I believe that, when we combine our work with something we are passionate about, we have a winning ticket in our hands.
Our very own Marissa Singh (you can find her most Sundays at Latin Dance Fitness class) was able to do that when she joined ONEHOPE, a winery and impact company in Napa Valley, California. Marissa is 38 years old, grew up in Wyckoff NJ and currently lives in Paterson with her husband, their three sons and two dogs. In addition to ONEHOPE, she works full time for her family business, Aaker Electric, in Passaic, NJ. Marissa loves animals, the outdoors, traveling, reading and taking her classes at Studio 108!
ONEHOPE started in 2007 with a mission to change the world through wine. Every bottle of wine ONEHOPE sells has a cause partner associated with it. Susan G. Komen, Team Rubicon, Alex’s Lemonade Stand and Why Hunger are just a few examples. To date, ONEHOPE has donated back over 6 million dollars to causes locally, nationally and globally.
Marissa decided to join ONEHOPE after a high school friend invited her to a Facebook event raising money for Oasis in Paterson. As a resident of Paterson, she was very happy to help so she purchased some wine. Not only did she find the wine delicious but she found the fundraising aspect so inspiring and decided she wanted to be a part of it. That happened in August of 2020.
In Marissa’s own words, “we raise A LOT of money for thousands of non profits but ONEHOPE also built a school in Guatemala and they have many bottles of wine that benefit the Napa Valley farmers who work very hard on their vineyards. I think this speaks greatly to the character of our Founders. By creating a community of Cause Entrepreneurs, they have also provided thousands of women and men with an opportunity to create an income while giving back.”
Marissa truly loves working with ONEHOPE, because, according to her, “they are encouraging, transparent and accessible. We hear from the founders weekly live on Facebook and the community itself is very supportive of one another.”
Some of the organizations helped to date are Oasis in Paterson, Rett Syndrome Organization, West Bergen Mental Healthcare, the Lustgarten foundation for Pancreatic Cancer, Marty’s Place Senior Dog Sanctuary, Friends of Linden Animal Shelter and the Rally organization. This is most but not all. It’s a long list!
During my chat with Marissa, I asked her why she believes it’s important to give back. Here’s her answer: “It’s always important to give back but especially now when a lot of the fundraising efforts for many non profits have been hindered by the Pandemic. Our CEO Jake Kloberdanz made an excellent point in an interview he did in 2015 “In the past year, Fortune 500 companies made $12.21 trillion in revenue; If just 1% of that sum was donated to a cause, $122 billion could have provided clean water to every single person, eradicated many tropical diseases, fed every single person without access to nutritious food for a year, educated every child without schooling for a year, planted 1 billion trees and ended homelessness in the United States.” It’s important to give back, because WE CAN.”
If you would like to shop for a cause or learn more, you can visit Marissa’s website here. You can follow her on Instagram @onehopemama or email here at onehopemama@gmail.com if you are interested in hosting your own fundraising event. It’s always a pleasure to share the ONEHOPE experience and opportunity.