Social enterprise platform i=Change has raised $6 million from over 350 retail partners, including P.E Nation, Bianca Spender, Carla Zampatti and SIR The Label.
Founded in 2014, the platform facilitates donations to NGO partners in 14 countries.
Retailers contribute $1 (or more) from every sale via the i=Change platform, with customers able to choose where it is donated and add in a donation of their own.
Recently, funds have been trending towards supporting global climate change projects as well as local NGOs.
Foodbank, Thread Together and Women’s Community Shelters have seen a significant uptake in i=Change donations, stemming from the impact of Covid on local communities, as well as bushfires and floods.
Founder Jeremy Meltzer said consumers are aligning with businesses which give back to the community.
“Consumers want to support brands committed to a purpose beyond product. Our choices can now change lives. The quicker we make this a ‘new normal’, the quicker we move towards a far more sustainable future with a model of business that aligns people, planet and profit."
Retailers such as P.E Nation, Pillow Talk and National Tiles are charged a small fee for full access to the platform and i=Change ecosystem, enabling 100% of donations to go to respective NGO’s both in Australia and globally.
Meltzer was first tested the platform in its infancy through his family’s olive oil business, Yellingbo, which at the time had grown into the largest-selling Australian olive oil brand in the United States.
He built a basic but functional, ‘minimal viable product’, an early version of the i=Change platform, where every Yellingbo bottle sale would give back $1, and prompt customers to choose where it goes.
Meltzer credits creating the platform with the desire to “accelerate a retailer’s sustainability journey by giving back to people and planet, while creating a new and reliable source of funding for best-practice NGOs.”