How one company is using customer opinions to generate millions for nonprofits.
This article was published in The Chronicle of Philanthropy on September 27, 2022 and can be views in its entirety. Click Here
With money increasingly tight, nonprofit leaders are looking for fresh approaches to fund their mission without asking donors to open an already stretched wallet. Record inflation rates - the highest in 40 years - combined with economic uncertainty are undeniable factors causing donors to think twice before giving while also increasing the need for relief services provided by nonprofits. So it is no surprise that nonprofit leaders find themselves wondering if they’ll be able to weather yet another ‘unprecedented” funding environment.
One company has created a new model to enable nonprofits and donors of all giving abilities to create a completely new source of money: feedback for good. While customer feedback has been around since the dawn of time, there is nothing old about this new “listening” based funding platform.
HundredX, a breakthrough startup focused on multiplying positive outcomes, has completely reimagined the giving ecosystem as a way to produce significant funding for nonprofit programs and compelling crowdsourced strategy insights for business leaders. The result is a win-win for people, business, and society. And it’s working. HundredX Causes has already generated more than $10 million for over 700 diverse causes. With a goal to generate $500,000 for nonprofits daily, HundredX is just getting started.
The idea: creating the “win-win”
HundredX CEO and Founder, Rob Pace, had the unique background to see a connection that was not obvious to others. As a former senior Partner at Goldman Sachs, he knew how critical (and rare) it is for business leaders to find an independent source to hear the truth about their goods and services. Serving as the National Chairman of the Board for the Salvation Army, Rob saw a passionate community of tens of millions of donors, beneficiaries, volunteers and employees who wanted to help. If businesses had the money and needed better insights sourced from everyday customers through traditional consumer analysis tools - and nonprofits had those consumers but needed more funding, Pace saw the opportunity to develop a new model: feedback for good.
The secret to addressing both sides of this equation, he realized, depended on developing a platform to turn consumer feedback into a new currency for social good. Pace added, “I saw the huge stresses on two groups of people, business and nonprofit leaders, and also saw how they could help each other. HundredX was created to be a lighthouse company showing it is possible to do good and do well in business.”
So how does it work?
The HundredX Causes experience offers material funding, ready-made marketing assets, staff support, and, most importantly, no out-of-pocket cost for participating nonprofit organizations. For individual participants, HundredX Causes offers a safe, secure, cost-free way to give without spending to their favorite cause. More than 700 causes across the US have benefitted from HundredX Causes funding programs. Of those, a remarkable 98% of causes answering post-program feedback questions have indicated they plan to repeat the program in the future.
Using the HundredX platform, nonprofit supporters can drive positive change in two critical ways: by generating funding for a cause they care about and by providing leading brands and businesses an unfiltered understanding of how to meet their needs. HundredX’s online feedback interface is modeled after human listening by revealing what matters to customers. Unlike normal surveys, supporters are empowered to select the brands that matter to them and why. Once a business is selected, each emoji-based brand evaluation takes around a minute for participants to complete and generates up to $2 for their charity.
HundredX uses the feedback collected to provide AI-enabled, anonymized insights on over 2,500 businesses, their competitors, and what drives their purchasing decisions. Top-level executives, investors and consultants use HundredX’s insights to inform strategy decisions based on real-time data about consumers’ experiences and future purchasing intent. Unfiltered insights allow them to optimize customer experience, increase market share, and save millions by preventing costly mistakes and eliminating blind spots.
HundredX Causes in Action
In Dallas, TX, Big Brothers Big Sisters took advantage of HundredX Causes as an additional funding campaign. Program results exceeded expectations of Andrew Young, Vice President of Advancement at BBBS Lone Star. “With the 30-day HundredX Causes program, we saw that engagement from select volunteer groups was up 360% using HundredX Causes over the last volunteer targeted fundraising campaign.” He continues, “HundredX provides a new way to give and engage, and I can see it being something many nonprofits can’t wait to take advantage of in the near future.”
Learn more about How the HundredX Causes Program Works
Corporate Foundations
It isn’t just nonprofits and their volunteers getting excited about this new way to give. Corporations and foundations are able to partner with HundredX Causes to amplify the impact they are having in their communities through 30-day campaigns without additional funding needing to come out of CSR budgets, or employees pockets - music to the ears of both employees and their cause partners.
Lindenmeyr Munroe, a packaging and paper distribution company based in New York, used HundredX Causes for their annual Pan Mass Challenge employee fundraising initiative across 19 markets nationally. Lindenmeyr’ s employees have created more than $50,000 using HundredX Causes for research funding of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
Gregory Murphy, Senior VP of Operations for Lindenmeyr Munroe says, “Giving back is a core value at Lindenmeyr Munroe and Central National-Gottesman. Participating in the Pan Mass Challenge and supporting the Dana Farber Cancer institute is deeply personal to so many of our colleagues. The HundredX Campaign gives every individual, coast to coast within our organization, the opportunity to contribute in such an easy way. Our teams have coordinated bake sales, concerts, and other fundraising events for years, but the HundredX opportunity is by far the biggest return on time investment we can offer our communities to maximize our impact and give back as an organization.”
Learn more about How the HundredX Causes Program Works
The uses for the HundredX dataset continue to increase. Leading nonprofits can also get feedback on themselves, foundations are doubling their impact by partnering with HundredX for programs, and both businesses and nonprofits can better understand the best CSR fits based on shared customers. “We are truly just getting started in terms of learning how powerful the HundredX Causes model can be in terms of unlocking value.” summarized Pace.
To learn more about HundredX Causes or to sign your cause up for a campaign, please visit https://hundredx.com/hundredx-causes.
Strategy Made Smarter
HundredX works with a variety of companies and their investors to answer some of the most important strategy questions in business:
- Where are customers "migrating"?
- What are they saying they will use more of in the next 12 months?
- What are the key drivers of their purchase decisions and financial outcomes?
Current clients see immediate benefits across multiple areas including strategy, finance, operations, pricing, investing, and marketing.
Our insights enable business leaders to define and identify specific drivers and decisions enabling them to grow their market share.
Please contact our team to learn more about which businesses across 75 industries are best positioned with customers and the decisions you can make to grow your brand’s market share.
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