Sustainably offers rounding-up cashless donations service for charities
Howard Lake | 1 July 2019 | News
Sustainably is launching its rounding-up donation system to charities today on the first day of the Fundraising Convention in London, Europe’s largest event for charities and fundraisers.
The company aims to make the most of the opportunities for social good of an increasingly cashless society. By letting individuals round up their cashless transactions and donate their spare change to charity, its founders claim that it will “make it easier to do good” by offering “a new way of living and giving”.
Loral Quinn, co-founder and CEO of Sustainably explains: “We’re excited to launch our technology that makes doing good something you can do easily, everyday.”
She says that “the charity donations market is estimated at more than £12 billion in the UK per year.”
How it works
Sustainably works by connecting your bank card and automatically rounding up on your behalf whenever your use your card or connected devices, distributing micro-donations to chosen good causes.
You can also give monthly, “see your impact instantly”, and get Gift Aid added to donations.
Users can track their impact, donate on their own terms, privately and anonymously, and retain “complete control” so that they can pause or change their donations whenever you want,
Based in Edinburgh and London, Sustainably employs eight staff. It is expanding and plans to recruit six more over the next 12 months.
Awards
Eishel and Loral with Richard Branson. At the end of last year, Virgin Startup10: Scotland launched its inaugural search for Scotland’s startup Business of the Year. The competition was open to startup businesses and entrepreneurs and offered prizes’ including mentoring and support from a leading Scottish law firm. Photo: www.iangeorgesonphotography.co.uk
Sustainably won the WeWork Creator Awards and is a top 10 Virgin Startup, with both global brands set to help Sustainably’s growth.
Sir Richard Branson commented:
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“Sustainably is so simple, but effective, which most of the good ideas are. I loved the simple idea of rounding up everyday transactions and giving your spare change to chosen good causes. Sustainably is a great example of why I wanted to start Virgin StartUp in the first place – I knew there were entrepreneurs with good ideas who just needed a little support who could go on to achieve incredible things and have a positive impact on the world.”
At its launch today Sustainably is working with 10 local and national charities, including British Heart Foundation, and “will be adding new charities daily”.
Simon Gillespie, CEO of British Heart Foundation said:
“Innovation and the use of technology has been core to many of the breakthroughs we’ve made to improve treatments for heart and circulatory diseases, and we need to take this same cutting-edge approach to raising funds and building relationships with our supporters.
“Our partnership with Sustainably is a fantastic example of this approach in action. It will make supporting our research possible in the swipe of a finger as part of millions of transactions – something that’s completely new. While the individual amounts might not seem like much, many small donations could add up to big breakthroughs in finding new treatments for conditions including heart disease, stroke and vascular dementia. We’re excited to see what this new way of fundraising has in store.”
Founders
Loral and Eishel Quinn of Sustainably
Sustainably was founded by mother and daughter, Loral and Eishel Quinn.
Loral, CEO, was head of digital marketing and strategy for Aberdeen Asset Management, where she set up the global digital team and helped scale the business from six to 30 countries in 10 years. Eishel, Chief Product Officer, has a background in ethical retail, working with Neal’s Yard Remedies. Eishel was recently named one of Digital Leaders top 10 Young Digital Leaders.
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.