“What would a good company do?”
It’s a question we often ask ourselves when we’re faced with a tough decision. We use it as a guide to make sure we are doing the right thing for our communities, our business, our associates, and our customers.
We demonstrate this commitment to being a good company by using our voice and resources to make a positive difference in our communities and people’s lives. Whether it’s connecting 10 million kids to gardening and outdoor play or creating innovative products designed to protect our planet’s resources, we believe it’s our responsibility to cultivate good in our unique spheres of influence whenever we can.
The Hawthorne Social Justice Fund
This is what drove us to create The Hawthorne Social Justice Fund within The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation, which we announced earlier this year. This fund is investing $2.5 million over the next three years to support nonprofit organizations with cannabis social justice missions. Working together with these groups, we want to help address the longstanding social injustice and systemic inequality related to cannabis prohibition in the United States.
Not only is this the right thing to do, but as North America’s leader in indoor and hydroponic growing supplies, we know it’s our responsibility to help shape a cannabis industry that is just and equitable for everyone and rights past injustices. This fund deepens our commitment to the industry. It is our promise to support communities and individuals who have been negatively affected by unjust cannabis laws and prohibition.
Organizations driving social change
Today, we’re announcing the first grantees of The Hawthorne Social Justice Fund. These organizations were selected because of the incredible work they’re doing every day.
Last Prisoner Project is dedicated to cannabis criminal justice reform, working to release people with low-level cannabis convictions from prison in states where it is now legal and provide pathways to employment.
Marijuana Policy Project Foundation is a racial justice and social equity project seeking to elevate cannabis reform as a civil rights issue at the national level and increase diverse representation within the legal cannabis industry.
Minorities for Medical Marijuana provides advocacy, outreach, research, and training as it relates to the business, social reform, public policy, and health and wellness in the cannabis industry. Its Project Clean Slate program offers expungement clinics and wraparound services nationwide for those affected by past marijuana possession charges, while Project Safe Access NV assists members of the Latino community in accessing medical marijuana.
NuLeaf Project builds intergenerational wealth via the legal cannabis industry for the communities disproportionately harmed by cannabis criminalization–including Black and Brown communities.
Hawthorne is a corporate sponsor for the Nu School Accelerator Program, which offers financial support and technical expertise on cannabis startup financing and operating an ancillary business.
United Returning Citizens provides job search and training, life and financial literacy skills and transitional and stable housing primarily for citizens reentering society from correctional facilities. This partnership focuses on workforce development, helping people with cannabis convictions in a high-unemployment area (Youngstown, Ohio) find employment and start businesses in hemp, indoor cultivation and legal cannabis cultivation.
Above all else, we want The Hawthorne Social Justice Fund to drive social change and cultivate good in communities facing decades of injustice. We’re striving to make a lasting impact in an area where justice is long overdue.
