UKSPF UK Government Funding West Yorkshire Combined Authority Tracy Brabin Mayor of West Yorkshire

The Single Mum, Homeless Hostel and Tortoise...

Crafting4Good CIC is a social enterprise that aims to make people feel good through creativity, whilst also caring about the environment.

  • Creativity improves wellbeing and mental health, as shown by research
  • Art & Crafts can be enjoyed in a way that's good for our environment
  • Art and crafting can benefit communities and society for good, in many ways
Crafting for Good is for People and Planet, Mental Health and our EnvironmentWe're a UK nonprofit and exist for community benefit

Community Benefit

"CIC" means Community Interest Company: so we're a regular craft business with a bigger purpose and where everything we do benefits others, particularly vulnerable and underserved communities.  We're officially registered as Crafting4Good CIC but also use Crafting for Good, because we found that's what people tend to use anyway.

NonProfit

Legally, we're a nonprofit which means all surplus money and stock is put back into running the organisation and benefiting communities. 

However, a more appropriate term might be 'not-for-personal-profit' because as a CIC we need to trade in order to generate funds to keep going and give any profit, or surplus, away - so the more profit made, the more everyone benefits. 

A normal business makes profit for it's owners and shareholders, but we make a profit for people and our communities, especially those who need support with mental health.

Our Approach:

Linking Unwanted Creative 'Waste' with People Who Need Those Resources

We receive donations of unwanted art and craft supplies and put them to good use, avoiding landfill and supporting community work. 

Most of our donations come from individuals who may have too much stuff to use it all, have had to stop creating due to age or disability or bereaved family members.  Increasingly, other businesses are donating their end-of-line art and crafts, seconds, offcuts and samples etc.

We split donations between selling supplies at affordable prices to suit all budgets, and we give the rest for free to groups and organisations, mostly in Wakefield and surrounding areas which have high levels of deprivation.

Our Staff & Volunteers

Processing all those donations and running our shop and eBay creates jobs, young people's work experience and volunteer opportunities which also supports wellbeing and resilience. 

People tend to think we're bigger than we are, but we only have the equivalent of 2 full-time staff and a small, but growing team of volunteers! 

Many of our staff and volunteers have lived experience of mental health, neurodiversity, physical disability and challenging life situations...but they also know that creativity helped get them through and feel they want to 'give something back' because of that.

Our 'Single Mum to CEO' Story

Our Founder and CEO has a Psychology degree from York University with a particular interest in Positive Psychology, which studies the science behind wellbeing and resilience.

She was a single parent for 10 years, having had post-natal depression, experienced a devastating bereavement and faced losing her house. 

This was many years ago, before Facebook and mainstream blogging, but she began working 'online' to try turn things around - at the time, the very notion of working at home, never-mind using the internet to do so, was a strange thing to do but it gave the flexibility that was needed.

Having learned how to create websites from scratch while the kids were at school, she provided free craft resources and ran online craft communities, bringing people together from around the world in a way that meant she was being creative and supporting people, without realising it.

Card Making World started it all off for our CEO creating websites2006 already supporting affordable creativity before Crafting4Good came along over 10yrs later

Creativity & Online Community

People would say how being creative made them feel better, new friendships were formed across the globe and time was spent getting lost in creating and forgetting about worries. 

Our CEO wondered, if all this could happen online imagine what could be done 'in the real world' whilst also using supplies that people no longer wanted, thereby making creativity more affordable, accessible and eco-friendly whilst supporting mental health and wellbeing at the same time.

Into The Real World

The journey into the real world began with Christmas Craft sessions in a men's hostel.  It started with printable cards and craft downloads available in our online shop, but then actual, real craft donations started coming in from people on Facebook and thus Crafting4Good CIC was born, in 2017.

Eastmoor Community Centre, Wakefield agreed to fund our first office space, which meant moving out from the home office, setting us on the path to further funding - our first big grant was from the National Lottery Awards for All. 

Playing Shops

With the Lottery grant we moved into a building next to the Community Centre but we outgrew it within a year and moved into 'proper' retail premises in a local shopping centre in Wakefield thanks to the "Makey Wakey" partnership started by The Art House, a charity which supports community-based initiatives, which gave us use of a lovely retail shop for a "peppercorn rent", also known as 'free' in return for a quick exist if the shop was let to another business.

Our shop was a treasure trove for creative people, with affordable prices, free supplies and a place to come and chat.  We were there almost 4 years but sadly had to move out in July 2023 as our space was needed and we couldn't afford the new rent. 

2023 was a very stressful and challenging year and we're effectively starting from scratch again, so we're focussing on our community work and backlog of donations in 2024 and recently got a UK Government Levelling Up grant to help us to do so.

We also work with eBay through their eBay for Change programme for social enterprises and Fair Trade organisations around the world, so that is our focus too as we get back on our feet.

Social Impact🎗️

Locally, we've reached thousands of children and adults through affordable and free supplies given to groups and our involvement in community projects.  You'll see examples of this around our website, although we only had time to upload a fraction of what we did!

We also have an Art Therapist to provide accessible sessions around using art as therapy, exploring life through art journalling and even Virtual Reality Creativity in residential care homes and community groups. 

Environmental Impact ♻️

By 2023 we had received 7 tonnes of art and craft donations, and we only started counting in 2020! 

Much of this might have ended up in landfill, but we've been able to put it to much better uses in the community and to generate income to keep going, sustaining local jobs and volunteer opportunities etc.  We credit our DIY website for much of this stock mountain and have recently been awarded a UK Government Levelling Up grant to help us process it, and open up again to receiving donations in the future.

Our Story Told on Other Websites

"Single Mum Starts 'Social Enterprise' with a Brilliantly Simply Business Idea"

The following article was written about our CEO's personal journey after she chose to build Crafting for Good's nonprofit website herself, with the same company that taught her about building websites that work back in 2006, when she was a work at home pioneer!

Read the article on the Solo Build It! blog...

Crafting for Good started with a single mother's business ideaWe're still using Solo Build It, after all these years and wouldn't change it
Solo Build It Tortoise Mascot Shelly NFT SitesellSlow & Steady

This is also where the Tortoise comes in.

"Shelly" is the mascot for Solo Build It!, reminding us that building an online presence takes patience and that 'slow and steady wins the race'.  The company also sent a real, pewter Shelly through the post many years ago, which our CEO uses for inspiration and a reminder to persevere when times are hard.

About Our Website

Thanks to our website we found ourselves under a never-ending stock mountain.  People from all over the country would be searching for where to send their donations and they'd find us over and over again.

Most websites are built to look fantastic, often costing a lot of money, but when the designers have finished and hand it over to the charity, social enterprise or small business they tend to find that very few people visit their shiny new site, even if they manage to find time to keep updating it with content to attract free visitors.

Our website, on the other hand, is very affordable
and brings in literally tonnes of donations worth thousands of pounds. 

Why?  Because we do it ourselves, with an 'All-in-One' system of tools, research and support.

Curious to know more?  Check the FAQs below.

How do you have time to keep up with a website?

To be absolutely honest, we didn't, especially when we got really busy with our shop and yet the donations kept on coming.  Some of our pages weren't updated for 4 years since we first started it, but what we had created was enough to get us into the search results when people asked "where to donate art and craft supplies" etc. 

Running a nonprofit is a very time-consuming task, but if we'd had the time to keep our website updated as we should have, imagine what could have been! 

So how come people find your site?

We were taught a step-by-step process using the best set of tools, research and support out there for 'ordinary' people or small charities and nonprofits who don't have a lot of money to pay to web-designers. 

It's an 'All in One' system called Solo Build It!

The whole thing for a year is approx £260 / £27 a month (converted from USD $329.99 / $34.99) or you can get a 'Buy 1 Get 1' at certain times of year e.g. Christmas.  There's also a cheaper version for Wordpress users.

But...it doesn't look that great, a bit amateur?!

Yeah, we're running a nonprofit, we're not web designers...but it sure brings in donations and visitors! 

Saying that, it can't be that bad because our donors would say our site made it look like we were a bigger operation than we were, and many would assume we had a warehouse and lots of staff.

I couldn't do this

Neither could our CEO, all those years ago, with no idea of how to get a business online or build a website but there's so much support and learning that you just pick up new skills AND there's Tai, their new AI Assistant to help now too.  The Solo Build It! forums are full of people saying the same thing, I wasn't a techie, I had no idea what I was doing...but they did it.  They're also full of people returning to build another site or revamp and old one, much like we did.    

How much does it cost?

The whole thing for a year is approx £260 / £27 a month (converted from USD $329.99 / $34.99). If you're using Wordpress it's even cheaper.

That's for everything you need, all in.  Not just the hosting, or the domain name or extra costs for additional tools...everything. 

And there's a 90 day money back guarantee if it's not for you. 

They also do a 'Buy 1 Get 1' e.g. at Christmas so people can gift it, split the cost or even get 6 months free if they don't end up sharing with someone else.

GoDaddy etc are much easier and cheaper

We disagree.  Our CEO tried GoDaddy, 1&1, Bluehost, HostGator and various other web hosts and platforms but nothing came close to what Solo Build It! offers so we knew 100% it was the home for our new nonprofit site to be nurtured - and now you can get an add-on for Wordpress too if you have a blog built on that already.

Hmm, so what's in it for you?!

We're long-term SBIers, we know it works, and we're extremely grateful for what it enabled us to do as a small nonprofit, so we're more than happy to recommend Solo Build It! but yes, we do get a commission if anyone wants to try it out for 90 days using our affiliate/referral links. 

Originally we were cautious about using referral links but don't have a problem with that now, since it's just another way of generating income for our nonprofit from our website, and the more we generate the more we can support vulnerable people and our environment (you could do the same!).

Solo Build It! Holiday Special

*Disclaimer: This page contains affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase after clicking a link, we may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. We appreciate your support, it helps us support others.

Crafting for Good were asked to write a blog for the UK CIC RegistrarWe were beyond thrilled when the actual UK CIC Registrar invited us to write about our journey for their blog, when we were just starting out.