More than a planner: Bloom daily planners receives $50,000 grant from Amazon – The Review

Selin Bacaz/THE REVIEW

NYA WYNN Co-Managing News Editor

Newark-based company, bloom daily planners, received Amazon’s Force for Good award, which comes with a $50,000 grant, at the Amazon Accelerate conference. Amazon recognized three small businesses making a powerful impact in their communities by blending philanthropy with entrepreneurship.

Founders Michelle Askin and Kaylyn DiNardo founded bloom daily planners in 2010 upon graduating from the university in order to inspire and empower others to “bloom” into the best versions of themselves.

“A planner is such a unique product where you’re literally talking to your user every single day,” Askin said. “And instead of just going surface level and making it aesthetic, we wanted to dig into how we can really use them as a tool. And that’s when bloom was really born.”

Every bloom planner comes equipped with not only an appealing cover design, but also goal setting tools, vision boards, kindness challenges and reflection questions.

“We just started with classic daily planners back in 2010, but since then we have really just poured our hearts into making our products really intentional that have an impact on people’s daily lives,” DiNardo said.

Askin and DiNardo expanded their planner line to include specialty planners tailored to significant life milestones, challenges and goals. They drew inspiration from their own personal experiences to design these products, allowing them to address a wider range of user needs.

“As we got married, we created wedding planners, and as we had babies, we created pregnancy planners,” DiNardo said. “We now have a chronic illness planner that was largely inspired by Michelle’s husband, who has Parkinson’s. We’re really creating intentional products based on what’s needed out there and how we can make an impact in people’s lives.”

As a company, bloom has donated over $4 million in free products to organizations like the Kids In Need Foundation, under-resourced schools and homeless shelters, as well as direct financial support for various charitable organizations.

This is what made bloom daily planners an ideal candidate for Amazon’s Force for Good award.

In a statement written to The Review, Natalie Angelillo, the director of seller external relations at Amazon, wrote: “The honorees are all active members of their communities who contribute through their businesses, solve a community need and continue to use their Amazon businesses to enable their impactful efforts.”

Angelillo highlighted the importance that Amazon places on the connection between successful entrepreneurship and community impact, a principle that bloom tries to exemplify through their philanthropic initiatives.

Bloom’s product lines go toward funding different give back projects, one being their empowerment planner, which they provide thousands of for free annually to women in prison. The goal of the line is to empower them and give them a strong base to start fresh.

Bloom also participates in company-wide volunteer events, making sure they contribute their volunteer efforts to causes that are close to their hearts and important to their team members.

Askin and DiNardo strive to foster community within bloom customers. Every bloom planner has an invite to a free Facebook community, so all of the planner users can come together and share how they are using their planner.

“In the group, people inspire each other, post how they’re using it, share their best tips and kind of get accountability partners on their goals,” Askin said. “It’s a really awesome group of cheerleaders who are just like supporting each other and taking it a step further, it’s not just a planner it’s a community.”

DiNardo emphasized one of bloom’s main missions as a company is to serve others, saying this core value is behind everything that they do.

“We truly try to make products that help change lives,” DiNardo said.