Rare Beauty's Rare Impact Fund

(Image courtesy of Rare Beauty's Instagram.)

I grew up during the Disney Channel renaissance. Every afternoon, I saw kids and teenagers use magic, live in hotels, or become pop stars. Selena Gomez was one of the people I watched on TV in the years since Gomez evolved from performer to business mogul. Her company, Rare Beauty, wants to personify how beauty begins from the soul. Rare Beauty is one of the few cosmetic companies that has a non-profit division. Rare Beauty's non-profit wing is known as The Rare Impact Fund.

(Image courtesy of Rare Impact's website.)

Businesses begin with a product or service. Once they solidify their market position, a company could venture into the non-profit sector. Yet, with Rare Beauty, this process occurred in reverse. Rare Beauty founder Selena Gomez wanted to give back to the community. The Rare Impact Fund started to provide mental health resources before Rare Beauty entered the beauty market.

(Image courtesy of Rare Beauty's Instagram.)

Since its inception, The Rare Impact Fund has empowered, enabled, and educated global audiences about mental health. The organization has three pillars (suicide prevention, social/emotional learning, and practitioner pipeline). Rare Impact's Senior Social Impact Manager, Judith Martinez, sits at the organization's helm. Martinez entered the non-profit sphere after studying pre-law during her time as a first-generation college student. Over the past ten years, Martinez founded her non-profit InHerShoes Inc. and worked with the United Nations Youth Assembly. Since joining the Rare team, Martinez developed and deepened how the non-profit incorporates its mission and vision into its services. I recently spoke with Martinez to learn more about The Rare Impact Fund's work.

(Image courtesy of Judith Martinez.)

1. What was the catalyst for Rare Impact?

Every facet of Rare Beauty, from product ideation to The Rare Impact Fund, stems from our founder, Selena Gomez. Selena has been very open and publicly generous about her mental health journey. She understands the importance of mental health and wants to empower others with educational resources. At Rare Beauty, The Rare Impact Fund is our why. Since our first day, Rare Beauty has committed to donating 1% of all sales to benefit mental health and education.

(Video courtesy of The White House. The video depicts First Lady Dr. Jill Biden discussing mental health.)

2. How does Rare Impact communicate with different stakeholders?

Rare Impact communicates with stakeholders through our Rare Beauty product offerings and various Rare Impact initiatives. Mental health transcends age, race, gender, religion, and politics. At the heart of what we do, we encourage our community to redefine "baggage" and showcase vulnerability as a strength. We want to leverage our 10.3 million global audience to create educational and engaging social media content.

(Image courtesy of Rare Beauty's 2021 Social Impact Report.)

3. What are some ways people can help The Rare Impact Fund?

We want our audience to know that while we are not mental health experts, we want to act as a conduit to free, relatable, accessible, vetted, expert-backed resources.

Individuals can contribute to The Rare Impact Fund in multiple ways. From the beauty and brand perspective, 1% of the purchase goes to supporting the Rare Impact Fund and global youth mental health education whenever someone buys a Rare Beauty product. A person can directly support The Rare Impact Fund by donating to our GoFundMe campaign.

The Rare Impact Fund created and cemented global partnerships with various mental health organizations and professionals. Another way people can help The Rare Impact Fund is to follow our partners on their social media accounts.

(Image courtesy of Rare Beauty's Instagram.)

4. What is the future of The Rare Impact Fund?

The Rare Impact Fund's future is continued growth by expanding our work to a new region. e want to deepen our relationships with our current mental health partners. During Pride Month (June 2023), the United States saw backlash and negativity toward the LGBTQAI+ community and youth. The Rare Impact Fund worked to provide a safe space for all people by working with government legislation and donating to The Trevor Project. We also want to highlight our Rare Impact Fund mental health partners are over 65% BIPOC-led.

(Image courtesy of Rare Beauty's 2022 Social Impact Report.)