Goimagine has always had the mission of building philanthropy into the fabric of our company. As time has passed, we have worked hard to relay our philanthropic message to buyers and sellers to build confidence in our cause. This has brought many supporters along the way but has also led to skeptics asking questions like “How much is being donated?” and “Who is getting the money?”
It’s understandable that in a society built on corporate greed people may accuse a company of using philanthropy as simply a ‘marketing tactic’. The reality is, as a benefits corporation, goimagine has made charitable donations a cornerstone of our company.
To make things clearer and more refined, we are unveiling a new strategy for giving in a two-phase approach. This includes:
- PHASE 1: Moving forward, we are shifting our 100% profits to a charity model and donating 2% of every transaction placed on our platform to children’s charities. This will make it more straightforward to buyers and sellers to know how much is being donated and is in line with how much we have donated to date.
- PHASE 2: At checkout, we will be building in the ability for buyers to choose from a list of children’s charities where they want 2% of their transaction to be donated.
This may sound familiar. Amazon once had a program called “Amazon Smile” which donated over $400 Million to U.S. charities by letting buyers choose where the donation went. They did that by only donating 0.5% of each sale (goimagine will do 4 times that by giving 2%), but sadly Amazon ended their philanthropic program in 2023.
This new donation strategy will not affect the makers on our platform. Currently, goimagine’s fee to sellers is 5% per transaction, and the 2% donation will come from the existing fee.
Refining our philanthropic mission aims to bring more clarity and confidence to our community about how donations are handled. This decision is made through consistent communication, interviews, and listening to our supporters about what they want to see from our charitable program.
The future is bright for goimagine and we are excited for the years to come. As always, thank you for your support in helping to build a more #caringeconomy.
Jon Lincoln is the founder of goimagine, the handmade marketplace focused on helping children in need. Since launching in 2020 goimagine has attracted thousands of makers & artists throughout the United States supporting their mission to create a more caring economy through handmade.