Medik8 has launched a fundraising foundation to honour the life of its much-loved office dog, Zipper, who recently passed away.
Set up by the brand’s founder, Elliot Isaacs, the Zipper Foundation will donate a minimum of £15,000 (approximately $28,000) a year to four separate funds:
- The Animal Fund will donate to projects that “intelligently and calmly support political campaigns to end the practice of eating dog meat,” and many other areas which involve kindness towards animals including medical research and veterinary bill payments for homeless people.
- The Rainforest Fund will donate and actively participate in projects that protect, preserve and/or grow the rainforest, as well as projects that protect the habitats of animals who live in them.
- The Ocean Fund will support “the unsung heroes out there who pick up our rubbish, spread awareness and campaign for ocean protection”.
- The Mind Fund will focus on projects that promote mental wellbeing and companionship.
In addition the company has made a special one-off in memoriam donation of £10,000 (approximately $16,000) to Humane Society International to help save 200 dogs from a dog meat farm closure in South Korea to help kick-start the foundation.
According to Medik8, the company has always helped charities where it could, but in 2018 the company decided “it was now time to scope out a permanent charitable effort”.
“Inspiration sadly came when Zipper, our much-loved office dog, who has been with us since the company was an idea on a scrap of paper, became ill and recently passed away.
“As a close knit family, we felt we had to do something in his name. The key for us is making a big impact in lots of small areas.”
Zipper (2003-2019), who had his own office badge, was the company’s “longest-serving employee”.
Isaacs took him into the office for the first time when he was just six months old in 2013.
Since then he has “touched an extraordinary number of lives having sat alongside all our staff and even met suppliers and customers when they visited”.
“The reason The Zipper Foundation is named after him is because of the values we saw him spread all around the office every day…
“ When thinking how Medik8 can build a charitable effort to further the causes we care about ‒ the forests, oceans, animal welfare and bringing hope to humans in need ‒ we thought wouldn’t it be helpful to have the perspective of Zipper to guide us and keep us on track.
“The Zipper Foundation will provide small grants to projects that have a real impact on a small scale. To stand up for the small and unheard. We will not be able to make a big noise and help everyone ‒ but like Zipper we will positively affect a few and leave some good in our wake.”
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