When we started the company, we promised ourselves that we would always make time to give back to the community. Our hope was to have a business that looked beyond profits to do our part in making the world a better place. Several years ago, while we were still growing as Bumpies, we were assembling our packaging from our home garages and living rooms. As our business grew and demand continued to rise, we had the choice to outsource our work overseas or look for an alternative method to support the work. We decided to partner with a San Diego, California nonprofit organization, Partnerships With Industry (PWI), to do our assembly and fulfillment.
What attracted us to PWI was their mission to provide vocational training and employment opportunities to adults with both developmental and physical disabilities. It is often very difficult for adults with disabilities to find and sustain employment. PWI's goal is to successfully create partnerships between local San Diego businesses and adults with developmental disabilities, and have them become an active part of the workforce. This was our first of many steps to build a business that would give back to the local community.
(PWI staff and clients)
We were inspired by how PWI would focus on their people's many abilities, rather than their disabilities. Furthermore, the joy we received as we saw how productive and happy we could make these individuals continued to further inspire us to give back.
As Bumpies began to grow further and eventually transitioned into the premium-quality brand we are today, Utomic, we wanted to stay true to our original roots and continue supporting local community organizations such as PWI. We eventually grew enough where we were able to successfully move our assembly and production out of PWI and into our own facilities. We are proud to say that we were able to hire some of the same adults from PWI as full-time Utomic employees.
(Danielle, Utomic production team member, former PWI client)
Since day one, we have always been big supporters of giving back to the community and we wanted to start by providing employment opportunities for adults who normally wouldn’t be able to find a regular job. We have also been big supporters of organizations focused on creating a world without cancer such as Pedal the Cause and the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Our founders volunteer as mentors to other startups and support local food banks and homeless shelters.
(Providing drinks and encouragement to breast cancer fundraiser run)
If you know of any other local San Diego organizations that are seeking support, feel free to leave a comment below so we can look into it for the future. As a special thank you for reading this blog, enjoy a special 25% promo code listed below.
