Day 2!  I love this time of year.  For those who are new, I’m featuring a different charitable organization every day this week, and giving them $25 plus 50 cents for each comment I receive on that post.  Plus, I’m asking you to tell me about some of your favorite charitable organizations- which will be in the running for an end-of-week $50 donation!  Full details here.

Today, I want to tell you about a cool little Chicago-based social enterprise called Sweet Miss Giving’s.

SMG2

I know, I know, I was skeptical about the name, too, but this organization does amazing things.  It’s a social enterprise, which means that it’s a for-profit organization with a social mission.  Their mission is two-fold: two provide job training and skills to the homeless, and to provide financial support to men, women, and children living with HIV/AIDS.

From their website:

Sweet Miss Giving’s is a premier bakery and jobs program that offers rich, decadent baked goods while providing a new reason to feel good about sweet indulgences: over 50% of all profits go to help the formerly homeless and HIV/AIDS-affected men, women, and children of Chicago House.

So the way it works is this: they make, sell, and deliver delicious baked goods.  They do this by training and employing homeless folks who need job skills.  The super-cool thing about their choice to start a jobs-training program in the food service industry is that it helps people get marketable skills and necessary certifications that will make them employable lots of places, not just at Sweet Miss Giving’s.  Participants in the program get certified in things like food safety and kitchen management, which makes them strong candidates for positions in other commercial kitchens when they’re ready to move on.  Smart. Very Smart.

More from their website:

Sweet Miss Giving’s was founded by Rev. Stan Sloan, an Episcopal priest and long-time CEO of Chicago House, the first provider of AIDS housing in the Midwest.  Sweet Miss Giving’s is Stan’s vision for how to create a pathway to jobs for the homeless – while also helping to fund Chicago House’s support services… We are driven by our social mission. Over 50% of our profits go directly to Chicago House.  What’s more: our bakery doubles as a comprehensive jobs program.  At any given time, more than a dozen disabled adults are getting real-world training and experience in our kitchen – as bakers, delivery assistants, and packaging specialists.

So today you can support Sweet Miss Giving’s and its mission by commenting on this post.  (I’ll be sending the donations to Chicago House, SMG’s non-profit partner.)

But that’s not the only way you can help this super-cool organization.  Are you in the Chicago area?  Does your office ever order in from Corner Bakery or Starbucks?  Wouldn’t it be awesome if, for the same amount of money, you got treats that helped give people job training and also provided support for people living with HIV/AIDS?  Why don’t you suggest to your office manager that next time you order in, you do it from Sweet Miss Giving’s?  If you would like some of our materials to pass along to a colleague, you can contact Stephen at ssmith@sweetmissgivings.com or 312.255.8470.

Social enterprise is cool, isn’t it?  So let’s get commenting!

Thank you.