Socialgiver: a start-up to do good

A NEW start-up called Socialgiver has positioned itself as a platform for doing good, with the aim of turning businesses' surplus capacity into donations for charity. 

Aliza Napartivaumnuay, co-founder of Socialgiver, said the idea was to be a platform linking three parties of stakeholders: brands (businesses with products or services), charities, and the people. Socialgiver persuades brands to give back to society by donating to the platform their excess products and services towards such things as hotel deals, gift cards for restaurants, and tickets for events. 

In the meantime, Socialgiver recruits charities that need cash donations to join the platform. Then Socialgiver also invites people to shop for these products and services. Seventy per cent of the money paid for products and services donated by brands will be given to the charities, while 30 per cent covers operating costs. 

"People can choose the charity they would like to give the 70 per cent of their purchase price to. This is kind of win-win-win for brands, charities and people. People can do online shopping while making donations at the same time. Brands can utilise their surplus products or services for donations. The charity can have an alternative influence channel for getting donations," Aliza said.

Socialgiver has 18 charity projects in hand and is engaged with 90 brands. It also has around 70,000 people subscribing to its information base, of whom a few thousand are active users. 

"Socialgiver is a platform for doing good; it is not a shopping website or a donation website," Aliza said.

In 2015, it raised Bt1.5 million.

"Each charity project will be donated a maximum of Bt50,000 per round. Donations to the charities on Socialgiver is set to be in succession, round by round. Each project needs a different number of rounds, depending on its [purpose] and impact," Aliza said.

She said Socialgiver was partnering with the Giving Back Association, which will audit the charity projects for Socialgiver to ensure there are real benefits. 

Last year, more than 10,000 people were getting help through the Socialgiver platform. 

This year, Aliza said, Socialgiver will both expand inside the country and go abroad. To become an international platform, Socialgiver needs to have its own currency, called "Socialcoins". This currency can add to people's flexibility to do good things. Instead of accessing to the platform to shop for products and services each time, they can subscribe as members and open a Socialcoins account, and once they find an interesting product or service, they can make a purchase immediately. 

Socialcoins can also be used to make donations. 

"We call it 'give and shop'. Come to socialgiver.com, fund your favourite social and environmental projects and stay updated with their achievements. Every baht people donate becomes one baht to spend. If they donate Bt1,000, we give you Bt1,000 to spend. They can use their Socialcoins to redeem gift cards at the best prices as a gift to themselves or for people they love," Aliza said.

"This year, with the launch of our new website and in our first full operating year, we are aiming to raise at least US$300,000 [Bt10.6 million] to support up to 50 social projects, in order to help us become self-sustainable. We have an ambitious mission to expand internationally throughout the world. Within five years, our dream is to become the world's most loved social enterprise." 

Socialgiver has both a website and mobile site. An application is set to launch midyear.

Socialgiver was the first runner-up of "AIS The StartUp 2015" and the winner of the "Singtel Group - Samsung Regional Mobile App Challenge", held in Indonesia last December. This challenge was a competition among 14 start-up teams from seven of SingTel's coverage areas, namely Singapore, Australia, India, Africa, Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand.

Also last year, Socialgiver pitched its idea in The Venture competition, which offered a $1-million fund to start a business to create positive change and with a mission to inspire entrepreneurial thinkers to transform the world. 

"At that time, we did not win any prize. But we got experience and confidence," Aliza said.