Mike Hannigan and Sean Marx started Give Something Back (GSB) in 1991, making sales calls out of Mike's living room. In its second year, Give Something Back sold $500,000 worth of office supplies and showed a modest profit.
Sales topped more than $20 million in 2000.
Based on the Newman's Own food products model, Give Something Back has always been committed to philanthropy. They've now donated more than $1.5 Million. They hope to catch up to Paul Newman and give away one hundred million dollars in the next decade.
Headquartered in Oakland, California, they have grown from doing business locally to doing business throughout the nation. They're open nationwide to business through the Internet.
They've been doubling in size about every two years and plan to become a major national presence with their products, services, and philosophy.
GSB has been widely recognized for its success as a business and for its philanthropic mission. Out of a field of more than 400 companies, Paul Newman, Marian Wright Edelman, John Kennedy, General Norman Schwartzkopf, and other national luminaries voted them one of the 10 most generous companies in America — and the most generous one in California. The award for corporate generosity was presented by Paul Newman of Newman's Own and the late John F. Kennedy Jr. of George Magazine.
Inc. Magazine named them one of the 50 fastest growing city-based companies in the nation in 1999, 2000, and 2001. That same magazine named them one of the fastest growing privately held companies in America.
And they've been named one of the 40 fastest growing private companies in the Bay Area 5 years in a row by San Francisco Business Times.

• Stationery products retailer