How often do you purchase something online? Once a week? Once a month? What if you could use that purchase to donate to charity, or even 1 Million Women, without paying an extra cent?
We've always been big fans of the message that you don't need more stuff to make you happy. But realistically, the chances that you'll make an online purchase at some stage this year are pretty high. Whether you're buying new clothing, booking a holiday, or grabbing your groceries; your dollars are part of the 200 billion that are spent online, worldwide, each year.
How can we use these purchases for social good?
That's where Folo comes in. Folo is a platform that automatically generates free donations when you shop online. The retailer, not you, pays the contributions. So it won't cost you an extra cent to start seriously supporting your favourite charity.
Folo spokesperson Jaimee Abict explained "Folo is essentially a social experiment. We're saying to every online shopper in Australia: 'If we gave you free money back to give to a cause you love, and you all you had to do was spend ten seconds downloading this toolbar – would you do it?'
It's 'clicks for causes'- we're converting what you're already doing online into free money for incredible organisations."
Folo works as a browser plug in. So once you've download it all you have to do is just click to activate before you finalise your sale. A percentage of that purchase is then given back to the cause of your choice, at no cost to you.
Put simply: Folo gives any online shopper free money to donate to charity."Our goal is to take the pressure off NFPs needing to constantly fundraise, allowing them to focus on their true purpose. Folo itself will also donate 100% of its own profits to charities through The Pure Foundation." Nina Skrzynski, Chair of the Pure Foundation's Advisory Board.
You can understand why we'd be exited by something like this. The Folo platform is game changer that converts a generally the excessive industry of online shopping into something is creating real positive change. On top of that, very little effort is required on the behalf of the user. It's win, win.
What's even more interesting is when you consider the scaling possibilities.
Just 500 people using Folo will generate $15,000-30,000 per annum in donations. A million users could generate thirty to sixty million. That's millions of dollars that would have otherwise ended up in the pockets of retailers, which is now going on to fund great things.
It's important to note that this isn't an endorsement from us to start rapidly pushing "add to cart".
Overconsumption is a very real issue, and if the whole world consumed at the rate we do in Australia we'd need somewhere between four and seven extra Earths to sustain us.
Read more: Money might buy you happiness, but it won't give you meaning.
But it is highly likely that at some stage in the near distant future you might want to buy something online, and if you do then why not make sure you're doing something great for the world in the process?
Jaimee said: "The great thing about Folo is that you don't have to change your behaviour – you just continue doing what you'd normally do online, and it appears automatically in your Google results, or pops up when you visit a participating store.
At Folo we aren't about driving consumption, we're simply giving shoppers an opportunity to channel what they're already spending into funding fantastic causes."
Folo's mission is to foster empathy within a generation of young online consumers, empowering them to give back to causes they really care about. And that's something that we can get behind.
You can head to our Facebook page for an update on when we will be doing a live chat with 1 Million Women founder Natalie Isaacs and Folo's spokesperson Jaimee Abict , or download Folo here.
Read this next: Lessons learnt from the longest study on happiness
1 Million Women is more than our name, it's our goal! We're building a movement of strong, inspirational women acting on climate change by leading low-carbon lives. To make sure that our message has an impact, we need more women adding their voice. We need to be louder. Joining us online means your voice and actions can be counted. We need you.
