This subscription box helps teach empathy to children

Lily Yeh has a background working in product management and strategy for Blackboard, AOL and Monster. But it was her two children who inspired her latest venture — Little Loving Hands.
Yeh wanted to encourage empathy in her children, and in order to do so “I wanted to introduce them to charitable giving,” she said. She didn’t want to simply donate food or cash, though, she wanted her kids to be able to practice empathy through something hands-on and engrossing.
And since she wasn’t finding great opportunities for young children, she decided to create one.

@lillovinghands Got our first box today! Ready to throw kindness around like confetti! pic.twitter.com/VibMlsijRt

— marjorie bottari (@MarjorieBottari) March 12, 2016

Little Loving Hands is a monthly subscription box that comes complete with all the supplies children between the ages of three and nine need to create “crafts for a cause.” The company partners with a variety of different charities across the country, and each month the box features a project addressing a need the organization has identified.
As one example — this month, Little Loving Hands subscribers are decorating canvas tote bags that will be given to Capital Area Food Bank for delivery of groceries to seniors. In the past, Little Loving Hands has worked with organizations like the Ronald McDonald House, Our Military Kids and Enchanted Makeovers.
The box also comes with “age appropriate” information about the cause the kids are helping with, and the whole thing is designed to be a collaborative experience between parent and child.
The D.C. area company only launched in November, but already Yeh has around 200 subscribers, located all over the country from D.C. to Hawaii. And she’s just getting started.

Thanks @GMA @michaelstrahan @toryjohnson for sharing the opportunity for kids to give back and help those in need! pic.twitter.com/0C9tUijPp9

— Little Loving Hands (@lillovinghands) March 3, 2016

Moving forward, Yeh said she’d like to be able to connect subscribers to local or regional charities based on where they live. The general, national focus of the moment is fine, she said, but ultimately “people like to be connected locally.” She’d also like to be able to give subscribers the ability to chose projects, have projects suitable to a bigger age range, and perhaps, through an online platform, connect the children themselves with those they are serving.
All this requires data, though, data about who her customers are and where they live and what they’re interested in. And that’s exactly Little Loving Hands is working to gather.
Yeh, for her part, seems excited about her new entrepreneurial role. Her skills from the corporate world transfer well she said, albeit towards a slightly different mission. “Now I’m doing something I really think is needed,” she affirmed.