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Tiny Miracles
The story of Tiny Miracles began in the Amsterdam offices of ABN AMRO where Laurien Meuter was thoroughly bored with her banking job. She wanted a bit more meaning in life, and having always had a deeper soul connection with India, googled ‘poorest area in Mumbai’. She arrived at Bombay Central where she saw several young girls simply roaming the streets. As a westerner in Mumbai, her first focus was to send these children (from low-income communities) to school. After finally persuading one school to accept these new students and convincing their parents to send them, it became clear within just one year that this wasn't enough to help the children escape poverty. The parents, who were not educated themselves and were severely economically challenged, would often keep their children out of school to work. And those children who were able to go to school were often hungry and malnourished, making them unable to focus.
Laurien and her team realized that they needed something that went beyond the standard NGO-approach to poverty alleviation.
The partnership with Rituals
Rituals is a Certified B Corporation and is dedicated to continuously improving its social & environmental impact in the luxury beauty industry. As a foremost founder of integrating bath, body and home care into a single portfolio, Rituals embraces the lifestyle of transforming everyday routines into more meaningful moments. Founded in Amsterdam in 2000, Rituals has since been established as a global industry expert in over 36 countries with more than 1,300 stores.
In 2010, Laurien Meuter approached the founder and CEO of Rituals. She presented her case to him and convinced him to become a donor of Tiny Miracles. That is how the partnership with Rituals began at first.
Four years later, Laurien sent Raymond a memorable text message - “We don’t need a donor, we need a customer.” Laurien and her team had realized that the need for parents, especially women, in the community was to find a stable job in order to achieve financial independence. To be able to employ them, they decided to shift from a foundation model to a social enterprise model. They didn’t want the impact to be only dependent on philanthropic fundraising anymore. Laurien and her team understood that building a sustainable and impactful business model would allow them to significantly scale their impact.
However, it wasn’t an easy journey. The social enterprise, after having trained and employed women artisans, started to sell sustainable goodie bags to museums. But the orders were small and very irregular, preventing these women from earning a stable income. Laurien wanted to secure larger and steady orders, so that the women could earn a higher and secure income. That’s where Rituals came in and completely changed the game.
Today, Tiny Miracles sells various types of products to Rituals: from bags, toiletry bags to bracelets. The co-designed Goodie Bag and limited edition Beach Bags, handmade by the women of Tiny Miracles, provided life-changing income, healthcare and education for them and their families.
"If the mission and products of the Social Enterprise align with your company’s mission, it is the most meaningful win-win long-term partnership you have within your business”
Niki Schilling - Director of Impact at Rituals
“You can’t make a long-term impact without pre-financing and long-term commitment of your partner“
Laurien Meuter, Founder Tiny Miracles
The Impact
Tiny Miracles is now present in 9 communities across Mumbai, counting more than 3,000 actively engaged community members.
The social enterprise has two distinct categories of products: those that women can make behind the sewing machine (like bags) and those that they can do from home (like bracelets, tassels). Tiny Miracles decided to offer this second working format to artisans, when they realized that many women aren’t able to leave their home, for example because they need to take care of their children. That way, they can still get access to a stable source of income for them and their family. This shows how each product of Tiny Miracles tries to solve a specific problem within the community.
And the partnership with Rituals has been a key enabler of these milestones. It allowed Tiny Miracles to finance the production for 12 months, thanks to its pre-payment of orders. The trust of Rituals helped Tiny Miracles to scale its positive impact on the vulnerable communities of Mumbai. In 2023 alone, the social enterprise manufactured over 3 million products for Rituals.
Thanks to the partnership, both organizations create a lasting social impact:
- Economic empowerment: getting out and staying out of poverty
- Mental well-being and increased self-confidence
- Mastered skill sets: stitching, quality management, logistics
- Physical well-being: public health clinic, clean water program.
Want to learn more about Tiny Miracles and Ritual’s partnership? Watch this video.