Direct selling foundations and contributions that make a difference
By Jenna Lang Warford
“Having them prepare the food themselves does more than provide the additional nutrition; it restores their dignity.” —Sarah Loutham, Executive Director, M5M Foundation
“Our next goal is to support 10,000 children. This goal inspires us to grow as a company, knowing that every product sold brings us closer.” —Vicki Sorg, Charity Ambassador, PM International
When direct selling companies pledge to “do well by doing good,” many are putting significant resources behind those words. From providing nutritional support to malnourished children to funding sustainable community development, companies are finding innovative approaches to corporate giving.
Through dedicated foundations and charitable partnerships, these businesses are delivering millions of meals, supporting thousands of children globally, and responding to disasters with crucial aid. By weaving charitable giving directly into their business models, direct selling companies are demonstrating that social impact can be achieved alongside product sales, creating lasting change in communities worldwide.
Focusing on Children
Since 2003, PM-International has been making donations to charitable causes with a focus on children in need, through its PM We Care Foundation, specifically through the children’s aid and philanthropic organization World Vision. PM-International is the largest corporate sponsor of World Vision.
Vicki Sorg, PM International’s charity ambassador, says, “We have sponsored more children every year since the start of the collaboration and are proud to support 6,000 sponsored children today, all around the world. Our mission is to support children and communities by providing long-term, sustainable, and targeted aid, as well as immediate assistance and emergency donations in times of need.”
PM International funds its foundation primarily through contributing a portion of its sales of FitLine products. For each product sold, PMI provides the equivalent of one hour of support, known as “One Hour of Life,” to children in need.
Additional funding is provided through the “Share Your Love” campaign, which takes place once a year. During this time, distribution partners and customers can make additional contributions to the charity initiative by purchasing what has become popular charity T-shirts. These proceeds are used to purchase a useful birthday present for each sponsored child. Recent birthday gifts include school supplies, new school uniforms, buckets (which are essential for transporting water), backpacks for school, soccer balls and even a playground.
“We integrate this initiative into our daily operations and communication campaigns on social media, our events, on our PM We Care website,” Sorg says. “This ensures our distribution partners are informed and engaged. I also visit our sponsored children once or twice a year to witness the impact and identify further areas where we can make a difference.
“As Charity Ambassador for PM-International, it’s my responsibility to ensure that PM-International’s business partners and customers understand how they contribute to supporting children globally, and how grateful we are for their support.”
The company’s foundation has its eye on growth as well. “Our next goal is to support 10,000 children. This goal inspires us to grow as a company, knowing that every product sold brings us closer to that goal,” she adds.
Company leaders believe that by partnering with World Vision, their distributors, and customers, they’re able to make a global impact, leveraging their unique expertise and networks to implement long-term, sustainable projects.
Fighting Global Malnutrition, Restoring Dignity
Since its inception in 1993, Mannatech has been focused on nutrition that makes an impact. So it’s no surprise that its charitable efforts have been directed at helping fight global malnutrition in children around the world.
In the past 15 years, Mannatech’s charitable giving programs have generated more than 110 million servings of nutritional support for malnourished children. Initially, the company worked with various charities, but in 2014 the company helped found the M5M Foundation.
While M5M works with multiple charities, it has formed deep partnerships with select organizations. Sarah Loutham, executive director of the foundation, says these focused partnerships have benefited everyone involved. One key partner is Kids Around the World, a faith-based organization that impacts children and communities through “Hope Zones”—designated areas where children receive care and support. M5M currently partners with four HopeZone communities: Punta Alta and San Silvestre in Ecuador and Payita and El Cruce del Caño in the Dominican Republic.
“In 2018, Kids Around the World told us they needed nutrition for kids, because although they were receiving vitamins—along with food—to distribute, they really knew nothing about the quality of those supplements,” Loutham explains. “We loved the idea! And since I’m the only employee of the foundation, it also helps to have a partner who completely handles the distribution.”
Every product Mannatech sells contributes to M5M, supplemented by independent donations from its field members. In 2025, the foundation is innovating with its approach. “We’re launching a trip that anyone can pay to go on; an incentive trip that is tied completely to M5M,” Loutham says. “On previous trips Mannatech’s incentive location would be at an all-inclusive beach getaway, and trip earners would get to participate in a project for a day. This year we’re offering field members the opportunity to buy in at $1,500 and go on a trip with us to a Hope Zone in Ecuador; the trip is completely focused on the mission.”
Innovation and Impact
Norwex created its foundation in 2013, nearly two decades after the company’s 1994 launch. Amy Cadora, Norwex’s chief brand and mission officer, leads the company’s core vision. Globally, Norwex focuses on reducing chemicals in homes with effective, safe and sustainable solutions to create a healthier world.
“Our philosophy for the foundation is that we want to be able to make donations that we as a company feel are important to further our mission and increase our impact,” Cadora says. “Additionally, we also really want to help our Norwex Consultant family play a really key role in recommending and nominating different charities that they wanted to partner with to create stronger communities. So our foundation allows us to have a multi-pronged approach for the biggest impact possible.”
The foundation’s impact is substantial. “Just since 2013 we’ve given north of two and a half million [dollars] out to many different organizations,” Cadora notes. “It’s an incredible amount. We’ve also planted more than 70,000 trees—which are critical for biodiversity and carbon absorption—and provided more than 450,000 meals to those who are food insecure in North America.”
The foundation’s approach allows it to respond to urgent needs, such as the hurricanes in Fall 2024. Contributions range from financial aid to Norwex Disaster Relief packs, which include the company’s microfiber cloths. These packs enable people to clean themselves up after disasters.
“We’ve run the gamut from donating to large organizations like Women to Women International to local women’s shelters to homeless shelters to backpacks for kids,” Cadora says. “I don’t know how many meetings we’ve had where we would read the nominations on the table, make the difficult decisions on who the Foundation would fund, and then we would all bring our own individual check books.”
The foundation carefully considers how to maximize its impact too. “Sometimes we like the organization, but we’re not sure we want to pay for administrative costs, so we’ll call them up and ask if there’s something specific we can allocate this money for,” Cadora explains.
Company team members from Norwex, including founder Debbie Bolton or regional sales managers, also feel rewarded by participating. When they present donation checks, Cadora says, “they get to experience something so fulfilling; no matter how big or how small the amount is, to know the impact it will make.”
One of their most significant impacts came during the COVID-19 pandemic’s mask shortage in 2020. “It was the beginning of the pandemic, and disposable masks were in short supply. The government was saying they couldn’t get them, hospitals were desperate for them, but no one had any. We called our R&D facility in Shanghai and asked if they had access to any. When they wanted to know how many, we said ‘A million?’ Within a day they called us back and said they could get us a million.”
Getting the masks to their destination proved challenging. Flights were limited and shipments faced repeated delays. Cadora finally secured air transport for the masks through an unexpected source. “Thank God for Google. I found a doctor-run organization called Donate PPE. I called them, and a doctor answered. When I told them we had a million masks, the doctor dropped the phone.”
The distribution effort transformed into a remarkable grassroots movement. “There were boxes dropped off at doctors’ garages, and the medical personnel were driving by on their way into the hospital, loading it up in their trunks and taking them in,” Cadora explains. Norwex’s network expanded beyond North America to Australia, Asia, and Europe, with recipients sharing photos of themselves wearing masks with handmade “Thank you, Norwex” signs.
The initiative sparked additional innovation when Norwex consultants began crafting masks from the company’s window cloths. After testing confirmed the fabric’s filtration effectiveness, Norwex manufactured them for donation and sale, creating what Cadora describes as “an incredible impact” during the critical shortage.
Quietly Giving
L’Bri was founded in 1998 by Linda and Brian Kaminski. The couple had pursued and achieved success in the field as part of several direct selling companies, only to face closure of company after company. So like seve
ral now-legendary founders, they decided to launch a direct selling company of their own, from their basement.
Today, the company contributes a portion of each month’s revenue to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
“Every single month for 17 years, I, on the second of the month, send out an email to our Consultants that says, ‘Here’s our donation for last month’s sales.’ It’s not much compared to the Milwaukee Bucks or the Green Bay Packers,” Brian Kaminski says modestly. “But for a company our size, it’s significant.”
The company supports the local police with formal and informal donations and also donates one of its key products, an aloe jelly, to burn victims in Nicaragua. Still, until the company did a rebrand, and Victoria Vilbrandt, the new vice president of marketing, urged them to do so, the Kaminskis didn’t publicize their giving outside of letting the field know the impact their sales were creating with the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Partnering As Visionaries
LifeWave, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, has always developed meaningful partnerships with organizations such as the Red Cross and the Purple Heart Veterans of Florida.
“LifeWave has been extraordinarily blessed with phenomenal growth and prosperity, and we see it as the responsibility of all successful companies to give back to their communities and help our fellow human beings in times of need,” said David Schmidt, founder and CEO of LifeWave.
During the devastation caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, the company provided monetary and product donations, but it was its Brand Partners who purchased essential supplies and distributed them where they were needed most. “We have seen immediate impact through efforts like the Hurricanes Helene and Milton relief initiatives, where we quickly mobilized to support affected communities,” Wayne Moorehead, SVP of marketing and communications, adds. “Now, we’re having long-term impact through technology and sustainable solutions that make a meaningful difference worldwide, as with The Ocean Cleanup.”
LifeWave recently donated $100,000 to The Ocean Cleanup to support its groundbreaking work in removing plastic waste from the world’s oceans. The partnership is a great fit because Schmidt is an inventor driven by the desire to improve lives through technology, an ethos shared by The Ocean Cleanup’s founder, Boyan Slat.
An Attitude of Gratitude
After launching in 2014, MONAT created the Gratitude Foundation as an outgrowth of the founders’ focus as a family, as leaders and as a pillar of the company. “We’ve always been passionate about gratitude, and this year we set out to amplify our impact making gratitude even more visible for every person that’s part of MONAT or uses our products,” Lu Urdaneta, chief culture officer, says.
The company’s goal is to create a sustainable, long-term impact so it focuses on motivating market partners to become ambassadors of gratitude. It has strong initiatives to keep the field engaged and inspired, using consistent updates via social media, email newsletters, and a dedicated MONAT Gratitude website. The foundation also holds special events and workshops for the field members to learn about the charitable programs and get involved.
“One of our favorite programs is our GRATITUDE AMBASSADORS program where we have a group of market partners that serve for a year and serve as the liaison in between corporate and the field,” Urdaneta says. The company involves its customers through product inserts, social media posts, email newsletters, and its website. Urdaneta adds, “We also provide our market partners with updates and information about GRATITUDE they can share with their customers. We want our customers to feel connected to the cause and know that their purchase goes beyond beauty—it’s part of something bigger.”
Jenna Lang Warford is a Social Selling News Contributor.
