Are You Doing Good?

Oftentimes they do need some support to do this work. So I think this program really was about bringing those two things together where we're essentially saying, "Look, we know that there are people out there doing good things in their communities, and we'd like to help support them."

At the same time we also recognize that it's really together — when we work together with our consumers, when we work together with our retailers — that we have the most ability to make a positive difference. So this program basically just opens up our support in a way where we're actually asking our consumers to help us decide where the money goes.

FS: Why is the program called "50 States for Good"?
Susan Dewhirst: We've dubbed it 50 States for Good because we're trying to galvanize a lot of different people, a lot of different types of organizations to apply. If you go to 50 States for Good, it goes right to the page that has a map. Throughout the summer and fall, that will be populated as we get applications from different states. So you can tell if an application has been sent in from your state throughout the summer. So that's sort of an interesting thing to watch. And if your state hasn't been represented, you can get some people together or contact an organization you work with and mobilize to put an application in.

After the applications close at the end of August, in September you can get on and start voting for your favorite organizations, and I think that's going to be a really fun way for our consumers to interact with Tom's of Maine and to give their opinions about what we should be doing now. Certainly we'll take into consideration their votes and the information that they give us as we move forward in developing programs in the future.