PPB February 2021

rose to leadership roles within the company until becoming president in 2018. “I started with a couple of hours a week, to four hours a week, and now it feels like 80 hours a week. But it became my passion very quickly when I could see the connection between social impact products and their impact on the artisans.” One of Hirschberg’s first sales was for several hundred iron washer bowls made from recycled iron washers, produced by a social enterprise partner in India. “To me, it didn’t seem like a huge order,” she says. “I mean, the bottom line was great, but when I learned, after speaking with our producing partner, of the impact of that order for his artisans, that immediately changed everything for me. I said to my business partner at [Made By Hands, Inc.], ‘You know what, I can’t get excited about this anymore so you take over, you run it. I’m going to be doing this full time.’” According to Hirschberg, HHP LIFT is the “OG” of social impact products. “We are the industry pioneer and innovator in sourcing social impact products for business solutions. Back in 2012, our tagline was ‘Promoting Products with Purpose.’ No one had any idea what that meant. Now, we’ve really established that space and have challenged distributors to be thinking about purpose,” she says. “Last year, I was so excited that ‘purpose’ was the word at the PPAI Expo. It really does take a long time for a movement to stick, and we are glad to be at the forefront of that, and we are certainly glad that more and more distributors—and their corporate clients—are seeking social impact products, or like we said eight years ago, products with purpose.” As more consumers, clients and employees begin to expect companies to operate with purpose, Hirschberg says that HHP LIFT is providing a service and solution that clients are looking for. “While what we do is doing good, we are also experts on the business side. We understand how this industry works and what we need to do to make distributors look good to their clients. And what’s wonderful is that while we are providing beautiful, branded and unique products for our distributors, we are also teaching skills like branding and scaling to many of our producing partners.” HHP LIFT also has a local impact. When you buy the LIFT line of bath, spa, and personal care products, produced by our 1eleven Program associates in our LIFT workshop, you are providing a path for toward economic equity for people Above left: Program and affiliate associates finish an order of 1,500 eight-ounce candles in the LIFT workshop. Above right: The LIFT workshop. Right: HHP LIFT staff participate in a weekly yoga session meant to help them focus on their physical and mental well-being. | FEBRUARY 2021 | 67 CONNECT