We live in one world with two extremes. Extreme poverty: at the time of writing this, more than 736 million people are living in extreme poverty. Extreme consumerism: at the time of writing this we spend $63 trillion collectively as consumers each year. Thankyou exists to bridge these two extremes.Â
Thankyou is a social enterprise that aims to help close the funding gap required to end extreme poverty by 2030. The concept is as simple as redistributing wealth from consumer spending on purchases of everyday products.
Like many social enterprises, Thankyou started with a simple idea. In this case, it was just a question: What if purchasing everyday items could provide life-changing solutions for the millions of people who live in extreme poverty?
Thankyou is a movement of people for people. Thankyou sees a world where not one person lives in extreme poverty and believes that together we can end extreme poverty in this lifetime. After all of the costs involved in getting great consumer products to market, every cent left goes towards funding their impact partners – the change-makers working on the frontlines to address the complex root causes of poverty. Their partners are currently working in more than 30 countries where the need is greatest, tackling root causes creating impact, rather than just activity. To date, Thankyou has given over $17 million dollars to their impact partners. To read more about the incredible organisations they have partnered with, and the life-changing work they are doing, head over to their website here: https://thankyou.co/impact
Thankyou design and create world-class products and then find world-class partners to help take these products sustainably to global scale to amplify the good that they can do in the world.
In September 2020, Thankyou launched their campaign, No Small Plan. To change the world, we must first flip the system. Thankyou launched a global call-out to some of the biggest product companies in the world, who are also their biggest competitors. These companies make, distribute and sell hundreds of brands and billions of products every day.
Thankyou’s ask what for one of these companies to join them in making and distributing Thankyou products on a global scale to flip consumerism for good. Just like Adidas make and distribute Kanye West’s brand Yeezy, or Nestle, who do the same for the Starbucks coffee pod. Their goal isn’t to run a social business that makes a small difference. It’s to tip the scales and flip the system of the global $63 trillion consumer spending to help end extreme poverty.
The campaign kicked off a movement of people who jumped on board to take the idea further than they imagined. After two weeks of campaigning, No Small Plan had garnered 826 media features across the world and hit a crazy total of 2.6 billion campaign impressions (their previous record for a campaign sitting at 42 million).
Thankyou is down to a shortlist of partners and will be announcing the partner in Times Square on the world’s biggest billboard soon across their social channels. Head here to learn more about the campaign and to watch the video.
Sources:
3 World Bank. 2018. Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2018: Piecing Together the Poverty Puzzle. Washington, DC: World Bank Accessed here: https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/poverty-and-shared-prosperity
4 World Bank, ‘Final consumption expenditure (current US$)’, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.CON.TOTL.CD?end=2019&start=1960&view=chart.Â
