With the recession still in effect, finding simple ways to give back to one’s community can look like quite a conundrum. Fortunately, the marriage between capitalism and activism is an evolving mindset among a growing number of entrepreneurs around the world.
Adam Ross, founder of the new social good shopping venture SocialVest is one of them. While doing advisory work for a handful of non-profits, Ross saw these organizations struggle to earn money. At the same time, he noticed that plenty of people were giving back to their communities by rewarding brands based on charitable campaigns the brands executed. It was from these observations and collaboration with Chief Evangelist Karina Grotz and CMO Amy Elkins that SocialVest was born.
With over 500 brands and 1.5 million U.S. non-profits participating, SocialVest magnifies the power of cause-based consumerism by having retailers rebate .5 to 10 percent of a customer’s purchase into a SocialVest Giving Account. After transactions are made, customers can decide how and where their funds are allocated.
We caught up with Ross this week and got the 411 on why brands and consumers should invest in SocialVest.
“Our program offers companies a new form of loyalty program that benefits social good,” said Ross. “It’s not changing retailers core business, but rather building an authentic relationship engagement tool with one to one consumer driven benefits.”
As someone who’s seen a number of start-ups slave over trying to monetize the Internet rather than leveraging the Internet to monetize a solid business plan, I was thrilled to learn about SocialVest’s two forms of retailer participation-offline and online. While the online shopping system allows customers to earn money for their giving accounts every time they purchase something, the In-Store program is set up so that people can use their registered SocialVest credit cards to buy items at any local store participating in the offline program.
“Our goal is to close the gap for consumers and give them as many options as possible to make a change through their everyday shopping,” explained Ross.
SocialVest’s partnerships span a large range of companies including Best Buy, Apple, Sephora, Nordstroms, JCrew, Gap, Target, Toys R Us, Nike, Adidas, Orbitz, Macys, Drugstore.com, and The North Face, to name a few.
When I asked Ross how he plans to measure the social good achieved through his SocialVest he said that “any additional fundraising channel for a NPO is a homerun.”
He added, “we also recognize that if we can connect to a fundamental consumer paradigm shift, we have the ability to create a movement that truly transforms individual charitable giving with the upside of leveraging friend networks and multiplying total donations.”
Nicely said. As my dear old dignified dad always says, “more often than not, a little leads to a lot.”
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Tags: Adam Ross, Amy Elkins, Karina Grotz, socialvest
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