The WASH Foundation is Making Moves with Soapbox
“The thing about Soapbox is, is it’s a conduit. We have this opportunity to be this bridge between consumers and the organizations with the mission. And that’s pretty dope.”
A personal care brand uniquely focused on creating the opportunity for everyday consumerism to positively impact vulnerable communities around the world, Soapbox is a company that pays it forward in everything they do. Through key partnerships with nonprofit organizations like Clean the World Foundation (CTWF), they are able to serve in places all over the world including India, Africa, and Asia.
However, such large impact did not happen overnight. Soapbox has been making major moves since 2009, with the idea coming into being while David was working with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) implementing water and sanitation initiatives in various areas. It all went down like this:
Fresh out of undergrad at American University, David began working for a sub-contractor for USAID with a focus reading various after-action reports on numerous USAID projects when he noticed something pretty big was missing. What concerned him most was the absence of pairing hygiene products (like soap) with the clean water sources implemented in developing communities. “My issue was we were putting in clean water sources and kids were still getting sick. Something as simple as soap paired with clean water could drastically cut down the number of children dying of diseases caused by bad hygiene practices. Diseases like pneumonia and diarrhea,” David said. With this in mind, he set out to create a product that could simultaneously improve the health of people in vulnerable communities and allow for everyday consumers to be a part of positive humanitarian impact. Quality soap. Thus, the idea of Soapbox was born. Through a pivotal partnership with co-founder Daniel Doll and the hard work of an innovative team, it has grown to become the socially conscious company that it is today.
Together, David and Daniel lead a company that currently sells various personal care products, such as shampoo and conditioner, body wash, hand soap, and bar soap. The real kicker is the promise of donating one bar of soap for every product sold. David explains, “The thing about Soapbox is, is it’s a conduit. We have this opportunity to be this bridge between consumers and the organizations with the mission. And that’s pretty dope.” These donations go toward the programs of a selected group of nonprofit organizations whose mission aligns with the Soapbox mission. This is where Clean the World Foundation comes in.
David reached out to our executive director Sam back in 2013, because he believed in the work we were doing surrounding hygiene and health. “Where do I begin?” he says, “I think Clean the World Foundation is relentless in their ingenuity and their drive to build a sustainable organization. CTWF was one of the first nonprofits we ever reached out to.” And the rest, as they say, is history. Since 2013 has provided financial support that has allowed CTWF to serve tens of thousands of families around the world with ongoing access to much needed wash education and supplies through our programs.
Most recently, Soapbox has stepped into an even larger role at CTWF. Not only have they become our biggest retail one-for-one partner by donating a record amount of 320,000 bars of soap (about 57 million hand washes!), David has also officially joined the foundation’s board of directors!
We at Clean the World Foundation could not be any more excited with this evolving partnership, and our executive director Sam Stephens says it best: “We’re incredibly grateful for everything they’ve done and everything they are going to do. We love this partnership more than words can say and we’re so excited for what the future holds.”
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