We’re looking into social enterprises and would love your input!
Do you support any social enterprises like Who Gives A Crap, Thankyou, etc? How do you choose which ones to support? Do you research their impact before you buy? How much extra are you willing to pay for a product from a social enterprise?
Thanks in advance for your feedback!
We’ve been buying Who Gives A Crap TP for its environmental credentials vs the usual offerings in the supermarket for a while now.
One we have been supporting for some years is Santos Organics in Byron Bay, from where I buy a fair bit of our food.
http://santosorganics.com.au/p01aboutus.html
As far as price goes, we are prepared to support companies who share our environmental and social aims/views, even if it costs more.
There’s a movement to critically assess the effectiveness of altruism, moving beyond feel good to monitor whether our donations actually do any good.
Most of us want to make a difference. We see suffering, injustice and death, and are moved to do something about them. But working out what that ‘something’ is, let alone actually doing it, is a difficult problem. It would be easy to be disheartened by the challenge.
Effective altruism is a response to this challenge. Effective altruism is a research field which uses high-quality evidence and careful reasoning to work out how to help others as much as possible. It is also a community of people taking these answers seriously, focusing their efforts on the most promising solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.
Here’s their Australian website: https://effectivealtruism.org.au/
I buy WGAC, and I also buy BioBag compostable waste bags for my organics waste (I trench-compost). I’m looking into whether I can use the BioBags for landfill waste also…
I have been investing through an organization called Kiva for many years https://www.kiva.org/ Kiva, through various agencies in the field, provide micro financing to folk who just need a small amount of capital to commence their enterprise. What I value about Kiva is they provide full visibility of activity and, in addition, allow me to control which investments I choose. If I need my money I can transfer it back as loans are repaid. Loans are made in $25 increments with multiple lenders combining to make up the total loan. Currently US$1.7B are invested by individuals.
Yes, I buy WGAC products (toilet rolls, kitchen roll, tissues) as I like to think I am treading as lightly as possible on this earth… I also recycle as much as I possibly can and pick up plastic rubbish strewn on the side of the road to prevent it blowing or drifting into the rivers/oceans, etc. or being ingested by birds and small animals. There is no Planet B!!
I support Who Gives A Crap because I do not wish to use trees for toilet paper, considering they take years to grow clean our air, and help improve rainfall. choose either recycled paper or bamboo products. They use money from the sale of toilet paper to provide toilets to impoverished communities overseas, who do not have these facilities.
I support Who gives a crap, and others that I come across that fit my agenda.
My reasoning is usually what is of environmental and or social benefit, as government support, interest, and finance are so woefully lacking!
I buy most of my clothes and homewares from second hand shops, and I shop at co-ops whenever I can find one - Source at UTAS has been one, when I was a student.
While I avoid the big stores as much as possible, unfortunately we can’t manage without them.
We buy Who gives a crap for the charity reasons.
Same here… They deliver to ASRC in Melbourne.
Yes but Whilst I continue to use funds that are returned to me, I have some doubts. I did ask Peter Singer about Kiva once. He did not give them a ringing endorsement.
I buy Who Gives A Crap TP as the price is the same as what I would pay at the supermarket. It gets delivered for free so I don’t have bulky TP to bring home.
My daughter works for www.givewell.org which is a top charity assessor.
I support social enterprise as much as possible but more likely to buy if they are competitive.
It would be helpful to know his concerns.
Yes, I am an ardent supporter of such organisation and order directly from"Who Gives a crap"
I like their mission and what they do and how they accomplish it.
This year I started buying from Who Gives a Crap (tp and tissues). I also buy Thankyou bodywash (from Woolies), coffee from Montville Coffee and weekly organic veggie box from Homefresh Organics. Also bought a few things from Biome last week. I also used to buy milk from Aussie Farmers Direct before they folded. I support those I somehow come across and happy to pay extra for environmental and social reasons. I also buy clothes and other things from op shops for the same reasons.
We buy tea and coffee from Tradewinds and have done for about 25 years. They notify us if there’s been a particularly good crop and prices are reduced, as well as other projects to support the growers in impoverished countries. OXFAM also gets our support for local projects and products. They send out information about projects but we don’t commit regular funds, as I found that when community aid abroad was taken over by Oxfam it altered the distribution of monies and I don’t have the time to keep checking that sort of thing.
Thank you- yes. I buy their cereal and did some internet some research which convinced me to continue. WGAC no -because they advertise on FAKEBOOK irrational I know, but my own little prejudice. I buy brands which claim to support charitable causes and am prepared to pay a premium of roughly 15%.
I do worry that I may be throwing money away. What passes for charity or not for profit in this country worries me.
For many years I supported Farmer’s Direct by having a weekly order. It wasn’t about the convenience for me but rather about supporting the farmer’s which will be too late once they are up against the wall. Of course they have since gone into liquidation, how now to support the farmers. I refuse to buy the cut price milk at the supermarkets.
I also support One Family at a Time. This was because I’d been to Cambodia and one of the organisers is friends with one of my offspring. They provide practical help and are not into having ‘tourist’ or ‘photo’ opportunities with the Cambodian people.
@andrew.p I’m curious - what are your concerns around Australian charities/not-for-profits? And what’s different about Thankyou that makes you happy to support them? Is it the transparency?
