Who do we think we are?
Currently we are just a small but mighty group of students with big plans. We are a growing network across the UK of student volunteers, working together to make this social enterprise startup possible.
Check out our Instagram @flow_for_the_future to meet the team as we expand.
Meet the ringleader
Hi I’m Laura, a 19-year old Durham University student, lover of pandas and obsessive tea-drinker. Flow for the Future is my brainchild – the product of frustration at the status quo of period products, combined with my ambition to make a difference in the world. I was inspired to start my own charity after reading that it is one of the most impactful ways to bring about social change, during a fellowship I took part in by Effective Altruism. After also learning about 80,000 hours, I felt motivated to build myself a purpose-driven career around my values and to help others do the same. I’ve started a few small businesses in the past (like selling handmade eco-friendly craft sets and running a service connecting DofE volunteers with sports coaching opportunities), but nothing as exciting as this. I hope that you find my enthusiasm for Flow for the Future contagious and are inspired to give us your support in any way you can.
Lots of love, Laura
Get social
Don't be shy! Check out our Instagram and come say hi, we'd love to have you with us :)
What's the plan, Stan?
01. Our business model
Inspired by the principals of Effective Altruism (check out their community if you’ve not heard of these guys yet, they’re awesome), we have developed an ethical business model that aims to maximise the investment potential of our profits.
The principal of this model is to keep costs as low as possible so that all turnover is streamlined into achieving our mission of reducing the cost of good products as much as possible.
Some examples of what this looks like…
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£0 invested in social media advertising. Rather than paying huge sums to Meta for the algorithm to push us to users randomly, we try to boost all our social media content organically ourselves. We rely heavily on building a community that cares enough about our mission to engage with our posts and share with others who may be interested. If you’re one of those people, we can’t thank you enough.
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On that note, we don’t invest at all in marketing. Most startups spend 10-20% of customer’s money on marketing. Instead of using your money to grow, we simply ask that you help us out by spreading the word. Go on, we are literally giving you permission to gossip about us.
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All profit reinvested – woop woop! Everything goes back to you guys, so what you give is what you get.
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Run entirely by volunteers. Massive thank you to everyone who invests their time and skills into making our dream a reality, every one of you is an inspiration.
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Receiving gift aid on donations, that’s 25p extra for every £1 you give. We aim to be the first period pad retailer in stores that is also a registered charity and can claim gift aid. So your money will go 125% further than if you were to give it to a profit-hungry corporation.
We’re quite proud of this model and want to encourage other businesses to behave more responsibly with their profits. All your work to grow our profile will help us to act as an inspiration for others and set a higher standard for the way companies, particularly those selling everyday essential products, operate. Are most of them even aware there’s a cost of living crisis???
02. Our fabulous volunteers
03. The main event: Our product
Our product isn’t unique. In fact it’s being done by quite a few companies, who all really know their stuff. Which is great because it means our humble enterprise can jump on the bandwagon and simply sell what people are already buying for cheaper.
You see, we’re in the business of saving the environment and we think you should be too. So we want to make it as simple as possible for everyone to access period care that as standard is natural, sustainably sourced, non-toxic, hypoallergenic, chemical free, super absorbent, plastic free… all that jazz. Without it costing the price of moon dust.
We find it outrageous that 90% of people currently use products containing polluting plastic and reproductive-system-harming toxins. And it’s shocking that these companies have got away unregulated for years.
Our mission is to show them up, because, not to brag, we have higher standards than that.
But high standards doesn’t mean the price bar goes up too, thanks to our cost-cutting business model.
Another way that we can reduce the cost of our product is by working only with volunteers. All our branding, marketing, communications and operations is currently run by student volunteers who make the whole thing possible. Our team is working super hard to make our social enterprise a success so that we can start making a difference as soon as possible. We need as much help as we can get so if you would like to get involved and think you have any useful skills, resources or contacts, please pop us an email at flowforthefuture@btinternet.com.
But before we get ahead of ourselves...
This all sounds well and good on paper but to make this plan a reality requires funding. Quite a lot of funding. And it's surprisingly difficult to get hold of. As well as applying for charity and startup grants and soon raising capital through pre-orders, we are relying on crowdfunding to get us to where we need to go. That's why we would love your help. Any donation you feel you are able to make will directly go to our mission. And for peace of mind we plan to be completely transparent about where our money is spent, so that we hold ourselves accountable for every decision. This supports our alignment with the principals of Effective Altruism, which explores how money can be spent most effectively for maximum impact. Follow our journey on our blog page here.
And click the button below to donate, thank you, we don't take it for granted.
04. Our lovely customers - that could be you..!
Don't fear, you will soon be able to get your hands on our amazing pads and experience their glory for yourself. To help with the mammoth task of raising enough capital to place our first order with our manufacturers, we will also be taking pre-orders. If you're keen to be one of the first to try us out, whack in your email and sign up to be updated when we start taking pre-orders. Once we get going we will also offer a subscription service to get regular pad deliveries and ensure you always have enough (all the other pad brands do it so we wouldn't want you missing out).
05. Supporting students
Another focus of ours is getting sustainable period care into schools. As a demographic, students are the most concerned with the impact of climate change, driving them to want to be more sustainable. However, they also have the least freedom over what products they choose. All state-funded schools in the UK have access to a government funded grant for offering free period products to students. However, the majority either don’t use this money at all, or spend it on products that may harm the reproductive health of the children. Through awareness campaigning we hope to encourage more schools to offer sustainable, safe period products. We also hope this will encourage students to continue using such products in future. Profit generated from sales of our pads to schools, spending grant money, will be used to reduce our retail price for the public. This should make our ‘premium’ product more budget-friendly and encourage buyers to make the switch.