Over the summer months, we've noticed an interesting - and awesome - trend: big brands giving back to charitable causes! Many of these brands have found charities and nonprofits that closely align with their own products, or have used the season to springboard fundraising for their own charitable foundations.

Whatever the case, we're always excited to see more corporations using their platforms to highlight worthy causes and encourage more companies to do the same. Here are 5 brands we've seen doing good work this summer:

Everlane

The clothing company has been quietly raising money for various humanitarian causes, including the ACLU, Equality Now, and the Human Rights Campaign, by selling lines of shirts with strong equality messages. This included a photo spread to celebrate Pride Month and a selection of 100% Human shirts for women's equality, all of which are still for sale!

Not only that, but Everlane has been raising awareness using the #humantogether hashtag on Twitter as well as a specific tag on Instagram.

Tim Horton's

The popular Canadian coffee & donuts chain has its own children's foundation, and it holds a "Camp Day" fundraiser every year. The proceeds from all coffees sold on that day go towards sending children from low-income families to summer camp.

This year, they raised a record-breaking $13.7 million - enough to send 20,000 kids to camp! Locations are still raising money through donation boxes at the checkouts, and they have an online donation system as well. Plus, for an extra $2 donation, people received some very cute Camp Day bracelets:

Lonely

On June 29th this year, New Zealand lingerie brand Lonely donated all proceeds from its underwear sales to Eva's Wish: "a charity started by Eva McGauley, a terminally ill teen on a mission to help sexual abuse victims and inspire young people to take action for causes they're passionate about."

As a brand that also focuses on body positivity and beauty without retouching, Lonely is definitely a good example of corporate social responsibility year-round.

Away

This luggage brand has partnered with Peace Direct to bring awareness to organizations that are working on the ground in war-torn countries to help rebuild. Take a few minutes to click through the well-made website and observe how Away and Peace Direct highlight stories of building peace in the Congo and Nigeria.

The way Away handles this bit of CSR is a good strategy: they aren't overt with trying to sell you on luggage, but at the same time, the cause fits in well with their travel industry. Their tagline of "See the Difference" is also quite clever.

Lush

The UK-based cosmetics and bath products company may be best known for its fragrant bath bombs, but it also has a long-standing charitable initiative called the Charity Pot. They create a body lotion using seven ingredients from the Sustainable Lush Fund, and the result is a product made not only with fairly traded ingredients, but one that people can feel good using.

According to their website, the total cost of each Charity Pot sold (minus tax) is donated to various grassroots causes for people, animals and the environment. More than $11 million has been raised since Charity Pot was launched in 2007!

If you're a company looking to incorporate some CSR goodwill, consider taking a page out of the books of the above brands and align yourself with a cause you can support. And if you don't know where to start, stop by our resource library for some handy (and free) ebooks on corporate social responsibility!

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