November 2015

As consumers, each of us realizes
what kind of impact we can
have every day and through our
lifetime. And probably the biggest
impact that we also have
is what companies we support,
what products we buy every day.
And so as a Christian consumer,
I feel like I was called to make
sure I was supporting the right
companies. Companies that
weren’t getting in trouble for bad
labor practices, child trafficking,
destroying the environment,
and those kinds of things. So
with Faithbox, we really wanted
to have that conversation with
people and say, “We’re Christian,
we’re consumers. We
need to be supporting the right
companies, companies that are
responsible, companies that
respect creation.” And so every
month, we try to find really great
companies that have very nice
products that can fit into your
own lifestyle, and companies
that we feel like uphold Christian
ideals when it comes to consumers.
So that is what really
started it.
We realized that we have this
really great opportunity to touch
people every month and impact
them. We started off offering
reflections every week in the
box, and that has actually turned
into a daily devotional that we
also publish every month. It has
short-form content for each day
of the month--everything from
prayers to scriptures to really
great positive quotes about positive
living and living your faith
every day--just to kind of help
people take a few minutes out of
their day to center themselves,
reflect on their relationship with
Christ, and help keep their faith
relevant throughout the day and
throughout the month. [This is
good] especially in places like
New York, where there is so
much going on. We wanted to
give people something that was
bite-sized, something they could
cling to every day and reflect on.
That definitely sounds like
an interesting and unique
service. I read that the three
tenets of your company are
Growth, Discovery and Giving.
And I can definitely see that
the contents of Faithbox
would help individuals grow
and discover more about their
faith. Can you talk a little bit
more about the philanthropic
aspect, or the giving aspect,
that’s really tied in here and
how that relates not only to
the company but to the consumer
who’s purchasing this
service?
For us, a lot of the companies
that we work with and help
people discover are companies
that have one-to-one missions
or are involved with specific philanthropic
organizations. This is
something I’m really passionate
about anyway. So I wanted to
make sure that not only are we
helping people discover those
companies but that by becoming
a part of our community, we are
that type of company as well. So
we met the guys at Rice Bowls
(http://ricebowls.org/) about a
year ago now. And they are this
awesome philanthropic organization
that supports Christian
orphanages all throughout
the world and the orphanages
rely on them 100 percent for
their food…all the donations go
straight to the kids. I was super
inspired by them so we thought,
as our first charity to work with,
let’s work with these guys to see
what we can make happen “per
box.” So now for every box that
we ship, our community ends up
donating three meals to hungry
kids all over the world, which
for me is really cool. I think we
donated over 15,000 meals, and
they send pictures of the kids.
It feels great and it allows our
community to have even more of
an impact--like a direct worldly
impact that we wanted to have
as a company.
For your clients—how important
do you think it is for
them that they be able to not
only receive something that’s
inspirational for themselves
but to be able to impact others
in that way?
From the feedback we get, I
think it’s really important. I think
people like knowing that even
if they’re too busy they can
research and find a charity that is
really good and Christian. They
know that we are going to take
care of that for them. It makes
it easier on people knowing that
they get this cool stuff but that
they are also giving back. They
know that Faithbox is going to
make sure that we’re giving to a
great charity, and that the money
is not going to our overhead or
administration fees.
When did you actually start
Faithbox? I read that you did
a soft launch of the company
late last year.
Yes, we sent out a couple dozen
boxes last November or December.
But we really didn’t officially
start sending to the public until
January, so just about 9 months.
And are you surprised by
the impact that Faithbox has
had already in terms of the