At our College staff meeting this week, Gail Mitchell, Tanya Cullen, Val Beattie and Rob Steffler were able to share about a social enterprise business that we started as a result of Startup Weekend Sunshine Coast at the end of April. We had 54 hours over the weekend to come up with an idea for a scalable business, and execute on the idea, making it a reality. The weekend ended with a 5-minute pitch to potential investors, and to our surprise, we won the best startup (50 participants from professionals to uni students, seven startup ideas pitched and one winner).
1st Place 51 Team with Judging Panel Our First Donation
We’ve been able to secure $25,000 in marketing and promotion (when we are ready for it), as well as mentoring from some top business consultants and introductions to potential investors…. but for now we are simply trying proving that our platform is viable and that people are willing to engage with us and spend their money at our online store.
Our vision is simple, we want to connect your online spending activity with your willingness to give back to the community and support those in need. When you purchase a product from us, your purchase allows us to donate that product to a person in need in our community (on your behalf).
Our partner at the moment is Sonshine Sanctuary Women’s Shelter with more partners in the pipeline. After trading for about a week, purely through word of mouth and bit of social media, we’ve already been able to donate approximately 16 pairs of children’s pyjamas to the shelter.
Today we launched a few more product lines for you to choose from (women’s and children’s socks, women’s beanies, and women’s pyjamas). You can spend as little as $8 or as much as $40. Payment is fully secure via both PayPal and Credit Card (Stripe).
We hope that you’ll support our Social Enterprise, knowing that whatever product you purchase, you are directly helping to brighten the day of someone in need in our community.
If you purchase before this Saturday, 11 May, your purchase will contribute to our Mother’s Day donation to Sonshine Sanctuary Women’s Shelter on Saturday afternoon. We would love to brighten the day this Mother’s Day of women who have been impacted by domestic violence, and look forward to your support!
Website: http://www.51forpurpose.com/
We would also love you to follow us on Instagram and Facebook by searching @51forpurpose
If you have any questions please contact us at [email protected].
We look forward to having you join the 51 Family.
Rob, Gail, Val & Tanya (The team at 51 for Purpose)