CASE STUDY: GIVE AS YOU LIVE

1. Introduction

In the second round of Social Business Creation 2023, WeShare believes researching and learning more deeper about Give as you Live – a social enterprise with a similar business model to us would give our team valuable and crucial insights to enhance our own business and increase our social impact. Give as you Live is a social impact business that offers fundraising products. Its innovation enables people to raise funds for charities in many categories, which means charities will get easier access to donations and more opportunities to address their financial issues. The weShare team has researched this organization by applying the models learned from the SBC102 course“Principles Of Business Model Innovation”. This study is our analysis of Give as you Live in terms of its Business Model and Crowdfunding.

2. Solution

Give as you Live is a free fundraising platform that provides charities with personalized fundraising solutions that are delivered through its 3 main products: Give as you Live Donate, Give as you Live Online, and Give as you Live Instore.

2.1. Give as you Live Donate

Give as you Live Donate offers a fast and simple pack of services to charities with different fundraising needs:

• Direct one-off donations and monthly repeat donations.

• Customized Campaign Pages for Charities and Fundraising Pages for Individuals to support their chosen charities 

• Corporate Fundraising Tool: Charities can help their corporate partners raise funds and drive their CSR and ESG initiatives by utilizing the matched funding facility to raise funds. 

2.2. Give as you Live Online

Give as you Live Online provides its members with access to 6,000+ online stores including John Lewis, eBay, Booking.com, and Sainsbury’s,… Registered members shop as usual, and a portion of their online purchases will be donated automatically to the charity of their choice. And once a charity has registered with Give as you Live, they can create a branded webpage where their supporters can sign up to start raising free funds for the charity on their daily purchases. There is no cost to the charity or its supporters; the funds generated are paid by the commission Give as you Live Online gets from online retailers. 

2.3. Give as you Live Instore

Give as you Live Instore allows​​ members to raise funds when they shop in-store at a wide range of high street retailers, supermarkets, and restaurants with store cards. Give as you Live Instore’s store cards enable registered members to raise an average of 3% in free funds for their chosen charity when they buy or top-up online.  Cards are reloadable, so members can purchase store cards for themselves or as thoughtful gifts.

3. Business Model 

3.1. Value proposition

1. Customer Benefits 

• For charities:

• Increased donations: Give as you Live helps charities increase their donations by providing a platform with diverse fundraising solutions. 
• Sustainable funding: Due to the frequent shopping patterns of users, Give as you Live Online and Give as you Live Instore provides charities with sustainable funding to contribute to their good cause.
• Increased visibility and awareness
• Reduced marketing costs
• Building partnerships with businesses through Give as you Live‘s partnerships.

• For donors: 

• Feel-good factor through Shop & Share: Users of Give as you Live feel good knowing that when they shop just as usual, their donation is helping to make a difference in the world.
• Convenience and flexibility: Members can choose the charity or cause that they want to support. 
• Transparency: Users can track the impact of their donations on the charity’s website.

• For businesses/merchants:

• A wide range of charities: Give as you Live partners with a wide range of charities, so businesses can choose a charity that aligns with their values.
• Reporting and analytics: Give as you  Live provides businesses with reporting and analytics so they can track the impact of their donations.
• Improved brand reputation and customer engagement.
• Reduced marketing costs: Businesses can benefit from the affiliate marketing scheme of Give as you Live.

2. Differentiations

Donating is a popular culture among English people from time to time. According to CFA World Giving Index 2022, Give as you Live was ranked 5 in terms of the nation with the highest percentage of adults donating to charities and social organizations (65%). Not to mention, through shopping and debit/credit cards are 2 forms of donating that generate the largest donation. Therefore, it is easy to understand why online fundraising platforms are popular and influential in the UK. Although all of them are driven by social impacts, they compete with each other to build and develop the most convenient and easiest-to-use platform for both users and partners. 

• Competitors of Give as you Live Donate: JustGiving, Enthuse, CAF Donate, GoFundme,… (There are many other online fundraising platforms in the UK but they aim at a specific field or size of the charities)

• Key differentiations of Give as you Live are:

• No costs for fundraisers and donors: Give as you Live platform costs the fundraisers and organizations no setup or monthly fee to create fundraising pages, and campaigns, and promote their activities (which are requirements of Justgiving and Enthuse). For members donating through Give as you Live, there are no sign-up fees, no monthly subscription fees, and no transaction fees.
• Effectiveness: In 2022, Give as you Live members raised over £10 million for their chosen charities. 
• Large network: Users can choose from one of 40,000+ UK charities, and start raising free donations when they shop at 6,000+ top retailers.
• Variety of fundraising products: Give as you Live provides charities with a variety of platforms and tools to help them reach their fundraising goals.
• Transparency: Give as you Live publishes all of its financial information on its website, including a clear and concise breakdown of its fees and detailed information about how much money raised goes to charities and how much goes to its own operating costs. Meanwhile, Just Giving provides less detailed information about how it uses the money it raises and Enthuse is not transparent about fees or money usage.

3.2. Customer Segments

1. Donors

• Youngsters (18-24) who regularly do online shopping

• Who are employed and have stable jobs (shopping online to save time and money)

• Individual fundraisers who want to support and devote to specific organizations by making interesting and diverse activities to attract, and motivate other donors

2. Businesses

• Target client segments:

• SIBs, Enterprises with CSR, ESG strategies
• Give as you Live tries to satisfy all needs of customers while they are shopping with stores being partnered with it. Thus, it aims at any enterprises in daily consumption fields (such as fashion, food, cosmetic,…), traveling services or even technology companies like Canva, which are seeking effective marketing channels for branding and growth

• Needs: 

• Attract more customers, sell more products/services and thereby increase revenue
• Create social values and strengthen brand reputation

3. Charities/Social organizations

• Give as you Live lists all charitable organizations that are fully registered with either the Charity Commission for England & Wales, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, or the Charity Commission for Northern Island; or who are officially recognized by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) as a “good cause”

• Any charities (which are reliable) wanting new forms of fundraising that are sustainable, easy to engage donors as well as cost and effort saving.

3.3. Customer Relationship

1. With donors

• Allow users to earn Hero badges and Bonus donations by completing specific tasks

• Send emails to donors to confirm their donations

• Update activities of charities and social organizations on the website after receiving donations from donors

2. With corporates

• Affiliate marketing with corporates 

• Provide Corporate Fundraising Tool, allowing corporates to partner with charities to promote their CSV/CSR

3. With charities

• Accompany and assist charities as well as individual fundraisers in every campaign

• Help solve unexpected problems/ questions related to administration or technique

• Help promote their fundraising activities, including challenges, games, live streams…through the web or social media pages

3.4. Channels

1. Donors

• Websites: The websites (Give as you Live Online/Donate/Instore) are the main information channels for donors. Those websites are regularly updated, well-designed, inspirational, and useful for donors because it shows all data on donations, all recent fundraising campaigns, featured activities (livestream/ challenges), their missions along with goals, and all popular stores from different fields.

• Social media: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the platforms where Give as you Live “breaks the ice” with donors. It also updates achievements related to funds raised and makes donors feel that their donations really make a difference.

• Brick-and-mortar stores, supermarkets: Put table standees, leaflets on cashier counter tables to encourage donors to open Give as you live card and use it to donate while shopping

• Give as you Live is mentioned on Websites or social platforms of charities/ social organizations that are active on its websites and used to ask Give as you Live for marketing toolkits.

• Providing marketing toolkits, Give as you Live requires the social organizations to send an email that is already prepared to their available donors to encourage them to donate. 

2. Charities/ Social organizations

• Give as you Live has databases and contacts of almost all reliable and available charities as well as social organizations..

• To get help and support from Give as you Live, organizations can complete forms with links on the websites to be provided with essential tools, materials, and even original ideas and advice for fundraising or raise questions via email.

3. Businesses

• Give as you Live approach a wide range of enterprises mainly through affiliate networks such as Awin, Webgains, CJ Affiliate, Tradedoubler, and Rakuten Marketing.

• For some large and famous corporations, Give as you live will contact them directly via email, phone, messages,…

3.5. Key Activities

1. Develop websites for all 3 products and social media pages 

• As websites are the key information channel for donors, the platform providing landing pages for social organizations, individuals fundraisers and where corporations have affiliate marketing, they need to be developed and have data as well as campaigns, events updated frequently

• Build corporate image through social media: Give as you live celebrates every special day, even the “Zebra day”, then make wishes or refer to related campaigns to engage donors. It spreads positive messages, energy through their pages and asserts their impacts on society. 

2. Raise funds from investors, organizations

• Grants and social funds from international organizations 

• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) sponsorships in the form of cash or in-kind donations from businesses

• Fundraising from social impact investment funds

3. Build a corporate network

• Research and make a list of potential enterprises in each field

• Contact and send cooperation proposal to them directly or through affiliate channels

4. Build a social organization network and help them in all steps

• Update the database of social organizations and onboard them on the website

• Support social organizations + individual fundraisers in executing online fundraising campaigns with dashboard updates,  in-depth reports, marketing toolkits, fundraising ideas and administrative support

• Update their dashboard (Fundraising totals, most recent payment, any eligible Gift Aid to claim, and latest news from Give as you Live across all of the products)
• Deliver in-depth reports (GDPR-compliant data with a detailed breakdown for what the organization has been paid, statistics in forms of graphs and tables)
• Create marketing toolkits (Donate, website button, share ready-made social media posts, emails to users, QR codes, and all essential images, banners. Regularly add new marketing campaigns or new fundraising ideas throughout the year and in the build-up to key events)
• Formulate original fundraising ideas regularly (games, challenges, livestream,…) to help raise funds and engage donors
• Provide administrative support (user-friendly account management + finance)

5. Retain users by providing exclusive deals besides synthesizing current discounts and promotions

• One way for Give as you live to acquire donors who “shop and share” is to give them incentives such as sales or vouchers

• Different kind of products that are on sales will be at different period of time to retain donors

3.6. Key Resources

1. Human Resource

Give as you Live provides technological products to help social organizations and charities raise sustainable funds together with innovative and comprehensive fundraising solutions. Therefore, IT, Social, and Business are the three teams needing the most focus:

• IT teams are responsible for updating websites, designing programs, fixing unexpected faults and developing new features for the 3 products of Give as you live

• Social teams are in charge of proposing new fundraising ideas and updating marketing materials for individual fundraisers, charities; formulating media plans, creating media posts and managing fan pages. 

• Business team helps social organizations write reports, do statistics, and visualize data.

2. “Intangible assets”

The most outstanding USP of Give as you Live lies in its available and bountiful Marketing toolkits as well as initiatives for social organizations and individual fundraisers. Those resources not only retain donors by bringing diverse original fundraising experience, help organizations, individuals save costs, time, and efforts in promoting and spreading their campaigns but also assist Give as you Live in acquiring more partners. 

3. Funds

As a social enterprise, Give as you live needs capital from grants, social funds or Corporate Social Responsibility sponsorships in the form of cash or in-kind donations from businesses for their product development, operation and users growth. 

3.7. Key Partnerships 

1. Social organization network

• Fundraising Regulator

• Charity Commission for England & Wales, Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Charity Commission for Northern Island, HM Revenue & Customs 

2. Corporate network

• Community & Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs) and Community Interest Companies (CICs).

• Affiliate marketing companies

3. Payment technology provider

• Stripe

3.8. Revenue Streams: Commission from corporates

Give as you Live has high traffic with more than 400.000 donors. Corporates being onboarded on Give as you live websites can raise brand awareness, gain customers’ trust, sell more products, and increase profits. Through affiliate marketing, corporations pay commissions to Give as you live.

3.9. Cost Structures

Besides marketing activities, and cloud services (to develop and maintain the platform), staff salaries take up the largest percentage of expenditure.

4. Crowdfunding

4.1.  Backers

In the crowdfunding model of Give as You Live, the company has received support from a variety of backers and partners:

• 6000+ retailers and brands: Give as You Live worked with various retailers and brands like eBay, Booking.com, Tesco,… who became partners and supported the platform by donating a percentage of their customers’ purchases to charity.

• 400K+ donors: who participate by making online purchases through partner retailers. These individuals act as supporters and contributors to the cause without any additional cost or effort.

• 200K+ charities and organizations: Accompanied Give as You Live to gain more donors/users and call for donations. 

• Strategic and resource partners: Give as You Live collaborated with RBS Group to provide a digital giving platform for their customers. In addition, Sage Foundation supported Give as You Live to help charities raise funds. 

4.2. Type of crowdfunding

Donation form users: The crowdfunding model employed by Give as You Live can be the operation on the premise of seamlessly integrating charitable giving into everyday online purchases made by users, where a portion of the purchase amount made through partner retailers is automatically donated to the chosen charity. 

CSR from enterprises: Give as You Live is an online platform that promotes Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by enabling individuals to support charitable causes while shopping. CSR is a concept where businesses integrate social and environmental concerns into their operations to create a positive impact on society. Give as You Live facilitates this by partnering with thousands of retailers who pledge to donate a percentage of customers’ purchases to charity.

5. Conclusion

In conclusion, Give as you Live provides charities with supportive financial solutions with their products. By creating a platform that allows users to donate online conveniently and easily with no extra cost, Give as you Live not only provides a wide range of charities access to additional financial sources but also provides many opportunities to raise their public awareness, which will help these organizations to develop. In terms of business model, Give as you Live has created 3 main products to support its value proposition. Specifically, Give as you Live Donate provides service packages to charities based on user’s donating needs, while Give as you Live Online allows users to access a wide range of online stores and e-retailers, and Give as you Live Instore will support customers donating through purchases at offline stores and brands.