If you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, or you subscribe to the Madlug newsletter, you may have heard us talking about Madlug Your Business.

As a lot of you will know, Madlug is our consumer brand and an award-winning bag brand that stands for ‘make a difference luggage’. Why? Because for every bag sold, another is given to a child in care. You can find out more about our story here.

Along the way, we have also helped many businesses help children in care, this year inviting even more to do so by launching our new website, Madlug Your Business.

What is Madlug Your Business?

Madlug Your Business is a separate selling platform designed to make it easier for businesses to partner with us and join the Madlug movement.

Through Madlug Your Business, businesses can purchase Madlugs for new hires, gifts for support staff, or corporate gifting and business presents, while increasing their social impact in the process.

By joining the Madlug movement, consumers, staff, and clients are not only reminding children in care of their value, worth and dignity — they are also carrying a bag with the same message, changing a child’s story forever.

Staff Gifting

Recognising the efforts of your staff – and better yet, showing that you appreciate them, is a vital component of a happy workforce. The best thing about gifting your staff a Madlug bag is that the impact goes beyond your initial gesture of goodwill. As well as supporting our 'buy one, give one initiative', you are helping to spread the message that all children in care deserve value, worth, and dignity.

Client Gifting

More businesses than ever are viewing corporate gifts as an indispensable part of their business strategy – and it’s not hard to see why.

Research shows that 85 percent of businesses say that corporate gifting strengthened valuable relationships, with 25 percent issuing corporate gifts to prospective clients as a way to help them to generate new business leads.

Onboarding

Onboarding new employees is a critical part of business success, but is especially important during the current climate, where many of us will be working remotely for the foreseeable future. With fewer businesses occupying their office spaces and social distancing now the new normal, it’s also more difficult than ever.

The key thing to remember when welcoming new employees is to make them feel connected – both to other staff members and to the wider business values. Including a Madlug bag in your onboarding pack will not only make them feel like part of the team, but shows them that you are a business that cares about making a positive social impact.

We co-brand too!

In a competitive business world, you know how critical it is to be identified as a forward-thinking brand with a focus beyond just making profit. Having a Madlug logo on your materials reinforces these attributes and affirms to staff, clients, and prospects that you prioritise contributing to important social causes.

Currently, we only offer co-branding on a selected range of bags, but if you are interested in co-branding other products, please contact us and we can connect you with one of our partners. Providing we have stock, the lead time is around four weeks.

Who have we partnered with?

After an extremely challenging year, IKEA started to rethink how it could use its annual Christmas gift in 2020 to make a positive impact whilst also supporting social enterprises to grow.

“At IKEA, we’ve been supporting children in need for a number of years, hoping to bring a long-term positive impact on the lives of the most vulnerable young people in our communities,” said Hege Sæbjørnsen, IKEA country sustainability manager for the UK and Ireland.

“As part of our long-standing commitment to being people and planet positive, this year we wanted our co-workers’ end-of-year gift to make a meaningful and impactful difference. In social enterprise Madlug we found a perfect partner and one who shares our ambition and values, and a joint aim to provide a better everyday life for children living in care.

“Through gifting one of their bags to our own co-workers, together we will be donating a total of 12,876 bags to children in care – including to those looked after by our national charity partner Barnardo’s.”

You can learn more about our partnership with IKEA in the video below.

After hearing Madlug founder, Dave speaking at the Management Leadership Network (MLN) in 2019, the network’s partner business, Pacem got in touch. In addition to purchasing bags and laptop cases for all staff members, co-branded with its logo, Pacem also gave Madlug products as corporate gifts for an event they ran.

“For us, the story of Madlug is something that we want to share, not just with our team, but with other people as well, and this enabled us to do that," said Daniel Glover, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Pacem.

“Some businesses are solely profit-driven, while others like social enterprises are not-for-profit. I think businesses like ours will aim to be in the middle. You don’t have to be a social enterprise to do good—you can make it part of your wider corporate goals.

“I really value the meaning of Madlug and if we could spread the message that children in care deserve value, worth and dignity with our customers and the 500-odd businesses that we deal with, I’ll be very happy.”

GRAHAM was one of our first corporate customers, first purchasing Madlug bags in 2018. At the start, the bags were given as gifts to internal teams, but now play a big part in the company’s onboarding process.

Each time a new member of staff joins GRAHAM, they receive an onboarding pack, which includes a Black Tech Backpack, co-branded with the company logo.

Through purchasing Madlug bags for its staff and clients, GRAHAM has improved the lives of many children in care.

“Having been supporters of Madlug since 2018, we have seen first-hand how it lives up to the message behind its name, ‘Make a Difference Luggage’,” said Lorraine Harrison, GRAHAM I.T. Director.

“The bags make an enormous difference to the lives of children in care – a group in our society who so often do not have a voice.

“When I first encountered Madlug, I was shocked to learn that the worldly possessions of children in the care system are often stored and transported in black bin bags. The Madlug bags, with a label saying ‘You are incredible’ remind every child of their value and worth.

“For GRAHAM, our partnership with Madlug is a natural fit, which aligns with our own commitments to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (namely Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities and its aspirations to make the places where we all live ‘inclusive’ and ‘safe’0. These bags symbolise inclusivity and safety to children in care, and we are proud to endorse Madlug and its message.”