Making a difference, your way: business-charity partnerships with purpose

Approx. 8 min read

By Ryan Kane, Philanthropy and Partnerships Manager at Ripple Effect

Founded and led by sisters Clare and Emma Hancock, Thrive brings the coffee shop experience into workplaces and hospitality venues across London and beyond. Thrive has put social and environmental responsibility at the heart of its business.  A certified B Corp, Thrive sources coffee responsibly, uses compostable coffee bean packaging and makes local deliveries by electric vehicle. Its coffee machine engineers travel across London on foot or by public transport, helping to minimise emissions while enabling them to respond to breakdowns in less than two hours. 

Thrive donates a percentage of its coffee bag sales to Ripple Effect, meaning that as the business grows, so does its contribution to farming families across East Africa. 

It's a partnership that feels particularly fitting. Coffee connects Thrive directly to the agricultural communities on which its industry ultimately depends, while Ripple Effect supports coffee growers to build more resilient farms, diversify their incomes and adapt to a changing climate. Thrive's roots as a female-founded business also align closely with Ripple Effect's commitment to ensuring women have greater opportunity, confidence and influence.

For Thrive, this is also a way of bringing its values to life for its customers and business partners. Their everyday choice of coffee becomes part of something much bigger - connecting a growing London business with farming families thousands of miles away. 

Thrive shows what intentional corporate giving can look like: finding a cause that genuinely connects with your business, then building support for it into the way you grow. Since 2019, that has translated into almost £22,000 of support for farming families in East Africa - proof that consistent and intentional giving can create significant impact over time.

Glasgow-based Ilka Studio is a responsible branding and design studio, founded by Laura Service and Lisa Henderson. Ilka creates bold, strategic brands for organisations working to make a difference. In an industry historically dominated by men, Ilka set out to do design differently – putting people and the planet at the heart of how they do business. They became Scotland's first B Corp in their industry and joined 1% for the Planet in 2022. 

Their support for Ripple Effect began through that commitment, but this year Ilka chose to go further, becoming one of the Founding Corporate Members of our Equal Roots Fund. 

It's a meaningful fit. Across rural East Africa, women often carry a disproportionate share of farming, childcare and household responsibilities, while having less access to resources, economic opportunities and decisions that affect their lives. Equal Roots invests in changing that, helping women build confidence, increase their influence and achieve greater economic independence. 

For Ilka, that connection is personal. As a business founded and led by women, they have chosen to direct their giving towards work that enables other women to have greater agency over their own futures. 

Their support is helping fund practical work that challenges inequality at household, community and institutional level – from creating opportunities for women to earn and lead, to addressing unpaid care and ensuring women have a greater say in the decisions that shape their lives. 

Ilka demonstrates the power of giving intentionally: identifying the part of a cause that speaks most strongly to who you are as a business and choosing to make a focused difference there. 

Our relationship with family-run Cotteswold Dairy is rooted in a shared dairy heritage. Ripple Effect began life as Send a Cow in 1988, founded by a group of West Country dairy farmers, and dairy remains an important part of our work today. Across East Africa, we support dairy farmers and entrepreneurs to build sustainable livelihoods – including turning milk into new products, businesses and sources of income. Our current Dairy for Nutrition and Income (DaNI) project in Ethiopia, for example, is working with almost 50,000 people to improve dairy production, animal health and nutrition, while helping farmers earn more from milk and dairy products.

When Cotteswold opened a new building in 2024, they found a thoughtful and generous way to mark the occasion. For every new toilet and handwashing facility installed at the dairy, they funded its counterpart for a farming family in Africa - ultimately supporting 14 clean latrines and 20 ‘tip-tap’ handwashing stations.  

It was a simple idea with a tangible connection: celebrating new facilities at home by helping families thousands of miles away gain access to essential facilities of their own. We worked together to bring that story into Cotteswold's new building, creating materials that allowed staff and visitors to see what the milestone had made possible. 

Their support has continued to grow. After joining us at our Bath Abbey Christmas celebration in 2025, the family supported our nutrition, water and hygiene work in Burundi through the Big Give Christmas Challenge. 

Cotteswold shows how intentional giving can start with something already happening in your business – a milestone, an opening or a moment worth celebrating – and turn it into something meaningful for someone else.

Set in the County Antrim countryside, Riversdale Wagyu produces premium Wagyu beef using a non-intensive, grass-fed approach, combining traditional farming with a strong commitment to animal welfare and environmental stewardship. 

Their way of supporting Ripple Effect couldn't be more closely connected to life on the farm. Every time a calf is born at Riversdale, they make a donation equivalent to the value of a calf through Ripple Effect's virtual gift programme - turning the growth of their own herd into an opportunity for a farming family in East Africa. There's a lovely parallel with Ripple Effect's ‘Passing on the Gift’ model: when a family receives a cow, its first female calf is often passed on to another family, allowing the benefits to continue through the community.

There's even a personal touch. Riversdale names its calves using a different letter each year. In 2026 it was L, welcoming Len, Leo, Lyle, Luke and Layla – five new arrivals, each accompanied by support for our work with farming families. 

For families we work alongside, livestock can provide much more than food. With the right training and support, animals can contribute to household nutrition, provide manure for crops and create opportunities to earn and build a more secure livelihood. 

Riversdale has found a beautiful way to connect its giving with everyday life on the farm - with every new calf creating an opportunity to give back. 

Ripple Effect’s corporate team love working with socially conscious businesses to co-create mutually beneficial partnerships. We have partners of all sizes, and from many different sectors, with a shared passion for supporting farming families to thrive. 

If Ripple Effect's work connects with something that matters to your business, we'd love to hear from you. Learn more about corporate partnerships, and get in touch with our team at partnerships@rippleeffect.org. Let's find your way to make a difference.