If you love crafted flowers and want to contribute to local charity, Flower for Dreams is your best choice. This west town floral startup came around in 2012. It sells crafted flowers online with a special business model: share profit with charities. The company keeps the costs low and donates 25% of its profit to local charities. Customers order flowers directly from the company's website and get free delivery in Chicago and Milwaukee.
Flower for Dreams manages to keep a fair and honest price by sourcing from local wholesalers and offering a rotating bouquet collection. The model works really well and allows the company to give back to the community.
This is Kale W. Green, the subscriptions manager and customer experience representative. A large part of his job is to coordinates with different charities. Every year in fall, he reaches out to local non-profit organizations through email blasts and social media to introduce the company's charity program.
Charities then apply for the program. All full time employees will vote for 12 charities that they think need the most help. The company works one charity per month.
Hannah D'ottavio is a flower buyer. She goes to local flower markets six o'clock in the morning everyday to source quality flowers from wholesalers. D'ottavio is pretty excited about working with Gardeneers, a charity working with schools and teaching students to grow their own gardens. She already works with them as the company also buys flowers from Gerdeneers. Flower for Dreams will feature D'ottavio in August.
Yuli Manzo is one of the four flower designers in the company. Everyday she arranges and packages about 70 flower bouquets on average. Manzo said she enjoyed working as a florist here because the company tried to make a difference for local charities.
Besides donations, the company also organizes various workshops and activities with charities. Tracy Eickelberg is one of the five wedding and event designers at the company. She will go to GirlForward - a charity supporting refugee girls with educational programs - to teach girls how to make flower crowns. The company featured GirlFarword in March.
Meet the Co-Founder, Joseph Dickstein. He started Flower for Dreams with a college business, selling flowers at local graduation ceremonies to make extra money. For every bouquet sold, the business donated a backpack for students-in-need. From there, the business grows into a startup with 25 employees. So far the company has donated $194, 716.29 to more than 50 charities in the windy city.
Company website: https://www.flowersfordreams.com Location: 1812 West Hubbard Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60622.