Starting Up a Cause-Marketing Platform through Rapid Iteration
Lean Startup Methodology
Product Management
Social Entrepreneurship
Product Management
Social Entrepreneurship
Having worked with and consulted for several nonprofits, I watched them struggle for sustainable revenue sources even amidst record corporate profits. I decided to figure out how to bridge the C-suite / (c)3 gap and found a team of like-minded entrepreneurs, designers, and engineers.
Having worked with and consulted for several nonprofits, I watched them struggle for sustainable revenue sources even amidst record corporate profits. I decided to figure out how to bridge the C-suite / (c)3 gap and found a team of like-minded entrepreneurs, designers, and engineers.
The team started exploring the opportunity by benchmarking innovative businesses who had found profitable ways to create social impact. We found most models were tied to purchases, and that several gave customers a voice in directing the donation, but that sourcing and initiating partnerships remained a challenge for most firms.
In researching consumer behavior, we uncovered growing consumer interest in social consciousness and the resulting potential for businesses to win customer loyalty through social impact.
Through conversations with business owners, we confirmed that small and midsize e-commerce businesses were interested in new measurable ways to engage consumers.
Our initial concepting led to a widget that allowed shoppers to pick charities to which companies would donate with each purchase. We prototyped the widget across several initial clients' sites to gain real-world feedback.
The data and feedback sessions showed that users liked aligning their purchases with their causes, and business liked the increased conversions, but the the idea wasn’t big enough to have the impact we were after.
After more customer and user interviews, observations, and feedback sessions, we decided to pivot towards a partnership model.
Now, 1) a company creates a campaign, 2) nonprofits apply to be the partner, 3) the company selects the nonprofit with the highest social and marketing ROI as captured by the platform and 4) a successful and painless partnership is launched.
Now, 1) a company creates a campaign, 2) nonprofits apply to be the partner, 3) the company selects the nonprofit with the highest social and marketing ROI as captured by the platform and 4) a successful and painless partnership is launched.
Instead of waiting until we had a perfect platform, we applied a lean philosophy and quickly put JoinGiving 2.0 in front of customers.
We helped our first client screen over 200 nonprofits to find and partner with the charities where the dollars would go the furthest in creating an impact and in supporting the company's marketing efforts.
We helped our first client screen over 200 nonprofits to find and partner with the charities where the dollars would go the furthest in creating an impact and in supporting the company's marketing efforts.
