It’s clear to anyone scrolling through the Mies to Go webshop that the woman behind the handpainted products loves the natural world. Michelle de Boer, art director and designer, started painting watercolours in 2017, and has been painting ever since. 

Inspired by the creativity of her children, she gravitated towards painting animals, resulting in the colourful paintings, plates, chairs, and napkins signature to the Mies to Go collections. But painting animals was not enough. Mies to Go wanted to do more than create homages to the animal kingdom — they wanted to give back in the most effective way possible.

Effective help for the ocean

Focusing in on the oceans, which produce 50% of our oxygen supply, Mies to Go created the Ocean collection, a series of products featuring watercolours of sea creatures like turtles, lobsters, and octopuses. They planned to donate a portion of the proceeds to ocean-related charities.

The brand recognised that our seas have multiple threats; ocean acidification, climate change, and overfishing. In their search for a charity to address these problems, they couldn’t find an organisation with the holistic approach needed to create real change. Until they found Kinder.

Kinder’s United Actions bundle top performing charities from their in-house evaluations, all tackling the same urgent problem from different angles. Donating to a United Action means tackling a problem with several solutions — to make your money as effective as possible. This is exactly what Mies to Go needed.

Mies to Go’s Save Sea Life United Action

Mies to Go partnered with Kinder to create a personalised United Action for their Ocean collection proceeds — aptly named Save Sea Life. The research team at Kinder curated a group of top-performing charities all solving sea problems from different angles for the brand. A portion of the proceeds from Mies to Go’s Ocean collection are split equally among the charities in the Save Sea Life United Action, meaning the donations cover everything from research, to policy, to conservation efforts.  

Every charity on the Kinder platform needs to go through a rigorous evaluation process, ensuring they strive to be as effective as possible. The charities in this personalised Save Sea Life United Action include organisations like the Plastic Soup foundation, who focus on the link between plastic and human health, and the Ocean Foundation, who are dedicated to reversing the trend of Ocean destruction. 

By addressing the multiple root causes to the urgent problems threatening our oceans, Mies to Go have ensured they have helped as effectively as possible. This way they can fulfil their commitment to the sea creatures they love so dearly, protecting them for generations to come. 

Are you a brand that would like to create a United Action? Get in touch.