When we first started Wise Chemistree, one of the soaps we were most excited to make was our Pride soap (which has been reformulated into our Free Mom Hugs). It instantly became a top seller because it was so pretty and we made it available year round because every month is Pride Month.
Little kids would see it and insist to their parents that we needed to buy one for their aunt or uncle who was LGBTQ+. We realized that people were viewing it exactly as we intended but thought that a couple of cis-straight women needed to give to the community that was inspiring people to buy the soap. So last fall, we made the decision to donate a portion of the proceeds for every bar of our Pride Collection soap to the Pride Foundation.
By December, we had a nice donation to give and we felt great. Then we found out about the 2% Pledge. It was right up our alley. Supporting organizations working toward equity is close to our hearts. It is important for us to take our privilege and use it to help give others the opportunities they deserve. You can help us on this quest by buying our products (that you know you want anyway). Then we will donate 2% of our revenue to organizations doing the work on the ground. We will let you know which organizations we’ve chosen so you can also spread the word or donate directly yourself.
We are currently sending our donations to the Transgender Law Center. Right now transgender kids are being denied their right to play sports and get appropriate gender-affirming care in states all over our country. Families in Texas have been reported to CPS for getting gender affirming care. In addition, more and more states are barring transgender athletes from competing on teams aligned with their gender. Kids just want to be kids. And they want to play. So there are going to be court battles over these laws and we want to help support legal organizations helping to keep families together and get these unfair laws overturned.
If you know of organizations working in equity, especially in areas of gender, sexuality, race, disability, and neurodivergence that would be awesome recipients of our 2%, let us know. We are especially interested in self-advocacy organizations because we feel like people know for themselves what challenges they face and what supports actually help better than outsiders. And it will give us an opportunity to raise their voices using our privilege of owning our own business.