Retailers need a reason to care.
Buyers do not have time to decode your mission. When a buyer asks for sustainability documentation you cannot produce, the story gets weaker fast.
The actual problem
You are doing good work. The market can't tell why it matters.
Your story is scattered.
Values, sourcing, giving, partnerships, and community work often live in different places. When they are disconnected, the brand loses clarity and leverage.
Saying you care is not enough.
Saying you care isn't enough…and saying nothing is worse. Over-claim and you're exposed. Go quiet and you disappear. The brands winning right now are the ones that can show their work.
What we do
Groundwork is the layer underneath your values story.
For founder-led consumer brands with real values and growth pressure, Groundwork clarifies what the brand stands for, what is already true, what the market needs to understand, and how to turn that into trust-building strategy.
This is not a marketing campaign, PR push, or feel-good sustainability deck. It is the strategy, structure, language, claim guardrails, and proof points that help the business show up more credibly.
Who this is for
Founder-led consumer brands trying to earn trust while they grow.
Best fit: growth-stage CPG, food and beverage, wellness, beauty, apparel, home, lifestyle, giftable, pet, kids, and baby brands with traction, a visible values signal, and a business moment where credibility matters.
The founder knows the why. The market does not.
You know what the brand stands for, but the story changes depending on who is telling it. The team needs language, priorities, and structure that make the values easier to explain.
You are doing the work, but it is not helping enough.
The sourcing, giving, community, or sustainability practices exist. The brand just is not getting enough trust, differentiation, retailer confidence, or growth value from the work.
The framework
Truth. Fit. Build. Prove.
Intentionality is what turns good work into strategy.
01
Truth
Clarify what is true about the brand: values, products, customers, community, current efforts, stage, and goals.
02
Fit
Identify the causes, partnerships, programs, and opportunities that actually align with the brand and business.
03
Build
Create the strategy, roadmap, structure, claim guardrails, and measurement plan.
04
Prove
Define how the brand will track, evaluate, communicate, and strengthen the work over time.
Services
Start with clarity. Build what the brand can actually use.
Begin
Brand Impact Audit + Playbook
For brands that need clarity before a bigger build.
Build
Impact Strategy Buildout
For brands ready to operationalize credibility.
Partner
Fractional Impact Partner
For brands that need ongoing ownership.
Why Groundwork
Built for founders who need clarity and action.
Founder-led by design. Built for lean consumer brands where founder values still shape brand, marketing, partnerships, retail, and growth decisions.
Substance before promotion. The story should be true, structured, and usable before the brand asks the market to believe it.
Commercially grounded. The work connects impact to trust, differentiation, customer loyalty, retailer readiness, partnerships, employee alignment, and growth.
FAQ
Quick answers for founders comparing options.
What does Groundwork Impact do?
Groundwork helps founder-led consumer brands make their values, sustainability, give-back, and community work clearer, more credible, and more useful for trust, retail conversations, partnerships, and growth.
What is a brand impact audit?
It is a scoped review of your current story, claims, practices, partnerships, metrics, risks, and credibility gaps so you can see what is working, what is vague, and what to build first.
Who is the best fit?
Founder-led growth-stage consumer brands with traction, visible values, and a trigger moment such as retail expansion, buyer meetings, fundraising, rebrand, partnership development, or customer skepticism.
Is this marketing or PR?
No. Marketing and PR help tell the story. Groundwork helps make the story clearer, more credible, and better connected to how the business actually grows.
Where should a brand start?
Most brands should start with Begin: Brand Impact Audit + Playbook. It is the lowest-friction way to clarify the story, find the gaps, and decide whether Build or Partner makes sense.
What makes this urgent?
It becomes urgent when a brand is preparing for retail, making sustainability or give-back claims, facing customer skepticism, building partnerships, raising capital, or growing beyond founder intuition.
Who you'll work with
Liz Edwards, Founder
I build the layer underneath values work — the strategy, the claims a brand can stand behind, and the proof that it's all real.
As co-founder and Chief Impact & Growth Officer at Glow, a creator-giving platform, and COO of the media nonprofit If You're Breathing, I've spent years turning "we care about this" into something a business can actually use and defend. Groundwork brings that same discipline to founder-led consumer brands.
I started it because I kept seeing the same thing: brands doing real good that the market couldn't see, verify, or connect to a reason to buy. That's not a marketing problem — it's a foundation problem. It's the one I build for.
Next step
Book the call. Leave with a plan you can use Monday.
A 30-minute call for founder-led consumer brands that need their values story, impact work, claims, or growth moment to feel clearer and more credible.
Book a 30-min call