This is happening so often, I’m sure we’re all losing track. I know I have. Back in May when the nation fell victim to yet another round of mass shootings, Elements2 Design made a pledge to donate a portion of all sales in an effort to help improve lives (read about it here). I viewed it as my little stand in the face of human suffering. As I was preparing to report back about our 2022 donation, two mass shootings happened here in California alone. This was supposed to be a happy post. It still is, but the joy is a bit more contained today.

When I made the pledge to donate $1 from every unit sold for our website (and 10% of wholesale orders) through the end of the year, I honestly thought that it would simply be a matter of doing the count by hand. Boy was I wrong.

$1446

That’s how much we accumulated in our donation fund from May 26 to December 31. You did this. Your love of our quirky creations and support of a little company that doesn’t even sell on Amazon (that’s a story for another day) allowed me to gleefully made donations to two different charities.

1 Miry’s List

Miry’s List is a small nonprofit focused on helping individual refugee families settle into their new home in the United States. We may have differing opinions on the global politics of the refugee situation, but I hope we share the sentiment of wanting to help when we see a neighbor in need. That’s Miry’s mission. Our $1000 donation would have been a drop in the bucket for larger organizations, but here, it earned us a thoughtful note from the founder herself.

2 Malala Fund

I recently heard an interview with Mark Rober, a former NASA engineer and current YouTuber who’s famous for presenting science in a cool way, where he shared about his experience giving a talk to a room full of engineers in Dubai. He fully expected an audience of mostly men with maybe a sprinkling of women. Instead, what he witnessed was a sea of burkas. After the talk, he asked the organizer why there were so many women when the field of engineering is mostly men. The organizer explained that the country has a great need for engineers right now, so the government has made a concerted effort to tap all potential. For much of the world, that’s what women are — untapped potential.

The Malala Fund supports local educators and advocates who work to increase secondary education for girls all around the world. Our $446 donation isn’t much, but it’s something.

Thank you, thank you for making 2022 pretty great for Elements2 Design. Being able to share our earnings is a good reminder of how making money isn’t everything. What we do with what we are given is what ultimately matters. Let’s try to top our 2022 donation in 2023. I’m excited!