Jimmy Wales to co-chair The People’s Operator
Howard Lake | 21 January 2014 | News
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has been appointed to the board of The People’s Operator, the mobile phone operator that donates a percentage of its revenue to charities.
Wales has also made an investment in the business. His principal role will be to “drive the growth of a global community that connects as a force for good”.
The People’s Operator was launched in the UK in November 2012 as a for-profit business with the aim of generating revenue for charities. TPO passes 10% of each customer’s bill directly to causes chosen by the customer. In addition, 25% of the company’s profits are donated to the TPO Foundation, which will distribute them to good causes.
The challenge of offering customers competitive pricing and generating income for good causes is achieved in part by low customer acquisition costs: the company focus on growth through customer recommendations.
TPO plans to expand to the USA, and is already trademarked in key markets around the world.
Speaking in Munich, Jimmy Wales said:
“TPO puts customers and the causes they care about first. With over 4 billion mobile phone subscribers forecast for 2016 worldwide, TPO has huge potential for viral growth and the more it grows, the more money will pass to the people and communities that need it. Only a small percentage in global take up will make a massive difference to people’s lives. Just as Wikipedia grew virally as communities wanted to work together to liberate knowledge, so I believe TPO will grow in a similar way as communities work together to support good causes across the globe.”
Andrew Rosenfeld, Founder and Co-Chair of TPO, added:
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“Donating to good causes through commercial success, and empowering the customer is an idea whose time has now come. This is why I’m so excited that Jimmy, who used the power of communities to change the world, is taking the lead at TPO to do the same again.”
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.