Why Giving Back Is Becoming Part of My Small Business

Recently, my small business hosted a fundraiser using one of our paper designs, Cup of Kindness. Over a short period of time, the campaign raised $774 for the Joyce Uptown Food Shelf in Minneapolis, with 100% of the revenue donated to support food access with respect and dignity.

For me, this fundraiser clarified something important. Using the work I already make - papers designed with care using antique images - to support something immediate and necessary felt deeply aligned with the values behind this business. There was no disconnect between beauty and usefulness. The product didn’t change, but its impact widened.

As a small business owner who works closely with historical material, I’m constantly reminded that caring for one another is not a modern idea. In every era, people have used the tools available to them - craft, trade, community - to offer help in difficult moments. Beauty has often lived alongside that care, not as decoration, but as a way of sustaining attention and humanity.

This experience is shaping how I think about the future of my small business. I don’t yet have a fixed model for what giving back will always look like here, but I’m paying close attention to what felt right: using what I already have, responding to real needs, and building generosity into the work in thoughtful, sustainable ways.

I’m grateful to everyone who took part in this fundraiser, and to this community for supporting a values-driven small business that believes beautiful things can do good in the world.

About the author: Heather Caldwell is the founder of Caldwell's Miscellaneous Fancy Goods. A Dartmouth English major, she spent years as a librarian and book conservator at MIT and Harvard -  work that deepened a lifelong devotion to paper, books, and the objects that carry meaning. She founded Caldwell's to put those years of knowledge in service of women who love beautiful things: the readers, the collectors, the women with a Jane Austen state of mind.