough to work with our amazing charity partner, Beam. From very early on we knew that giving back was something essential to Mustard’s DNA as a business, so once we had things established, we began partnering with Beam by donating £5 from every UK and European order. We have now reached a milestone which is huge for us as a small business, hitting over £100,000 donated since we started working with Beam less than three years ago.
This achievement is big for both us personally and for Beam too, as it represents a lot more behind the scenes than just the amount of money raised. It means we have been able to help hundreds of people who were homeless or at risk of homelessness into stable housing, jobs and training, all thanks to your donations through ordering lockers, and that hundreds of people are now living in safer, more stable conditions and are able to work to support their families. For us, that achievement is really what this business journey is all about - having a positive impact, giving back and making Mustard mean more than ‘just lockers’.
At Mustard, we bring lockers into people's homes, which sparks joy and happiness to their spaces, and that’s why working with Beam is even more important to us. Most of the people working with Beam don’t have a place to call home, so to be able to play a small part in changing that means so much. We want to be able to make a difference not only in the lives of the people around us, our families and our teams, but also the wider community.
We want to put into perspective just how much of an impact your orders have had on the people who have been helped by Beam, because it is just as important to continue to shout about the work they do in order to help spread the word. The more people who know about the awesome things going on at Beam, the more people who can donate so they can continue to do what they do best!
Mustard and Beam
So, where did it all begin? We started working with Beam in September 2019, less than 3 years ago. We knew we wanted to work with a charity for the long run, and working out a way that we could do that which made a real consistent impact was important. Beam’s crowdfunding model is unique which is what appealed to us - one of our favourite parts of donating to Beam is being able to see exactly who the donations are helping. When you receive your £5 gift card, you can read through all of the active crowdfunding campaigns on their website to choose where your £5 goes (or split it between all of them if you want to!). You can read people’s life stories, their hopes and aspirations and once you have donated, you can choose to have updates about their journey to getting there, as well as being able to leave messages of encouragement. This makes the donations all that much more meaningful, and we have been lucky enough to now see hundreds of people achieve their goals.
A little bit about Beam
Beam crowd funds career opportunities for people experiencing homelessness and supports them in the path to finding and keeping new jobs. Founded in 2017 by Alex Stephany, Beam utilises world-class technology to support the most disadvantaged people in the UK. They work alongside homeless charities and governments, who refer their beneficiaries to Beam, and also work alongside businesses who hire some of the exceptional range of talent who are referred to them. By working to change negative stereotypes around homelessness through showing the talents and aspirations of people facing this, as well as reflecting the true diversity of the homeless population, Beam is helping to change lives and eliminate discrimination.
If you want to know a little more about Beam’s beginnings and how more businesses can do good, we interviewed founder Alex on the blog. You can also visit Beam’s website here to read all about what they do and the people they support, and to donate directly.
How does it work?
It really is super easy, so easy that you may not even notice it until you get your gift card through after ordering! £5 is taken from the total of your order (so you don’t pay any extra to donate, it is included in your purchase) and donated to Beam. This happens with every order, no matter how big or small. At the end of every month those £5 donations are all sent to Beam, who will then email you with your £5 gift card.
Why do you get a gift card? Well that’s the part that allows you to read through all of the active campaigns on Beam’s website and choose where your money goes. If you forget or don’t see the email, that money never goes to waste and instead gets split between all of the active campaigns. It really is that simple and it makes such a huge difference!
Thanks to you
These donations have come from you, our customers. Thanks to your orders, whether it was fifty lockers or a couple of sets of hangers, a Twinny or some magnets, every UK + European order meant another donation to Beam and we could not be more thankful. It means so much to be able to donate to Beam every month so they can continue the work that they do. So from all of us, a truly huge thank you.
Mustard has allowed us to give back in ways we could never have imagined and we are eternally grateful. Being able to see each one of the over 800 people who have achieved the goals they set out to do with Beam is the biggest reward. We can’t wait to see where else this partnership goes and to continue to witness the change Beam is spearheading.
If you want to continue to read more about Beam and donate directly to the work they are doing, you can do so below. There are always campaigns live on their site looking for support, whether that is through a donation or a message to cheer them on, every little bit helps.
