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STEPHEN KAISER confounds the statistical evidence that shows affluent Australians are stingy when it comes to giving.
The owner of Geelong-based Kaisercraft, an arts and crafts wholesaler, has financed the building of a 25-bed orphanage for disadvantaged boys in Sri Lanka, and to ensure its future, Stephen has opened a retail factory outlet and dedicated its income to the running of the home.
Crafters can visit the 400 sq m outlet at 2 Fitzroy Square, North Geelong [Victoria], three mornings a week [Mon and Wed, 9.30am-12 noon, Sat, 9am-12 noon]. There are fantastic savings - 30-90 per cent - on samples, seconds and discontinued lines. You’ll find wood pieces, paints, brushes, plaster shapes, rubber stamps and stamp pads, rub-ons, PVA glue, Christmas craft, home decor and more. For every AUS$10 you spend, after GST, more than AUS$9 goes to the orphanage. And as sales grow, other projects to benefit include kindergartens and orphanages in Fiji and the Philippines.
Stephen is encouraging people who like what Kaisercraft is doing and want to help, to tell their friends, or even organise a group visit. "Come and have a spending spree [cash only] and help the kids out at the same time," says Stephen in an interview with Living Creatively.
Stephen, wife Carolyn and the team at Kaisercraft began raising the $65,000 needed to build the orphanage, a project initiated by the couple's church, CRC Churches International, in late 2003. Almost four years later, Stephen, himself a father of four boys and a pastor in the church, went to its official opening. There, he met the boys who lost their parents in the civil war or through other circumstances and who live in the home.
"It was awesome," says Stephen. "Going for the opening was probably one of the most rewarding times of my life. It was a bit scary, too. There was a strong military presence. We had to go through military check-points to get to where we were going and at night we could hear gunfire.
"I helped buy all the stuff to set up the house - saucepans, sheets, towels, plates, a stove ... I was there with the credit card and it was just good being able to do that. It's more personal this way. It's not like writing a cheque and getting a tax receipt."
The Kaiser's charitable approach to life, which springs from their long-held religious beliefs, is seen in all aspects of their lives - not least at Kaisercraft which has generous employee benefits for its 75-strong staff, or rather, family. There's free fruit, barbeques, dinners, excursions, Christmas bonuses, paid maternity and paternity leave, |
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staff cars for $14 a week, even a staff book club [books provided, of course]. Carolyn used to cook a roast for lunch until the staff level expanded but she still, on occasion, brings in homemade chocolate biscuits, said to be "awesome", for their morning tea. A gym and on-site childcare are among plans for the future in a purpose-built headquarters.
In turn, staff are encouraged to come up with ways to help others and then given the resources - money, products, time - to do it. Various staff talk to school children who come in for career advice and Stephen, who started out in the joinery business making wooden plant pedestals, talks to them about goals and how to follow their dreams, whether it be running a zoo or window-tinting cars [which is actually one boy’s dream].
"The culture at Kaisercraft is about valuing people - staff, customers and suppliers - but it's a whole-of-life philosophy for me - work, home, school, church.
"It would be great to have everybody in the organisation thinking this way, to have everybody sort of oozing out with it and thinking how we can do it, value people, better."
Stephen, who has only just grown his hair back after shaving it off to raise money for a leukaemia charity, says he is extremely ambitious for the company which repositioned itself three years ago and made scrapbooking supplies its focus. It was the right move at the right time; sales in Australia and the US have skyrocketed.
For the Kaisers, the company's success means they can be even more creative in their quest to value and help people. And as it was for Mother Teresa, the tireless Nobel Prize-winning advocate of the poor, sick, orphaned and dying, Stephen says it's a life-long commitment.
"We are doing a better job helping and valuing people today than three, five or ten years ago and next year I hope we are doing a better job than we are doing now. As the business grows our capacity to help people will grow. This is only one part of the spectrum."
So, get shopping ... help Stephen help others.
By Carolyn Ford
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"These are not just random things we do, it's about valuing people. To me, it's about loving God and your neighbour. I want to glorify God by valuing people, that's what we aim to do all the time. It's that simple," says Stephen.