Giving a Crap About Social
Kind-hearted philanthropists and entrepreneurs that strive to make a difference in the world, solving pressing problems, are the powerful new faces for social change.
Aptly named business venture, Who Gives a Crap, was founded by Simon Griffiths and his business partners in 2012 with the aim of solving the ongoing issue of lack of sanitation in developing nations.
Who Gives a Crap manufactures toilet paper and 50 per cent of the profits are donated to building toilets in the developing world. Not only does the toilet paper go to a good cause, it is also made of 100 per cent recycled paper and is free of chemicals so it will look after your bottom as well.
To attract initial funding Griffiths launched a crowd funding campaign and sat on a toilet in a draughty warehouse for as long as it took to generate enough pre-orders to start production. 50 hours later, he had raised $50,000.
Today, Griffiths also runs a new venture, Shebeen, the first not-for-profit bar in Melbourne that only serves alcoholic beverages sourced from developing nations. The bar hands its profits over to each of the drink’s country of origin.
Moving to the top end of the spectrum, imagine a world where you did not have access to safe drinking water. Fortunately, in Australia we have an unlimited supply of fresh drinking water from our taps for free, but ironically as a nation we spend $600 million on purchasing bottled water annually.
Justine and Daniel Flynn thought this was ludicrous but decided it was better to go with the masses than against them, joining the bottled water bandwagon but with a positive difference. Thankyou was created for the sole purpose of funding safe water projects in developing nations.
Thankyou now offers food and body careproducts to purchase from its website and selected stores. The aim of the ranges is to provide funding for immediate food relief in famished communities, to support programs for long-term sustainable development and to educate and empower the community on hygiene and sanitation. Every bite supports a great cause.
Another group of savvy social entrepreneurs is YGAP who are campaigning for social change one painted fingernail at a time. Last year they launched the campaign Polished Man which was a creative fundraising project that challenged men to paint one of their nails a colour in support of ending violence against children. Local heroes such as footballer, Chris Judd, took up the challenge and showed his support.
YGAP also run a number of social enterprise restaurants in Melbourne, including ‘Feast of Merit’ in Richmond, and ‘Kinfolk’ in Melbourne CBD. The restaurants serve solely to support education and youth leadership in developing nations. We had the pleasure of dining at ‘Feast of Merit’ last December and while the dining house focuses on offering locally sourced products and raw foods, they certainly do not skimp on flavour!
These inspiring entrepreneurs and enterprises certainly demonstrate that doing things a little differently does pay off.
For further information on these organisations or to lend a hand, visit:
Who Gives a Crap – http://au.whogivesacrap.org
Thankyou – http://thankyou.co
YGAP – http://ygap.com.au
You may also like