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 Just yesterday I wrote a piece for the July issue of the B1G1 newsletter.

I called it ‘Yikes: the giving is disappearing’. And it told the story of how, like the honeybee vanishing, giving is going down worldwide (with the exception of parts of the Asian region).

Yet something else is going up – yes, you guessed it – the number of charities is booming! Last year alone the IRS in the US registered 1000 new charities per week!

There are now nearly 1.5 Million of them in the US alone - that’s more than double what it was 10 years ago. And of course, that doesn’t count the literal thousands of


Buy One Give One

Here I am on Flight SQ 245 out of Singapore to Brisbane, Australia.

And in meeting after meeting last week in Singapore I really started toget how wonderfully important this 4-word phrase ‘ Less communication –more connection’ really is.

One is about presence – the other is not.

Right now I’m experiencing the presence piece on the Singapore Airlines flight. Singapore Airlines is absolutely my favourite airline. They get ‘connecting’. From the simple use of my name at every possible point to the simple and gracious way they seem to give. This is not a job – it’s


 It's really interesting how things come into your life in groups isn't it. You know what I mean - this happens and then some related thing happens and we go 'what a coincidence' or 'dah dah dah dah' in that scary movie tone of voice.

Well, today that sequence happened to me. Just 24 hours agoI got to meet with the wonderful Jack Sim. Jack is the founder of the WTO - no, not the World Trade Organisation but the World TOILET Organisation .

 Jack is amazing - his life is toilets (or more correctly the lack of them and the impact that has on our world). Typically he's doing media interviews 3 times


 One lovely things about being involved with B1G1 is that people 'get' it. And that usually happens in a heartbeat.

That's particularly true when people meet the founder of B1G1, Masami Sato.And last week, lots of people in Malaysia had the opportunity to do that.

Masami was on a sponsored visit to the capital, Kuala Lumpur as part of a tour to promote not just B1G1 but the upcoming 'Live and Inspire' tour she's headlining with Dr. Patch Adams.

 Masami made the newspapers and the air waves as well as appearances at Live and Inspire sponsors Starbucks and MPH Bookstores. Here she is being


 The Australian Business Awards  for 2009 were announced over the weekend.

And at B1G1 we’re thrilled that one of our B1G1 Partners, Affinity Maker , has been honoured with the award in the Innovation category.

 We’re not surprised that the judges of this quite prestigious award have honoured Robin Power and his team at Affinity Maker. They’ve done wonderful things for us in B1G1.

Specifically they’ve helped manage and define B1G1’s move into the Corporate marketplace. Until just a few months ago, B1G1’s focus was almost exclusively on the SME (small-t-medium-scale-enterprise) marketplace. Now,


 Several times a week it seems we have the question asked, “so when we give, what do we get?’

The question is rarely asked precisely that way. More often than not it comes out like this: ‘so when I give through B1G1 , does it impact my sales; do more people buy from me?’

And perhaps not surprisingly with my marketing background I sometimes want to scream ‘of course!’ I’m eager to tell people about the impact giving has in all sorts of ways. I want to quote the stories of B1G1 businesses. I want to talk about how giving develops much more ‘connection’. And I know the Duke University study


twitter

Some reports suggest that the micro-blog platform, Twitter, is growing at the rate of 131 per month. That’s huge. As one commentator put it ‘At that pace of growth everyone on the planet will be Twittering by 22 December, 2009’.

And B1G1 is part of that growth too.


Impact from unrelated situations

Posted by: Masami Sato in Untagged  on

phoneInteresting questions often come up in life in seemingly unrelated situations.

For example, last night I was at a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) briefing listening to a CSR specialist talking about the importance of harnessing the power of Social Media. He spoke about how, via cyberspace, we can speak out powerfully about what is happening in our world. "We can even impact corporations that are not being socially responsible," he said.

The facts (or often rumours) of how things are produced by exploiting others are revealed by people (for example, the factory workers in China) who now have the power to communicate their thoughts and feelings through the ether like never before.

So, how is this relevant to you and me?


How my broken glasses gave sight through B1G1

Posted by: Paul Dunn in Untagged  on

glassesIf you're like me and you have glasses, you treat them 'not well'.

Mine get (or used to get) pounded. And eventually they simply gave up - first a simple matter of the lens falling out. And then, two days later, they split in two right across the little piece that goes across the nose (I think it's called a 'nose bridge').


Sure we love what we do at Buy1GIVE1 (B1G1).

And when we see the results of what we do we get even more passionate about the journey we're on. Importantly, it's a shared journey too - none of what you're about to read could have happened without the businesses in 14 countries around the world who have so enthusiastically emabraced the magic of B1G1 transaction-based giving.

It's a world where every transaction makes a difference every second, every day and in every way.


Since I started doing more daily exercises and physical activities, the life has become so much more enjoyable, meaningful and abundant.

I had felt the need for more physical activities before but never done anything consistently since I had my first child. Life can be full of excuses with family/business commitment and demanding everyday chores. But this time, I actually took action.


 The small hotel operator in New Zealand called me just to say, ‘Oh my Goodness, it really works. We just had two people book in who’d seen the B1G1 logo on our ad.”

It’s great, of course. But not ‘validated’ in the strictest sense of the word just like all the feedback we get on B1G giving. From the Education Centre that tells us bookings are up 60 per cent in 4 months to the Weight Loss Solution that refers to being overwhelmed by the media coverage she’s got since she became a B1G1 Business.


The crumpled $20 note

Posted by: Paul Dunn in givingBuy1Give1B1G1 on

 I’m indebted to Paul Mogg for this story.

As you read it, you may not think at first that it is about giving. But in a very real sense it is – giving to ourselves. And how many people have observed over time that we cannot give to others that which we ourselves don’t have.

SO with that brief background, let’s get into it.




 paulJust on my way home from a friend’s christening (well, their new baby’s  christening). And on the car radio I heard an interview with the President of Microsoft Africa, Dr Cheick Modibo Diarra .

At one point the interviewer asked about Microsoft’s pricing and image in Africa particularly in view of some of the ‘challenges’ the company has faced in terms of anti-trust legislation.

Dr. Diarra told how Microsoft’s pricing included ‘everything’ as compared with all the free stuff out there. And in relation to the image question he said, “How many people know about the good we do? How


If you're like me, every so often you go back through your files to review the 'standout' things.

Hopefully each one has resonance in one way or another. But one in particular from my friend Tim Wade  in Singapore stood out for me. 

Tim is a great writer, speaker and ALWAYS can be relied upon to bring insights. In his note, Tim reflected on what has been an amazing year for him. And then he said this:

Then there was the financial crisis. In truth, it's not really that big a deal. With 80% of the people in the world living below $10 a day and 50% living on less


Paul Dunn

In a radio interview a few weeks ago, the host told me how he’d actually cross to the other side of the road if he saw a charity group ahead of him ‘rattling a tin under everyone’s nose’.

And a senior executive in a major corporation told me how the way the giving worked in their company was essentially like this: ‘we figure out what the profit is and then we decide how much of that we can give away – taking into account tax breaks of course’.


Paul DunnFor the past 27 years, I've travelled the world presenting Seminars - in some years over 200 of them. And I've done the TV interviews, the radio interviews, the DVD programs and all of that sort of stuff.

And as exciting and adrenalin-rushing as that is, there's nothing that quite matches the thrill of doing a live Webinar.

That's why I'm privileged to invite you to a stunning one on Tuesday 12th May. It's called 'Getting the Giving Going'. Come and dialogue with and explore what adding B1G1 to your business really means.

You'll be able to fully understand the 'magic' of B1G1 transaction-based giving and discover why being a part of this Global Giving Movement makes such a difference.


Joys and Woes - taking from yourself

Posted by: Paul Dunn in B1G1 on

 Usually, all my blogs are about giving in one way shape or form. This one is about a special type of giving – giving to yourself. This morning I was doing that – taking time to have a great breakfast with a friend. When my friend left, I decided to stay on at the café to have a ‘quick flick’ through the weekend newspapers. And something I saw struck me as really relevant to giving to ourselves, or perhaps more appropriately as taking from ourselves.

 


 OK, I know that sounds like a weird title. But read on!

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE ideas and products that make me laugh. And when those ideas also have a great ‘give back’, it’s even better. And here at B1G1 it takes our tag-line, 'sharing the joy of giving, every second, every day and in every way', up a notch as well.

I was reminded today of some material a new B1G1 Business Member sent us. It scores high on the laughing index and it scores hugely on the give back index as well. And to top it all off, the business, run by Tom Minter in the UK has a seriously great name.

It’s called Socks for Happy People.


 Last week, our very good and highly talented friend Carl Bates held the first Sirdar Extreme Business Summit in South Africa. 60 delegates from start-ups, small business and established enterprises were all able to benefit from Carls’s crystal clear awareness of what business really needs to do to achieve extreme business success.

And importantly, since Sirdar is a B1G1 Business , all of those delegates got to give back, automatically and big time. Thanks to the power of B1G1 transaction-based giving, just by being there, every delegate was able to feed a child for two and a half


New Study Reveals Why B1G1 Really Works

An October 2008 Study at the Cone/Duke University in the USA carried this title :

 

Consumer Behavior Study Confirms CAUSE RELATED MARKETING CAN Exponentially Increase Sales

The phrase 'exponentially increase sales' is rarely used in research reports. It points to the impact B1G1 transaction-based giving can have. Whilst the study was done in America, empirical evidence in other markets (and other global studies) confirm the trends noted in this particular research.

The study validates for the first time that transaction-based giving can significantly drive actual consumer choice.


Michael Todd - thank you Michael - let me know today about a new Disney initiative – one that comes so close to (yet also so far from) what Buy1GIVE1 (B1G1) is all about.

In a web post on Ecorazzi.com headed “How about this new twist on getting people to see a film?” you’ll read how Disney is planting a tree (in the Brazilian Rain Forest) for everyone who attends the new Disneynature production of the film ‘EARTH’ during its opening weekend.

Good on them! What a great start. And as some other Websites who’ve picked up the story suggest, it’s a smart move by Disney. It will, without doubt,


A lot of people ask, ‘why do you use a bee as part of the B1G1 logo?’ Here we’ll give you the answer to that AND look at some strides B1G1 is making in the ‘buzz’ department.

First the bee in the logo.

Buckminster Fuller, the legendary American architect, author, designer, futurist, inventor, and visionary talked about what he called procession and precession effects. He said that all wealth was a precessional effect. He showed how precessional side–effects occur throughout nature.

For example, a bee collecting honey is a processional effect – the bee goes directly for the honey.


[Thank you to Louise Gilbert for writing this piece]

Every Buy1GIVE1 Business Member we talk to is guided by a higher purpose and expresses that purpose and passion through work they love. Giving could be considered an art: an art that arranges our business activities in a certain way that appeals to our emotions, and expresses what we desire at the deepest level - to make a difference somewhere else in the world.


February 27, 2009

Interesting day today. A major international philanthropic NewsWire (Triple Pundit) picked up the Buy1GIVE1 'story' and circulated it worldwide in the form of a conversation between the editor and me as B1G1 Chairman.

If you'd like to go to the Triple Pundit site to view it, just click here. Or, if you'd like to save a click, we've reproduced the text of the article for you right here. Hope you like it. Come join us.


On my blogs recently I've been talking about the impact of transaction-based giving, the entire basis of the B1G1 model.

Here's a report that really 'nails' it. The numbers are seriously stunning in every sense, whether we're looking at product 'uptake', consumer 'resonance' or consumers telling companies that their CSR 'methodologies' can do with some work. In every case, linking giving directly to business transactions works just as we ourselves experience at B1G1.

Check it out at http://www.coneinc.com/content1188. It's great stuff.



I'm grateful to Ross Perry for passing this on.

It puts all those zeroes into perspective:

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend,
but one advertising agency did a good job of
 putting that figure into some perspective in
 one of its releases.


* A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

 

* A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

 

* A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age. 

* A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.


* A billion dollars ago was only
 8 hours and 20 minutes,
 at the rate the US government
 is spending it.

 


Effective Giving

Posted by: Elvin in Untagged  on

New Worthy Cause projects


businessgiving_copy.jpgOver the last 18 months, we have continued to grow our Worthy Cause list. As you can imagine, it is not a quick process since we have to validate each cause. But wonderfully, now we have nearly 600 projects listed and we have many new additions coming in every month.

Without your recommendations, referrals and suggestions, we would not have found such wonderful causes from many countries. Let us introduce you to some of the new ones that may inspire new ideas.

 



cause related marketing - cause marketingCause marketing - The need for a cause


We are in an era where consumer power is real power. The media a few years ago could whip up a storm in a teacup at any time, but now with REAL connection from friend-to-friend, traditional media is becoming the second cousin to creating change.

Reading a newspaper article about a company being ‘naughty’ is one thing, but when you have several friends texting, emailing, Twittering and Skyping you about an issue, you listen and often follow.

With the advent of close-nit social networks, large companies can receive a massive onslaught of bad


Seeing in different ways

Posted by: Paul Dunn in Untagged  on


3csynergy-logo.jpgJust before Christmas, I had the pleasure of meeting Dee Allan.

She's the MD of 3C Synergy , a recruitment company specialising in the construction industry. She gave me a new distinction around pledging versus actually giving. Let's check it out and see what you think.

Dee 'found' Buy1GIVE1 quite by chance on the Internet a year ago. At the time, she was planning to move her company from the UK to Singapore.

Dee is what we might call a 'natural' giver - she really does get the role giving plays - and so before moving to Singapore she was searching on the Internet how she could make her giving happen. She found the usual ones like WWF and Oxfam and wasn't too sure about pledging a large monthly amount because that might not suit her business cycle.

  









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