The Biggest Misconception Investors Have About GivMoo

The biggest misconception investors have about GivMoo is also one of the easiest to understand because nonprofits benefit from what we do, people assume we are in the philanthropy business. We are not.

GivMoo is not a fundraising platform. It is not a corporate giving program. It is not a handout. It is not a nonprofit. And it is not a company that happens to sell products so it can give money away afterward. GivMoo is a for-profit commerce company. Full stop.

• I built it to make money.
• I built it to grow.
• I built it to compete.
• I built it to create enterprise value.
• And I am building it with the expectation that the investors who join us should have the opportunity to participate in that value.

The fact that nonprofit organizations benefit from our success does not change what kind of company we are. It changes how the economics of the company were designed. That distinction is everything.

We Are Not Asking People to Give More

One of the reasons I built GivMoo is because I do not believe the answer to nonprofit funding is simply asking people to donate more money, more often. Consumers are already being asked constantly: donate at checkout, round up your purchase, give to a campaign, sponsor an event, support a fundraiser, make an annual gift, become a monthly donor… and the list goes on.

There is nothing wrong with traditional giving. It matters, and it will continue to matter but there is another enormous pool of money moving through the economy every single day that has almost nothing to do with charitable intent. Consumer spending.

People buy groceries, clothing, pet products, school supplies, gifts, household essentials, personal care products, shoes, electronics and home goods. They are going to make those purchases whether a fundraising campaign exists or not. That is where I saw the opportunity.

What if we stopped asking people to spend more and started asking their existing spending to work harder? The answer became GivMoo.

We Are Not Asking Nonprofits to Fundraise for Us Either

This is another place where GivMoo is frequently misunderstood. We are not giving nonprofits another fundraising tool and then handing them the responsibility for making it successful.

• They do not need another campaign to run.
• They do not need another dashboard to manage.
• They do not need another product fundraiser.
• They do not need another consultant teaching them how to market.
• They do not need to buy inventory, fulfill orders, handle returns, manage customer service, source products, run advertising, or become e-commerce experts.

GivMoo does all of this and operates the marketplace. Which allows us to select and source products, negotiate directly with suppliers and manufacturers and capture a healthy margin without overcharging the customers. We also manage the customer experience, marketing, advertising, fulfillment, logistics, shipping, exchanges, returns and the infrastructure.

The nonprofit participates in the economics without being asked to become a retailer. That is not fundraising software that is a revenue channel.

This Is Not Corporate Philanthropy

Corporate giving usually happens after the business has made money. A company earns a profit, then chooses to donate some portion of it. That can be incredibly valuable, but it is fundamentally different from what we are building. At GivMoo, supporting nonprofit organizations is not an annual decision layered on top of the business; it is part of the economic architecture of the business itself.

The transaction creates value for multiple participants at the same time.

• The customer gets a product they wanted. GivMoo earns revenue.
• The business grows.
• Investors participate in the enterprise value being created.
• And nonprofit organizations participate in the economics generated by that commerce.

That is why calling GivMoo a corporate giving program misses the point. Giving is not something we do after commerce happens. It is part of how we designed commerce to happen.

Yes, GivMoo Is For Profit

I want to be especially clear about this because I do not think purpose and profit need to be placed on opposite sides of the table. GivMoo is 100% a for-profit company.

• We want strong margins.
• We want repeat customers.
• We want scale.
• We want national reach.
• We want operational efficiency.
• We want customer loyalty.
• We want a valuable company.

Profit allows us to invest in technology, improve logistics, hire talented people, acquire customers, expand our product assortment, strengthen our brand, and build better systems. It also allows us to create more economic opportunity for the nonprofit organizations participating in the marketplace. There is no conflict in that; in fact, I would argue the opposite.

The bigger GivMoo becomes, the more powerful the model becomes.

A small charitable initiative can produce a small amount of impact. A large commerce company with nonprofit participation built into its economics has the potential to produce something very different; that is the company I am interested in building.

The Innovation Is Not Giving Money Away

If GivMoo were simply another company promising to donate part of its profits, I would understand why investors might view it primarily through a philanthropic lens and just another e-commerce site. But that is not what interests me.

The innovation is not that money eventually reaches nonprofits; the innovation is creating an economic system where everyday transactions can generate value for nonprofits without requiring an additional charitable action from the consumer.

• The customer does not have to become a donor.
• The nonprofit does not have to take on another fundraising task.
• And the company does not have to stop behaving like a company.
• Everyone participates in the same transaction for a different reason.

That is what makes the model interesting.

This Is Ethical Commerce

The phrase I keep coming back to is ethical commerce. Not because it sounds good, because it accurately describes what we are trying to build.

• Commerce where customers receive real value.
• Commerce where the company is expected to perform.
• Commerce where investors can earn a return.
• Commerce where growth matters
• Commerce where profit matters.
• And commerce where a meaningful portion of the value being created can flow back into communities through nonprofit organizations.

We do not believe people should have to choose between buying something they need and supporting something they care about; we believe the transaction itself can do both.

So What Should Investors See When They Look at GivMoo?

This is the most important section of this article and if you come away with anything, this is the part that really matters. GivMoo is:

• Not a charity.
• Not a fundraising platform.
• Not a donation processor.
• Not a corporate social responsibility program.
• And certainly not a handout.

I want investors to see a commerce company pursuing a very large consumer market with a differentiated economic mode and a business designed around transactions that are already happening. To understand that GivMoo is a model where growth can create both enterprise value and nonprofit revenue at the same time. Most importantly, I want them to understand that GivMoo does not succeed because people decide to become more charitable.

Success will be demonstrated by people shopping because they like the products, they are affordable, there isn’t an “upcharge” because it happens to be going to be supporting a nonprofit. The cause may bring them in, the quality of the products and their experience is why they will return.

That is the fundamental difference because our business model was intentionally designed differently.