What is Giving Forward?
Through cause marketing, Giving Forward and it’s predicessor have impacted over
+1000 charities with $8.3 Million
Before Giving Forward, and its brands: GoodBuzz.org, GoodPics and SweepsForACause, there was We-Care, a for-profit cause marketing company which generated $8.3 Million in revenue for nonprofits with it’s eCommerce-driven cause marketing platform..
2007: Kevin Lee launches We-Care.com a for-profit eCommerce cause marketing platform. We-Care’s “Shop with Purpose” platform in partnership with Amazon and 1700+ other merchants using the affiliate marketing platforms as the foundation to the technology.
2012: The We-Care platform generates over $7 million dollars in cause marketing donations to the nonprofits selected by We-Care membership, Amazon, We-Care’s largest merchant partner requests an A/B split test to quantify the changes in consumer behavior as a result of the shopper’s favorite cause benefiting from a transaction. Shortly after presenting VERY positive results in revenue per visit for We-Care tech enabled shoppers (the We-Care reminder), Amazon modifies the associate program TOS to prohibit We-Care’s technology and alerts the We-Care management of that fact, effectively terminating the relationship.
2013: Amazon launches SMILE. Coincidence? Disappointed and proud at the same time, the We-Care team likes to think of the We-Care platform as having “inspired” SMILE or at the very least provided the data to validate the business model.
2018: Seeking to apply the cause marketing model to online publishing, Kevin Lee’s marketing agency, Didit bids on Gawker.com (the domain was still in the bankruptcy) with the intent to pivot the defunct website into Gawker for Good (Ad Age article). In the final Gawker.com bankruptcy auction, Didit loses Gawker.com to Bryan Goldberg at Bustle (BDG). Bryan runs the site until early 2023 and shuts it down.
2019 Giving Forward Founded: Kevin Lee teams up with the founding Board of Directors to start Giving Forward, a nonprofit to deploy the cause marketing powered publishing business model in a non-profit publisher scenario. The mission to create programs and technology platforms which: generate social impact through marketing, advertising, publishing, events or commerce. Revenue is derived largely from advertising, the monetization of time and attention of consumers engaged in the consumption of great, fun and informative content. Another way of thinking about it is that consumers (a silly marketing term) “volunteer” their time and attention, generating ad revenue which is shared with other nonprofits.
The following Giving Forward initiatives are in simultaneous launch in 2021
Amazon SMILE replacement and improvement (we added additional revenue sources, special coupons, sponsorship and co-registration)
Cause Marketing Powered Headshots under GoodPics (sponsor pays for the photographer at events and fundraisers and recipients donate)
Cause Marketing Powered Publishing: GoodBuzz (being refactored into an app-centric solution for re-launch in Q4 2024)
Cause Marketing Powered Events under GoodBuzz (virtual events)
Volunteer Marketplace (think of it as Fiverr, where the volunteer picks a nonprofit to get 70% of the task payment, launching in 2025)
The development and deployment of these additional platforms will be accelerated through your Venture Philanthropy DONATIONS. Matching Cause Marketing donations are another way corporations and philanthropists can magnify their impact (matching donations must be greater than $2000 to be listed with a logo or name. To learn more or to discuss how to use your DAF or corporate philanthropy to magnify cause marketing donations: email kevin at givingforward.org.
Helping Charities Through Cause Marketing
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Our Impact So Far
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Join Our Cause
Volunteer Opprotunities
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Influencers Wanted!
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Donate Now
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Read Our Blog
The Magic of Cause Marketing
Disposable income isn't what it used to be. Many of the population can't afford to give much with their income barely making ends meet. We will build technology and platforms that will empower those who want to give give without spending through cause marketing and...