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... Shopping
Here 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 It
Can 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 Working
The 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% annually. That is not pessimism, that is arithmetic.
You need a new revenue stream. You need to redirect some of the $7 trillion that is already flowing through registers and shopping carts and checkout pages toward the things that actually matter.
So that is what we did. Every brand on Boundless Giving donates 10 to 70 percent of revenue to a charity partner. Not "a portion." Not "up to." Johnnie-O sends 40% to the ALS Network. Michael Stars sends 70% to Step Up. Wildflower Cases sends 20% to Gift of Adoption. We have already moved over $200,000 to nonprofits and we are just getting started.
This Is Not Charity. This Is Just... Better Shopping.
We are not a nonprofit. We do not do galas. Nobody here owns a tuxedo.
We are a marketplace. We sell actual products from actual brands you have actually heard of, at the same prices you would pay on their own websites. The only difference is our economic model has giving built into every single transaction. Not as an afterthought. Not as a PR play. As the entire point of the business.
Why does that matter? Because charity that runs on guilt does not scale. Charity that asks people to feel bad about what they have does not last. But commerce? Commerce scales forever. If you can make giving feel as effortless as buying — invisible, automatic, built into the thing people already do — then you have something that actually works.
The most unexpected activist might be a finance bro in a quarter zip. And honestly? We are here for it.
What We Are Actually Asking You to Do
We are not asking you to save the world. We are not asking you to donate your paycheck or march on Washington or even feel bad about the candle you bought last week. (Seriously, candles are great.)
We are asking you to buy the candle from us instead.
Same candle. Same price. But now $4.79 goes to Sweet Relief so a musician dealing with a health crisis can pay their medical bills. You did not sacrifice anything. You did not do anything extra. You just shopped in a slightly different place and the world got a tiny bit less broken.
You do not have to chain yourself to a tree. You can just buy the hoodie.
Multiply that by a million people and you have a movement. Multiply it by a hundred million and you have changed how giving works. Forever.
Shop Like You Give a Sh!t
Yeah, that is our actual tagline. We put it on the website and everything. Our lawyers were thrilled.
But it is also the whole point. The world is messed up and everybody is feeling it. The answer is not to feel helpless about it. The answer is to build giving into everyday life so seamlessly that you would have to go out of your way NOT to help.
That is the future of giving. Not bigger checks. Not more galas. Not guilt. Just... better infrastructure.
And it starts with your next purchase.
Start shopping. The world is waiting.