Ergo Donates Hand Sanitizer

Professional salon products supply company Ergo Styling Tools has made it easier for non profits to wash their hands with a donation of 1,400 16-ounce bottles of its waterless soap called In Between.

Valued at $11,000, the donation of the hand sanitizer, which contains 62% alcohol, went to National Association for the Exchange of Industrial Resources (NAEIR), a gifts-in-kind organization that receives donations from companies and distributes them to member schools, churches and nonprofits in need.Professional salon products supply company Ergo Styling Tools has made it easier for non-profits to wash their hands with a donation of 1,400 16-ounce bottles of its waterless soap called In Between.

People around the world have heeded the warnings and stepped up their handwashing to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but for Ergo founder Richard Reed, proper sanitation has always been at the forefront of his business.

“I’ve always felt that cleanliness was a key element in serving customers,” says Reed, who founded the Valencia, CA-based Ergo Research (the makers of Ergo Styling Tools) in 1994 along with Marlene Wagner.

As part of his business, Reed travels nationwide training hair stylists how to properly use and clean his popular products, which include brushes, blow dryers and flat irons.  Reed created In Between waterless soap in 2007 to help stylists better meet salon guidelines to wash their hands between guests. Because most salons have limited washrooms, with multiple stylists seeing an average of 10 clients a day, Reed knew it was difficult for busy stylists to wash their hands with soap and water frequently. Yet, many hair stylists shied away from using hand sanitizers because they tended to dry their skin.

Keeping that in mind, Reed developed In Between with a high level of aloe vera to help prevent dryness. He marketed the product as a “waterless hand wash” to differentiate it from typical hand sanitizers and, hopefully, encourage more frequent use. When Reed recently realized that he had a large supply of In Between, he reached out to NAEIR to make a donation. He had worked with NAEIR in the past and liked the idea of the product going to those who could truly use it. Gifts-in-kind organizations like NAEIR are nonprofits that accept excess inventory from a wide variety of companies and make it available to those in need. Companies ship their approved donation to a gifts-in-kind organization, the organization takes care of sorting the donation, and making it available to member nonprofits, schools and churches through its catalog or website. After receiving a donation, the gifts-in-kind organization sends tax documents to the company.

Ergo is no stranger to large donations. Past contributions included a $35,000 donation to breast cancer research through sales of a “pink ribboned” hair dryer and a $25,000 donation to City of Hope through sales of a pink version of its hot mat, an industrial silicone surface used to protect countertops from hot styling tools. While contributing proceeds from products to charity is a great way to give back, donating products you already have on hand can help you reach people on an even more individual level and work to reduce your inventory of excess or outdated beauty supply merchandise. For Ergo Research, donating In Between fit nicely with the company’s philosophy.

“We have always promoted the goodwill value of creating a clean oasis in a salon environment,” Reed notes. “Donating In Between is our way of helping even more people stay healthy by staying clean.”

NAEIR, National Association for the Exchange of Industrial Resources, is the largest gifts-in-kind organization in the U.S. Based in Galesburg, Illinois, NAEIR (naeir.org) has received donations of excess inventory from more than 8,000 U.S. corporations and redistributed more than $3 billion in products to more than 100,000 nonprofits. During fiscal year 2019, NAEIR collected more than $90 million in inventory and distributed more than $105 million.  Contact NAEIR at 800-562-0955.