Salt of the Earth - a new charity from the duo behind Salt

“We wanted it to have a connection to Salt, but that’s a personal thing. More importantly the idea is that, you know, the phrase Salt of the Earth. If someone’s a ‘salt of the earth’ they’re just a good person doing good things."

“All of these people out there doing wonderful stuff that we can enable - these people are the salt of the earth. They’re giving up their time, their energy, their resources, their money, their everything else to do good for other people. We wanted to celebrate and recognise that.”

Kath Cotton, Managing Director of Salt is explaining why she and Salt co-founder and Creative Director Chris Tredwell are launching a new charity, Salt of the Earth Community Foundation.

At Salt, “we talk very much about concentrating on the human aspects of things and how we can change behaviours and how we can support in a positive way and work with people on a human level,” Chris muses.

“We set up this lovely business that we’re really proud of. But what do we want it to achieve? It came down to making a difference and positive change.

“That’s when the conversation started up around ‘Wouldn’t it be amazing to start a charity’, which seemed absolutely ridiculous? But also really exciting, in the same breath. The more that Kath and I talked about it, the more it sounded like a really good idea and how Salt could help with that.”

“I think it gave us a tangible purpose,” Kath agrees. “We’ve always done quite a bit of pro bono work and donating to different charities along the way, but it gave us a strategy. It’s a bit more considered. We wanted to do something on a smaller scale where you can more tangibly see the impact.”

What does Salt of the Earth actually do?

In practical terms, Salt of the Earth is a grant-making organisation that supports small community projects with a focus on health and the environment.

The charity recently awarded its first grant, to Earthworks – a community project local to Kath in St Albans, Hertfordshire, that supports people with learning disabilities (‘Earthworkers’) through social and therapeutic horticulture work.

Salt of the Earth’s grant will provide funding to transform a floodplain into a thriving eco-garden habitat to celebrate Earthwork’s 30th anniversary.

The Earthworkers will now be able tend the new space, learn new skills and expand the positive experiences of social interaction and responsibility they already benefit from in in a nurturing, work-like environment.

“I think it really encapsulates what we want Salt of the Earth to be,” says Kath, “being able to make that real, genuine difference to people on the ground who are doing good work and need some help to continue doing that or expand doing that for the benefit of the community.”

“I think it’s great for mental health,” adds Chris, “and being outdoors I think is just good for the soul and all those things, really. It’s such a great space.”

A flavour of Salt

In future projects, Salt of the Earth will explore how to promote societal health and environmentalism beyond grant giving, such as conducting research and publishing studies of its findings. But for now, they are committing to manageable community projects within geographical reach of the charity’s trustees.

“It might be one or two projects a year, but they will make a difference,” Kath emphasises. “And for the people that you’re supporting, it makes all the difference.”

While the pair are keen to point out that Salt and Salt of the Earth are separate entities (Kath: “It’s not kind of some bizarre Salt spin off”), revenue generated by the agency funds the charity’s work, and a team within Salt is responsible for producing the charity’s branding, messaging and communications on a pro bono basis.

Kath and Chris’s extensive experience as communicators and leaders within their field also forms an important component of Salt of the Earth’s offering.

“One of the things that we’ve always wanted to do is not just write a cheque and hand it over, but to kind of support and be involved more than money,” Kath considers.

“Some of the causes that we’re going to support, they are not well versed in marketing and advertising and thinking about their audience and messaging and how to best put themselves forward and what opportunities there are to engage and communicate.”

“You’re working with excitable people on the ground who have got these most amazing ideas to change things within their communities - and have the strong expertise within that - but there’s only so much they can do,” adds Chris, “so we can bring some of our expertise to the table as well.”

Happy days are coming

The culmination of 18 months of hard work behind the scenes, with the launch of Salt of the Earth, Kath and Chris can now take a brief pause and reflect a little on their journey so far.

“Every now and then - like in this conversation, where you can actually think of the impact of what we’re able to do… it just makes me smile because it’s so simple really.” Kath explains.

“And it’s not, you know, we’re not heroes,” she says. “But we’ve been able to do a thing that we feel good about and other people really benefit from.

“We know we’re a small business, we’re not going to change the world. We know that. But if we can do good things in our little corner of it with the facilities and knowledge and resources that we have, then happy days.”
 
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For more information on Salt of the Earth and the projects it is supporting, go to https://www.salt-oftheearth.org, or follow the charity on Instagram or LinkedIn.

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