Product philanthropy reaches Australian shores

It’s not every day that a charity sets out to redefine charitable giving, but this is exactly what Good360 Australia is doing. Formed in Australia in 2013, Good360 Australia’s mission is to connect excess and unwanted product from businesses with organisations that can use it for social good.

The online marketplace that supports this is called the GivingPlace. This facilities the exchange between companies and not-for-profit (NFP) organisations. It also allows individual donors to support causes by directly subsidising shipping and handling costs.

According to the 2013–14 Grant Thornton Australia and New Zealand Not for Profit Sector Survey: Doing good and doing it well, 80 per cent of Australian NFPs constantly worry about generating funds, and 40 per cent can’t plan more than 12 months in advance due to funding limitations. In contrast, companies are spending thousands per year warehousing and moving excess product that they don’t want.

Despite the obvious connection, there hasn’t been an easy or smooth system for these transactions to take place in the Australian market.

In the US, the Good360 model has existed for 30 years and delivered over $US8 billion in product donations. It also consistently makes Forbes’ yearly Top 10 best managed charities list.

After reading about the US branch of Good360 in 2012, Covington, who has been the Director of several multi-million dollar corporations globally was instantly drawn to the idea.

“I thought that it made absolute sense,” says Covington when asked what sparked her interest in Good360.

“I looked around to see who was doing it in Australia, but I couldn’t find anyone. There were people in the food space, like FoodBank and SecondBite, but no one was operating in the product philanthropy space. So many non-perishable goods go to waste too, while there are NFPs struggling that could put these to good use.”

After seeing a need in Australia that wasn’t being met, Covington felt compelled to implement the idea.

“It kept me up at night, especially knowing that the US had already had this system for 30 years, and Australia didn’t. Businesses weren’t having their inventory problems solved, charities weren’t getting donations – I felt compelled to do something about it. If I didn’t, we might go another 30 years without changing,” says Covington.

Acting on her desire to create a product philanthropy model locally, Covington contacted Good360 in the US and negotiated with them to start a branch in Australia.

Sarah Harding

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