Shave With Pride: Harry’s and The Trevor Project
Since its founding in 2013, Harry’s has provided high-quality razors at an affordable price. The company has always focused on making products for all men, thoughtfully — and from that vision, Harry’s launched a social mission to support men’s mental health, dedicating 1% of annual sales to nonprofits helping men access therapy and other life-changing mental health resources.
As part of its social mission, Harry’s set an ambitious goal in 2018: to build a network of nonprofit partners that could provide 500,000 men with mental health care within the next three years. Their goal centered on reaching vulnerable populations who face additional barriers to mental health care: veterans, young men, and the LGBTQ community. As a company, Harry’s is adaptive and impact-focused. So in 2020, when George Floyd’s murder sparked a national reckoning around racial justice, they added Black communities to their target populations — determined to serve these four diverse communities.
Therefore, as Harry’s prepared to launch its second annual “Shave with Pride” partnership with The Trevor Project, it had the following key goals:
1. Achieve its social mission to support mental health in vulnerable communities
2. Enhance brand affinity by centering social impact and showcasing genuine support of the LGBTQ community
3. Engage Harry’s employees with meaningful, impact-centered opportunities.
The Trevor Project is the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis
intervention organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) young people. Trevor’s research has shown that more than 1.8 million LGBTQ youth consider suicide every year in the U.S alone. In 2020, Trevor served more than 150,000 LGBTQ youth with life-saving support — a 53% year-over-year increase. Yet, this is only 8% of the young people that could benefit from its services.
In 2020, The Trevor Project responded to ever-changing global events to best serve LGBTQ youth at scale. To do so, Trevor needed to accomplish the following goals:
1. Raise Funds to Support LGBTQ Youth of Color
2. Expand Awareness of Trevor’s Services in the Midst of National Crises
3. Send a Message of Inclusion
With shared goals to center intersectionality and create tangible impact, Harry’s and
Trevor’s partnership was a natural fit. Although pivoted to respond to both the pandemic and the racial justice uprising, the partnership held steady to:
- Share the Story of Joint Impact: To raise awareness around the urgency of mental health care and Trevor’s services, Harry’s and Trevor partnered on an impact-centered digital marketing campaign in May and June 2020, which honored Pride.
- Support Mental Health through Direct Financial Investment: Harry’s donated $400,000 in corporate funds to Trevor’s strategy to better support Black and Latinx LGBTQ youth. Harry’s also leveraged its expertise as a design-centered retail company to maximize their contribution, teaming up with LGBTQ artist José Roda to create original artwork for their “Shave with Pride” SKU and donating 100% of profits to Trevor to demonstrate their authentic support of the LGBTQ community.
- Build Awareness : Against the backdrop of 2020’s myriad social challenges, Harry’s and Trevor partnered on a robust cause-marketing and press strategy. With Trevor’s original research in LGBTQ youth mental health and world-leading crisis services, they were uniquely positioned to demonstrate how Harry’s is tangibly supporting men’s mental health. By centering its “Shave with Pride” marketing campaign on the importance of Trevor’s services, Harry’s positioned itself to reach LGBTQ youth with the message that they are not alone and Trevor is there for them if they are ever in need of support.
Since this partnership launched in May 2019, Harry’s has supported The Trevor Project as the organization served around 150,000 male-identified or gender nonconforming young people — almost one third of Harry’s social impact goal through just one nonprofit partnership! With Trevor’s partnership, Harry’s achieved its goal of reaching 500,000 men and has set an even more ambitious target: to support 1.5 million men by 2024.
The “Shave with Pride” SKU sold out, demonstrating the power of the design-forward collaboration with José Roda and the appeal of a product designed to give back among Harry’s consumers. This success empowered Harry’s to donate $85,000 to Trevor — 1.5x its expected donation and 41% more than the results of our 2019 “Shave with Pride” campaign.
Harry’s customer engagement and brand affinity has increased as a direct result of this partnership. Harry’s donation will enable Trevor to serve 67% more LGBTQ youth in its 2021 fiscal year over its 2020 reach. With Harry’s support alongside other Pride partners, Trevor served more than 14,000 crisis contacts during June 2020. This partnership not only raised awareness of Trevor’s mission but shared a nuanced message about the importance of Trevor’s unique focus on LGBTQ youth mental health.
