From Babies With Love…

What if you took the concept of a charity shop, fundraising by selling, but instead of selling 2^nd hand items, you sold something premium? It was this ground breaking idea that led Cecilia Crossley, to found the adorable, organic baby-brand, From Babies with Love. From the sale of organic baby clothes, accessories and items for the nursery, all their profits go to help abandoned children around the world.

In amongst trips to Korea, meeting Prince Charles and talking to Hello magazine, Cecilia managed to squeeze me in for a catch up. So, over toasted banana bread, we chatted social enterprise, winning awards and, of course, being a mum.

What does helping children look like in practice? We work in partnership with the international charity SOS Children’s Villages, which seeks to place abandoned and orphaned children in families in an SOS Children’s Village. The charity started in Austria just after WW2 when many children were left orphaned, and founder Hermann Gmeiner recognised the need for each child to grow up in a family. We support individual children, babies from birth and we also pay for their early years education. So far to date From Babies with Love are proud to have supported over 1000 children, 1018 on the last count!

Baby Arun from Cambodia, he moved into an SOS village in March 2015 thanks to the support of from babies with love. he has just learnt to crawl.

Cecilia was originally an accountant, but when she realised she loved her pro bono work far more than the every day job, she knew something had to change. After talking her way into an internal audit role at VSO, she opted to study for a master’s degree in International NGO Management at the Cass business School, and it was here she learnt about the idea of social enterprise. To clarify, social enterprises are defined as, companies which , “trade to tackle social problems, improve communities, people’s life chances, or the environment. They make their money from selling goods and services in the open market, but they reinvest their profits back into the business or the local community. And so when they profit, society profits.”*

Where did the idea for From Babies with Love come from? I gave birth to my son Isaac in Nov 2010, and in Dec 2010 the Save the Children adverts came onto TV. I was exhausted with a newborn and those images turned me into an emotional wreck. Parenthood changes you, I suddenly wanted to help every child. Six months later I was in Angel and I popped into Igloo’s summer sale. The thought occurred to me, what if I could buy beautiful products like these, but which actually helped people? After an internet search, I realised there wasn’t anything out there so I thought to myself, OK I’ll give it a go.

3 ½ years ago Cecilia visited Bubble London, the premium children’s trade show, clipboard in hand determined to glean as much information as possible. She soon discovered the clipboard had to go. This January she returned to Bubble London, with her brand From Babies with Love, it was their first ever trade show. Much to her delight, and surprise, From Babies with Love won Bubble London’s Rising Star Award.

Cecilia is very clear about the fact that it’s not enough just to be selling products to help people, that the item itself has to be desirable. I love From Babies with Love’s garments, they are made in Turkey from organic cotton which is a huge tick from me. Cecilia is super hot on her supply chain, so transparency isn’t an issue. The characters on the clothes are so cute, and can’t fail to put a smile on your face. Plus they’re unisex which, as a parent, makes life so much easier. Recently I spent an afternoon with the team getting crafty. They invited several bloggers and journalists to have a go at designing their own character. The final creations were judged last week, by buyers at Bubble London and the Penguin (not mine!) below won.

So what’s next? I’m off to Korea next week as part of the Britain is Great campaign. I’ll be pitching to their buyers. Distributing in Korea was never part of the business plan, but if we get a deal that will be phenomenal. Later this year there’ll be a new clothing range launched, which may yet include a penguin. Also, we’ve got a few other product ideas in development stages. But I can’t reveal what those are.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait.

For more information please visit www.frombabieswithlove.org

Follow twitter @frombabies & instagram @frombabieswithlove

*quote from www.socialenterprise.org.uk