The World Is Broken. Your Shopping Cart Can Help Fix It.
I started Boundless Giving because I was tired of being sad about the world and doing nothing useful about it.That is the honest version. The LinkedIn version would be something about "identifying white space in the social enterprise vertical" but I respect you too much for that.Everything Is on Fire and We Are All Just... ShoppingHere is what I cannot stop thinking about: the world is objectively, measurably messed up right now. Climate stuff. Mental health stuff. Kids who cannot afford school lunch stuff. And the systems we built to deal with all of it — nonprofits, charities, government programs — are running on fumes and guilt and underpaid people who care too much.Meanwhile, Americans spent over $7 trillion on retail last year. Seven trillion. With a T. We spent fourteen dollars on stuff for every one dollar we donated to charity.I am not judging. I bought a $48 candle last month. It smells incredible. I regret nothing.But what if that candle also funded a music therapy program? What if the hoodie you were going to buy anyway sent $40 to ALS research? What if the literal act of shopping — the thing we are all going to do regardless of how guilty anyone tries to make us feel — was also the thing that fixed some of this?That is the whole idea. That is it. That is the company.The Charity Model Is Stuck and Everyone Knows ItCan we talk about how giving works for a second? Because it has not changed since your grandma was writing checks to PBS.The playbook: attend a gala in uncomfortable shoes. Run a 5K in the rain. Round up at checkout while the person behind you in line sighs audibly. Share a GoFundMe and feel weird about it. Maybe set up a monthly $10 donation that you forget about and then feel guilty when you cancel.All of that is fine. Genuinely. But here is the problem: it all requires you to do something EXTRA. Donate on top of your bills. Volunteer on top of your schedule. Care on top of everything else you are already drowning in.And when every single day feels like a new crisis, asking people to add more to their plate is — and I say this with love — a terrible strategy.So we stopped asking.Instead, we took the thing everyone is already doing (buying stuff) and made it the mechanism for giving. Not as a round-up. Not as a vague "portion of proceeds" that could mean literally anything. We show you the exact dollar amount going to charity on every product. $14.38 to the ALS Network. $51.75 to Step Up. $4.79 to Sweet Relief. Math. On the internet. For anyone to see.Our accountant thinks we need a new business model. We think everyone else does.Why Now? Because Waiting Is Not WorkingThe gap between what the world needs and what traditional philanthropy delivers is getting wider every year. You cannot solve trillion-dollar problems with a charity sector that grows at 2%...
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