Isabelle Schwartz ’24 embodies one aspect of Deerfield’s mission statement that strives to instill a “dedication to service” in its students. In eighth grade, Schwartz started her own 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, a federally recognized charity organization called Foundation Beauty and has been dedicated to working on and expanding her organization ever since.
Schwartz stated that the mission of Foundation Beauty is to “facilitate the donation of beauty and hygiene products and donate them to underprivileged students across the globe.” Schwartz seeks to “inspire confidence in students,” motivated by her own experience with makeup during the COVID-19 pandemic. To cope with the monotony of Zoom classes, Schwartz began experimenting with makeup to create a sense of “routine” and “schedule” during quarantine. However, as people lost their jobs during the pandemic, Schwartz realized that many students could no longer afford make-up products and after experiencing how impactful makeup was for her during the pandemic, Schwartz wanted to help give this small luxury to students across the globe.
When starting Foundation Beauty, Schwartz said the first thing she did was take her birthday money and “spent it on an accountant,” who helped Schwartz get her 501(c)(3), and get incorporated. She spent her summer researching lawyers and organizations with missions similar to Foundation Beauty’s. She then created a website, got a trademark, created a Foundation Beauty email address, and began reaching out to companies for donations.
Now, after several years of hard work, Foundation Beauty has received over $900,000 in product donations. Each beauty and hygiene kit is filled with over $400 worth of products and are donated to organizations in Springfield, Greenfield, Northampton, and throughout New York City.
However, Schwartz has faced several challenges along the way. One of them: her age. Since Schwartz was only 14 when she started Foundation Beauty, being taken seriously by companies was a real challenge. Additionally, rejection was a large part of Schwartz’s journey with asking for donations for her non-profit. Schwartz reached out to hundreds of companies and had to learn how to deal with rejection from many. Now, her biggest challenge is finding the time to run her non-profit while also being a full time Deerfield student and a varsity athlete.
Although being a Deerfield student takes up a lot of Schwartz’s time, Deerfield has also helped and supported Schwartz and Foundation Beauty. One of the main hurdles with continuing Foundation Beauty at Deerfield aside from the time commitment was finding a space to store all of the donations. The location needed to be climate controlled, clean, easily accessible, and locked. After contacting the Student Life Office, Deerfield gave Schwartz her own storage space last year in the Kendall, and this year she uses the Simmons basement to store all of her donations. Additionally, last year, the Center for Student Global Leadership gave Schwartz a grant which she used to donate products to organizations in Uganda, Texas, and the Hamptons to expand the outreach and impact of Foundation Beauty.
To help get all of the donation kits made, Deerfield sports teams have helped Schwartz as part of their teams community service work for the season. Two Deerfield athletes whose team worked with Schwartz shared their experience volunteering with Foundation Beauty. Mary O’Shea ’25 said she felt that the most rewarding part of working with Foundation Beauty was “knowing the packages were going to people who could really use them and that this would be special for them.” She added, “It’s always nice to know that you are working towards brightening someone’s day.” Olivia Smit ’25 also said she found Schwartz’s work to be inspiring and said that Schwartz is “very self motivated and [is] inspired by her passion for Foundation Beauty. Deerfield is time consuming and stressful, so it’s amazing to see her continue to help people.”
Schwartz also started a Deerfield club called Foundation Beauty at Deerfield, which is a branch of Foundation Beauty. When asked what qualities Isabelle has that have made her so successful, Foundation Beauty at Deerfield’s faculty advisor Math Teacher Nina Otterson said, “she is so organized… She is very thoughtful, she considers where it’s going and what kinds of products they will like.”
For students inspired by Schwartz and her foundation, joining the Foundation Beauty club at Deerfield is a great way to get involved. For students who want to start their own volunteer initiative, Director of Summer Programs and Assistant Director of the CSGC Jordan Brown said, “The first step is coming up with an idea and then chatting with an adult in the CSGC to think through that idea.” Afterwards, the student, along with their CSGC advisor, would write and submit the proposal to the CSGC team.
Lastly, Schwartz says students should feel free to reach out to her to learn more about her process with starting Foundation Beauty and for advice on starting their own non-profits. Her biggest advice for someone wanting to start their own non-profit is to “do your research and make sure you have a very specific goal.”