‘Every gift is special.’ Company focuses on Happy Valley products for every occasion
This summer, The Giving Box celebrates its fifth anniversary. Founder Amanda Speck said she’s been growing the State College business primarily via social media, where her stylish, curated, locally-inspired gift boxes aim to “wow” Happy Valley fans.
The idea for a business around individualized gift boxes grew out of Speck’s own experiences struggling with gift shopping.
“I was noticing a need for gift giving. We had one summer with so many gifting events to attend — weddings, birthdays, anniversaries. It felt like we were trying to find a gift every weekend. That became this frustrating thing, but it should be fun,” she said.
She started The Giving Box offering gift boxes for weddings, which turned into gift boxes for baby showers, which has now evolved into gift boxes for any occasion at all.
At the beginning, each gift box was filled with a mixture of locally-sourced and specialty items, but now, Speck said, every item in every box is Pennsylvania-made, unless a client specifically requests otherwise. While she features a range of items based on clients’ requests in each box, locally-sourced food and drink items are a highlight in most, with Big Spring Spirits, University Wine Company, Axemann Brewery, Rothrock Coffee and Tait Farm Foods being just a few of the Happy Valley-based brands that you’ll frequently spot among The Giving Box’s offerings.
Each box comes with a list detailing each product, the local business that produced it and where it was made in Pennsylvania.
“Every one is custom, unless someone says, ‘I want that exact same gift (from social media).’ People contact us, tell us a price point they’d like to see the gift come in at and then they describe the person they’re giving it to. They’ll say if they’re a foodie or if they like coffee. They’ll give us different key points (about that person) and, based on those details, we create each gift box,” Speck said.
Over the last year and the course of the pandemic, Speck said her shipped orders increased, prompting her to reevaluate her packaging. Even then, she turned to her local partners to find solutions, working with local artists to create stamps and accents for each lovingly-packed and styled gift box.
But while she specializes in bespoke gifts, Speck recognizes consumers sometimes still need a quick gift with little planning required and so, looking to the future, she wants to start up a website with pre-made gifts and gift boxes available at different price points, approximately from $20 to $150.
“And we’ve done a decent amount of gift boxes for $20,” she said. “And no matter how small the price point, we still invest the same attention to detail that we do to our larger gifts. ... Every gift is special. I put a lot of time and thought into it.”
Her visions for the future also include more corporate gifting, a warehouse of local products and possibly even other Gifting Box outposts focused on local makers from other regions around the country.
Learn more about The Giving Box on Facebook at www.facebook.com/thegivingbox.club/ or on Instagram at www.instagram.com/thegivingbox.club.
This story was originally published June 5, 2021 at 7:00 AM.