Year Here’s 2020 Gift Guide
Shop small, sustainable and social this holiday season.
Introducing: gifts that give back. From our venture portfolio, we have ideas for the finest gifts made by companies putting money back into local economies and the communities who need it most.
If you’re anything like us this year, you’ll have done your fair share of shopping online. If you’re stuck on what to buy your loved ones that aren’t a) detrimental to the planet, b) unnecessary versions of what they’ve been buying all year, or c) supporting the biggest corporations of our time with their CEO’s fresh trillionaire status, then we have the gift guide for you.
Fat Macy’s Festive Hampers
Fat Macy’s is a social enterprise delivering life-changing dining. Founded by 2016 Alum Meg Doherty, each purchase helps them to get a young trainee from hostel to home. In a year full of doom and gloom, their treat laden hampers are a feel-good solution to being miles away from your loved ones. From divine Loukoumi, chocolate bark marbled with tahini, pistachio studded chocolate coins, and luxuriously spiced mince pies, there’s everything you need for a memorable holiday in one beautifully packaged box.
100DaysofNoCode
Know someone furloughed, or looking for a career change after a tough year? A yearly membership to 100DaysOfNoCode could be just the thing. An accessible online learning community, 100Days are on a mission to unleash the first generation of citizen developers. Learning to code can be a stressful and expensive experience, but with their peer support and resources, you can learn to build apps, websites and software. Not to mention meeting a brilliant new community, and all without the need for intimidating coding languages.
Bread and Roses
Want to evoke the true meaning of Christmas by showing your solidarity with refugee women? Bread & Roses have a solution. You can sponsor a life-changing floristry programme as a festive gift. Not only will you or your recipient be feeling fuzzy inside, but they’ll also receive a freshly picked bunch of their blooms for the eight weeks the women sponsored are training, so you can have a reminder of how they’re flourishing.
Migrateful
We’ve all been eating at home more this year, and if your household is in a food rut, this is the gift that keeps on giving. With Migrateful, you can have masterclasses with brilliant cooks in a choice of 20 cuisines at your fingertips. From Ethiopian to Turkish, Syrian, Gambian and more, each mouth-watering recipe comes with the full tutelage of a cultural expert. Migrateful’s cookery teachers are people facing barriers to employment and seeking asylum, who earn a living from teaching through the platform. Covid depending, gift vouchers are also good for in-person classes in London, Bristol or Kent, and valid for 12 months.
Pivot
If you know someone who likes wearing beautiful, architectural-inspired earrings (and also hates the idea of anyone being homeless), Pivot will make an excellent gift for them. Their distinctive brass jewellery and hug-shaped bookmarks are made by young people living in homeless hostels, to transition them out of poverty into brighter days. Beautiful by design, physically, and behind the scenes.
Birdsong
Social enterprise fashion brand Birdsong is asking for support for their local makers this year, with every purchase intending to create a blueprint for a better fashion industry. They have a range of eco-friendly, fairly made gifts that also provide their local makers facing barriers to work with a Living Wage income. Whether that’s Ruhela who makes their faux fur slippers in Bethnal Green, Mona who embroiders Birdsong’s t-shirts, or Fateha who sews their dresses, you’ll be giving back to local communities hardest hit by the pandemic.
Chatterbox
A lot of folks resolve to learn a language in the new year. With the end of the pandemic not quite over the horizon yet, Chatterbox would be a great place to give your recipient a head start. Powering human-focused social change with tech innovation, Chatterbox harnesses the power of underemployed refugees as remote language tutors, pairing them with AI-assisted online courses. Learn Arabic, Mandarin, Spanish and more on the platform, developed by the 2016 Year Here visionary Mursal Hedayat after her own mother’s experiences.
Lemonade
Lemonade supports young people with their mental wellbeing, but with the year-of-all-years coming to an end, they’re extending that mission to everyone with their festive offering. They’ve put together thoughtfully curated care packages to create moments of comfort for your giftee, inspiring healthy ways to practise self-care. A mixture of candles, hand creams, notebooks and resources, all profits also go straight back into funding their youth programmes.
