For some companies, today — Giving Tuesday, the Tuesday after Black Friday and Cyber Monday — is a big day for giving back to the community. For one Chicago startup, however, giving back to the community is a year-round endeavor; it's part of the business model.
Flowers for Dreams — the West Town-based flower shop that sells and delivers locally crafted flowers — was born out of the seasonal business of two students hoping to make a few dollars during their summers at home from college. In 2010, the students' business operated under a different name than it does today, with fewer resources and quite a few illegal vendor tickets from the City of Chicago. Two years later, after they'd graduated college, they launched Flowers for Dreams.
Since its launch in 2012, the company has donated more than $170,000 of its profits to charities throughout Chicago — and it all began with a Home Depot flower cart.
“When I was 19 ... I went around selling flowers on the streets to make some extra money, primarily at graduation ceremonies and commencements," said Steven Dyme, CEO and co-founder of Flowers for Dreams. "I kind of became the flower guy among family and friends.”
After a few summers running that first flower business and packing for a wholesale florist, Dyme and his friend and business partner, Joseph Dickstein, decided they wanted to formalize the business they began during their college summers. In 2010, while still in college, they launched Lake Shore Roses. Soon, their friends were asking them to do things that weren't necessarily part of the business — delivering flowers to their girlfriends on Valentine's day, for example.
"I would connect them to florists I knew who could [deliver]: local florists, online florists. It just felt like there weren’t a lot of good options," he said, adding that at that point, he had a better sense for the industry and "wanted to create a better, local option." The other options, he said, were too pricey, not accessible and/or not well designed.
Their first contracts were with local schools, he said. For every bouquet they sold, they donated a backpack to a student. In less than two months, they donated 600 backpacks, according to the company's website.
But, he continued, they wanted to figure out how they could add a delivery option for their customers.
“Our naiveté was an advantage, looking back,” Dyme said. “We were just like, ‘let’s figure it out and start a business… and use the social conscience we adopted as students and create a better way [to sell flowers].’”
So in summer 2012, their first business, Lake Shore Roses, evolved into the flower shop and delivery service they run today, Flowers for Dreams. The company offers four bouquet options — Farm, Sky, Fall and Violet — in four sizes that run between $35 and $95. The company offers free hand deliveries within the Chicago area.
Continuing the tradition of giving back to the community, 25 percent of the monthly profit benefit a local charity, meaning a portion of every bouquet sale goes to charity, according to Dyme. Every year, the staff at Flowers for Dreams choose 12 charities to donate the bouquet proceeds to — one charity per month. December’s charity will be The Night Ministry, an organization that benefits people in Chicago struggling with homelessness.
Flowers for Dreams has also donated to charities such as Pits for Patriots, New Moms and Nami Chicago this year. In January, the staff selected Refugee One. The two organizations teamed up to also provide job training and welcome bouquets of flowers to recently arrived Syrian immigrants.
Over the last four years, the business has expanded to include weddings and other events, the city's first flower truck in 73 years, and most recently, its own magazine. It was also recently added to the list of B Corps — identifying it as a for-profit company that is certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet the highest standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency.
Dyme said that the most important thing is that the mission of Flowers for Dreams extends beyond the check Flowers for Dreams writes to each charity at the end of every month, reflecting on the time two customers rescued dogs after learning about the nonprofit One Tail at a Time — a dog rescue in Bucktown — through buying flowers.
“That’s the ultimate thing,” he said. “Saving two dogs lives … that wasn’t even us, it was our reach. We introduced a cool charity doing worthwhile work, and somebody actually ended up supporting them in a big way.”
Nov. 30, 2016: A previous version of this story indicated that 25 percent of Flower for Dreams' sales are donated to the charity of the month, but it has been corrected to say that FFD donates 25 percent of its profits to the charity of the month.
