Baking

A Sweet New Way to Support She's the First!

Emily Dubner, 25, started an online bakery where you can donate 15% of your purchase to a cause of your choice. She's the First is now an option!

Need to buy a birthday gift for dad? A present for the office when you end your internship this summer? Or just a random gesture of appreciation for the neighbor who helped you move in? Well, now you can buy them a sweet treat on BakingforGood.com, and 15% of the proceeds will be donated to She’s the First!

BakingforGood.com was founded in 2009 by Emily Dubner – the first in her family to start her own business! Now that we’re a community cause, when you make a purchase on BakingforGood.com, you can select to have the donations support sponsorships for girls worldwide! Here’s our partner page.

Get to know Emily a bit better below, and we think you’ll be equally convinced that a little sugar goes a long way…

You went to Harvard, which many would say is the most prestigious university in the country. What is the #1 thing Harvard taught you?

At Harvard I learned to take advantage of new opportunities and go places that may have been outside of my comfort zone. There were so many different kinds of opportunities at Harvard, but in many cases we had to be proactive in order to experience them.

What is the most important lesson that you learned in the business world that Harvard didn’t teach you?

I’ve learned so much in the four years since college. Great ideas don’t matter unless they’re well executed, you can’t please everyone all of the time, and the customer is always right.

If you could go volunteer with girls anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I’d probably go to rural China to focus on girls’ education.

You studied Mandarin Chinese – tell us more! Why?

At Harvard, I could have studied anything, and I went in with an open mind. China’s rapid growth and cultural and societal changes were fascinating to me from afar when I read about them in the news, and I was attracted to the idea of diving deep to learn about a country and a history that was so foreign to me. I started studying Mandarin and taking all the China classes I could fit into my schedule, joined a variety of different programs that took me to China, and lived with a family in Beijing for three summers. You might think that I gave it up after college, but that wasn’t my intention. Part of what drew me to the consulting firm I joined was its interest in China and the potential to one day work on projects there.

For those who want to contribute to She’s the First sponsorships simply by buying your cookies or brownies as a gift for someone, how are the treats delivered so that the recipient also knows about the cause?

Each gift comes with an enclosure that explains the Baking for Good concept and says “15% of this purchase is going to [She's the First].” The cards are really cute, and many customers have told us that they’ve kept theirs as keepsakes.

What are your most popular orders when it comes to gift giving?

Everything’s delicious. Some of our most popular orders are for cinnamon blondies, peppermint brownies, chocolate crackle cookies, and whoopie pies. We offer gift boxes that customers can customize with 2 to 4 products inside, and those are some great ones to include!

What treats can we look forward to for the holiday season?

A big favorite is gingerbread blondies, which we only offer at the holidays. We’ll also have fun iced sugar cookies — Christmas trees, mittens, snowflakes, etc. We also do iced gingerbread cookies in the winter. And we’re open to ideas if anyone has other holiday favorites!