Hannah McKnight has built her life, and her business, around having an impact.
Her communications agency Ngātahi Communications is all about strengthening impact organisations through purpose-driven communications and engagement.
Her approach includes putting social, cultural and environmental outcomes at the centre of every decision; collaborating for collective action; building long-term relationships, and empowering people and communities to lead change.
When we all do that, she says, we’re all better off.
And whether you’re a business or an individual, having an impact doesn’t have to be about grand gestures — it’s often the simplest things like a thank you card or an email.
“Kindness is one of the ways that we can all make a positive impact. Especially at times like this (Covid-19), impact can be small things like checking in on each other and giving small tokens of appreciation.”
One way that Hannah has regularly shown kindness is by giving through The Good Registry.
She has given The Good Registry’s Good Gift Cards to clients, family and friends to say ’Thank you’, ‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘I’m thinking about you’ — and so that they can pay forward the kindness to their favourite causes. (The Good Registry has 65 charity partners that people can donate to with their Good Gift Cards — you can see them all here).
“As a business owner you want to show people that you care about them but I don’t want to give gifts that are not going to be used, that are potentially going to have a negative impact on the environment, or that have a broad brush approach and are not tailored to the individual and what they care about.”
“Also, with a lot of my friends and family, we are getting to that stage where we really just appreciate being with each other rather than having lots of gifts at times like birthdays and Christmas, but when you are unable to be together it is still nice to be able to show that you were thinking of that person by giving them a gift that is going to appeal to their personal values.”
“Giving something that people can choose to have an impact with is important to me — whether that is with a Good Gift Card or something like Trees that Count. I want people to make choices that create positive change and empower them to do that.”
Hannah says that giving Good Gift Cards has brought her lots of smiles.
“People always feel really appreciated when you give them something — even if it is just an email of thanks or a card — but when you give them something they can help someone else with, it adds an extra layer of warm fuzzies.
“Whenever I have given someone a Good Gift Card I have always received that warm-heart feeling from them, which makes me feel really good as well because I know I’ve had an impact on them at a personal level, by giving them the power to help someone else.”
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