We all want to do good things.
For our friends, our family, our work.
And for A Good Thing, doing good is part of their everyday.
Lucky for us, we recently did a little good, too, thanks to the help from A Good Thing.
Today, we’ll be sharing our experience of partnering with A Good Thing, to hopefully help other charities and brands come together - whilst also reducing waste from the promotional merchandise industry!
Read on to find out more about A Good Thing and how your brand can get involved, too.
Put simply, A Good Thing saw that charities needed stuff, the very stuff businesses were getting rid of.
Founders Cathy and Richard Benwell couldn’t stand by and watch as charities struggled and businesses wasted vital resources. That’s why, in 2020, they created A Good Thing - to create personal connections between businesses and charities, so the charities can focus on the thing they do best: helping people.
In 2023, A Good Thing partnered with the British Promotional Merchandise Association (BPMA), resulting in dozens of merchandise businesses from right across the UK signing up to the platform and using it to donate things to their local communities - including us!
Because A Good Thing is a not-for-profit organisation, they make sure their services are as easy (and free!) to use as possible.
Their simple-to-use app makes donating as easy as selling on other sites you may be familiar with, such as eBay or Vinted.
And you can donate anything that can be given to or shared with a charity. Literally anything can be donated. Examples might include IT equipment, furniture, new products, food, meeting rooms… even the use of work minibuses!
Using the app, you tell them what you have, where you are, what timeframe you’re working to and whether you have any preferences as to the charities you’d like to support.
A Good Thing will then do the matchmaking.
They know this has to fit around your other business priorities. The app will do the hard work of finding a local charity that needs what you’re offering; all you have to do is send it!
No hassle for you, but it means everything to them.
“I wish more UK businesses realised how much impact they could create – and how easily! - just by giving away things they have piled up in cupboards, storerooms and warehouses.”
Cathy Benwell, Co-Founder of A Good Thing
A Good Thing helps so many charities - either your chosen one, a local one, or one that you may not have even heard of! But all of them have one thing in common: they’re doing good.
A Good Thing ensures that all the organisations receiving offers have charitable status, and automatically checks that they have HMRC Charity Tax Status or are one of the following:
If you have more than one charity requesting your items, it is up to you to choose. They do, however, recommend you choose an organisation that is close by (to reduce transport carbon emissions and costs).
“It couldn't be more straightforward for brands to make a change within their communities.”
Cathy Benwell, Co-Founder of A Good Thing
We joined the A Good Thing platform back in the summer of 2024, and quickly created our first listing - x200 branded tote bags.
These proved super popular with a whole range of charities, and were matched immediately with a rural Men's Shed charity, who collect food from local supermarkets to give to people in need, so are always needing carrying bags.
Then this year, one of our team members created another listing - x337-branded t-shirts.
As before, many charities were interested and had an urgent need for the t-shirts.
In the end, all of the clothing was donated to the Essex-based Women of Grace charity, which works towards ending the harmful practices of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Honour-Based Violence (HBV).
“These T-shirts will be used for our workshops, community outreach programs, and awareness campaigns, helping to create a sense of unity and belonging among participants.”
Women of Grace
Speaking to Cathy, the Co-Founder of A Good Thing, she said, “Matches like this one are the best possible illustration of the power of donations of physical 'stuff' by businesses to charities. The simplest and most inexpensive items - like bags and cotton T-shirts - can create such a powerful and resonant impact when donated where they are truly needed."
Tillie Merrifield, our team member who kindly organised the donation from Fluid, added, “The app was so easy to use! It was so great to be able to explore all the charities - some of which are very small or unknown outside their immediate communities. It was heartwarming to be able to learn more and help smaller-scale charities.”
You can read more about our donation over on the A Good Thing blog.
A Good Thing has created a step-by-step guide to the sign-up process and how to create your first listing. It’s super easy to follow along, and if you have any questions, the team at A Good Thing are ready and waiting to help!
At Fluid, it’s always been about more than just merchandise to us.
We’re here to help you dream big. To do more, and to be more.
Whether that’s through meaningful merchandise or helping our communities.
We’re all about making a big, beautiful, positive impact whenever we can!
Interested in making your brand monumental, too? Chat with a dedicated merchandise consultant today.