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 People were sceptical at first. A for-profit company in the business of making money for charities? Surely that’s an oxy-moron?
But it’s exactly what social entrepreneur Polly Gowers set up from her garden shed in 2005, and has gone on to generate more than £2m for UK charities since.
It all started with Everyclick, an Internet search engine much like Google and Bing. Running a small Internet marketing agency seven years ago, one of Gower’s colleagues was volunteering for Save the Children when she jokingly asked why they couldn’t use Internet searches to help raise money for it.
“We realised quickly that this was a great idea,” remembers Gowers. So, she wrote a business plan, raised capital to fund the IT platform to support it, and converted her garden shed into an office.
Set up as a social enterprise, Everyclick was structured so that 50 per cent of all money generated went directly to charity, while the remaining 50 per cent was reinvested back into the business, to pay employees and develop the IT platform that would allow them to grow.
The big challenge was getting the word out there. Each time people use a search engine, a small amount of money is paid to the company (usually Google or Bing, run by Microsoft). Using Everyclick search engine, however, the money generated goes straight to people’s charity of choice (which they elect on the site).
Seven years on, and now working out of an office in Evesham, Everyclick has generated over £2m, which has been distributed between over 220,000 charities UK-wide. But, last year, Gowers decided more could be done.
“The elephant in the room is Google. And I’m happy to say I can’t win that fight with Everyclick,” she laughs. “So I took one step further and asked ‘Why do people use Google?’ and realised it’s often to buy products.”
So she took the Everyclick IT platform and developed a sister offering, entitled Give as you Live (GAYL), which launched last year. Much like search engines, when people purchase something online (a pair of shoes or groceries) a small percentage of that sale goes back to a company or business. What GAYL does is redirect that percentage to charity.
“The elephant in the room is Google, and I’m happy to say I can’t win that fight”
It’s done in an innovative way. Firstly, Gowers developed relationships with over 1,500 UK retailers - everyone from Selfridges to Smythson to Schuh - who signed up to giving a percentage of their online purchase to GAYL. Secondly, by signing up UK charities eager to benefit from that percentage (the number of retailers and charities grow daily).
The best part is that there’s no extra cost to the consumer. “We’ve had shoppers who, in less than 12 months, have raised over £1,000 for charity just buying what they already buy online. People continue buying the things they want from the retailer they want at the same price they would if they went direct to the website. It’s just recycling cash that’s already in the system and getting it to charities the shopper supports.” (See below for how it works).
If this sounds too good to be true, then you’re not the only one to think so. Despite having top retailers involved, charities still found this new philanthropy concept difficult to understand and embrace. But GAYL’s growing media profile is changing this.
This month, Vogue has partnered with them for their online fashion week (5-9 December). Every retailer participating in this fashion extravaganza is being encouraged to sign up to GAYL and donate an even larger percentages of purchases to charity than usual.
“Working alongside Vogue, charities are beginning to understand the value of our technology. They couldn’t all work with Vogue or all these retailers, but because we’re an aggregator, it enables that to happen, and they’re beginning to understand the value of what we have.”
Beyond convincing charities though, Gower has faced other uphill challenges in order to make this business work. Today she has 140 shareholders, including some of the UK’s most established investors such as Lord Stanley Fink, Sir Peter Vardy and Geoff Squire, but finding funding for this new type of innovative venture is a struggle.
“We don’t have a major VC backer but rather a very large number of Angel investors who have been very loyal and supportive.” What appeals to them about GAYL? “That it ultimately enables everyone to be a philanthropist daily,” Gowers sums up.
Her personal commitment to achieving what she has over the past seven years has also been trying, though she insists she has a very supportive husband, four-year-old daughter and two stepdaughters. “They accept I’m a workaholic on a mission,” she laughs.
The one thing she does do come rain or shine, however, is cook. On the weekend, she fills the fridge and cooks all day Sunday so that the family have homemade food during the week. “It feels like there’s dinner on the table, even if I’m not there.”
Changing this routine will come down to how many more people she can sign up to GAYL and help make a difference. This Christmas, people will spend an estimated £6.8bn. If that money went through GAYL technology platform, it would generate £170m for UK charities.
“There’s no reason for this not to happen,” she says plainly. “In fact, it’s morally wrong that it isn’t already. I’ll feel good about myself when it does. Until then, I just continue to feel frustrated that not enough people know.”
“People are buying the things they want from the retailer they want at the same price they would. It’s just recycling cash already in the system and getting it to charities”
Give As You Live
It works in two ways:
Simply log onto www.giveasyoulive.com, take 20 seconds to register and choose your charity of choice.
Then click into ‘stores’ which shows all the participating retailers and the purchase percentage they will to donate to charity on your behalf.
Choose the store you want to shop at, click on it and you will be taken direct to that store’s website where you can continue shopping.
When your purchase is complete, the money your purchase generated for charity will show up in your GAYL account and go direct to the charity.
Or, log onto www.giveasyoulive.com and download its software straight onto your computer.
Each time you use that computer to purchase something online with a participating retailer, an email will be sent to you outlining how much that purchase has generated for your charity of choice.
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