Over 380,000 transactions have been made via TheGivingMachine website worth over £10,000,000 in sales from the 370+ participating shops to date. I had a great meeting with Thomas Power (founder of ecademy) the other day and had cause to consider those numbers on the way home. It’s too easy to be working “in the machine” rather than look up, take a step back and consider what shoppers have achieved using TheGivingMachine so far.

Every transaction represents an individual purchase where a shopper made a conscious decision to generate a free donation to support their schools or charities by shopping via our website and the participating shops rather than buy elsewhere. To date that means 380,000 transactions have become 380,000 free donations worth over £310,000 in donations for thousands of charities and schools across the UK. And all this didn’t cost anyone anything extra to give and is extra donaton income that the charities and schools don’t have to work for.

I’m also a trustee for East Herts YMCA, which is relatively small, and I know how much the extra £1,000 or so raised so far can make.

This achievement hasn’t been down to massive sales campaigns – TheGivingMachine is a not for profit social enterprise that gives most of its income away – it has come about thanks to the thousands of people who use the website every time they buy online and help spread the word.

You probably know this but every year, online shops pay hundreds of £millions in sales commissions to other websites for referrals. TheGivingMachine simply enables online shoppers to generate these sales commissions from participating shops and converts 75% into a donation on the shopper’s behalf to their chosen charities and schools. The remaining 25% covers the costs of running the website and distributing the donations.

It’s a kind of magic…
- a shopper becomes a giver for free
- a shop pays a budgeted sales commission and becomes a giver too
- a school or charity receives a free donation

So what is holding this business model back from generating £billions in sales and donations? Thomas looked me squarely in the eye – “let go, be Open, Random and Supportive!” I think Open is ok but I’ve a way to go to be fully Random and Supportive but I’m working on it – so if you have a suggestion, can help me in that or just want to say hi – please get in touch.

And thanks to Thomas for being Open, Random & Supportive !
(if you need to see what this means – here’s a video.. http://youtu.be/S4IpLo0rKkE)

Richard

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I’m sorry this announcement is a bit late – the todo list has been quite long recently.  The total donation payments this month comes to £16,382.89. With 198 BACS totalling £5,809.33 and 259 cheques totalling £ 10,573.56.  We’re still in the process of moving charities and schools over to electronic BACS transfers which are easier for everyone.  Thanks especially to Michael & Grace who kindly did the envelope stuffing and stamping for all 259 cheques…

A special mention goes to the following charities and schools who each received over £100 this month : Cystic Fibrosis Trust, St Peter’s Primary School in market Bosworth , Suffolk Animal Rescue, Friends of Buxworth School, Farr Edge 2000, St. Lawrence Primary School Effingham, Overdale Infant and Junior Schools in Leicester, The Dassett Primary School, Orchard Nursery School in Tibberton, Merstone School, Classworks Theatre Cambridge and St Bernard’s Preparatory School.

Richard

posted in Charity News & Events, Giver News & Events, School News & Events | Leave a comment