2 new subscription services helping people support good causes
Melanie May | 22 April 2021 | News
An insurance subscription that allows renters to support a good cause through their cover has launched, along with a subscription service that helps people support environmental causes.
Arma Karma
Insurance subscription Arma Karma, which is also B-Corp pending and has signed up to climate solution enterprise Ecologi, donates 25% of commission revenue on every policy to the charity partner of the subscriber’s choice.
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Arma Karma has been designed to offer a flexible model for renters that doesn’t tie them into an annual policy, and allows them to give back to charity when they take out a subscription, at no extra cost to themselves.
The donations continue for the life of all policies, with this a permanent feature that will form the basis of any new policies added to the Arma Karma portfolio in the future, with the aim of raising £1m in the next three years for the business’ panel of charities.
Those signing up to a subscription, which covers only ‘stuff that matters’ – valuable items not just in the home, but outside and abroad – have the option to choose who they’d like Arma Karma to donate to on their behalf, with the option of currently supporting Shelterbox, Rainforest Trust UK, Railway Children, and Young Minds.
These will switch to another four charities after three months, with no more than eight charity partners on rotation to ensure they have plenty of opportunities to become the chosen beneficiaries as more people sign up.
Ben Smyth, founder and CEO of Arma Karma, said:
“By focusing on different causes such as health, the environment, humanitarian aid and representation, we hope that anyone taking out an Arma Karma subscription has the chance to support an organisation close to their hearts.”
“We’ve worked closely with our charity partners to do everything we can to maximise the donations they can expect to receive in years to come, and in that time we’ve gotten to know them and the incredible work they do. The charitable aspect was one of the cornerstones on which we founded Arma Karma, and it’s such a privilege to provide ongoing support to these amazing organisations.”
Tythe
Tythe is a new nonprofit initiative from The EQ Foundation. Through a single monthly subscription, people can donate to a curated list of nine high impact environmental projects including Surfers Against Sewage, SolarAid, the Blue Marine Foundation, and Trees for Cities. Donations are matched 1:1 and the outputs of each subscription are quantified, so donors can track their impact.
Each charity is chosen based on their impact and innovation, and people can which ones they want to support and how their donation is split. Donations are managed through a single subscription and for the first three months, The EQ Foundation is matching donations.
Once signed up, donors will receive access to a personal dashboard detailing the outputs associated with their donations. They will also be rewarded for their donations with badges and will be able to share their chosen charities and personal impact directly to social media.
Dan Kwiatkowski, founder of Tythe said:
“More and more of us are realising the urgent need to tackle the environmental crisis, but beyond changing our daily habits it’s hard to know how best to help. There are thousands of charities to consider supporting and understanding what they all do takes considerable research. On top of that, if you decide to support several organisations then you’re left to juggle multiple payments, which becomes a chore. Our goal with Tythe is to make it easy and rewarding to support the cause in the most effective way possible.”
The new platform is being incubated by The EQ Foundation, the creator of Giving is Great, with analysts from Giving is Great choosing the charities. Other charities may be added in due course.
Its founder, John Spiers, commented:
“We have been delighted to support Tythe in its quest to make donating more meaningful for people who want to help protect our planet and lack the resources to research for the most impactful causes. More than 75% of all voluntary income is generated by just 2% of charities – typically the ones that can afford national promotional campaigns. The Tythe portfolio has been selected on the basis of impact, not marketing footprint.”
There are two levels of subscription to choose from: £7.99/month (the current cost of Amazon Prime) or £24.99/month (1% of the average UK salary). Every penny of the subscription goes to the chosen charities, and subscriptions can be cancelled at any time.
- Sense offers monthly sign language lessons with its first subscription product (15 March 2022)
- Shelterbox launches book subscription club (16 November 2018)
- Five great charity subscription clubs raising funds for good causes (31 December 2018)
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.