Since it was founded in 2008, the social enterprise Thankyou has raised over $17.5 million dollars for its impact partners on a mission to eradicate extreme poverty. Thankyou has always done things differently, taken risks and creatively disrupted systems that need to change and it's been quite the rollercoaster.
From their original campaign to sell bottled water to fund life-changing water projects in developing nations, to abandoning that campaign (you can read about why below), Thankyou has been quick to adapt and has never shied away from setting audacious goals.
There was the cheeky marketing campaign that leveraged the support of customers and community to encourage Coles and Woolies to stock Thankyou (it worked), to the most recent campaign to leverage the reach and power of the biggest product companies in the world to partner with Thankyou and redistribute profits to impact partners (a work in progress - check out the 'no small plan' link below)
Oh, and there was the best-selling, groundbreaking book 'Chapter One' that documents it all, albeit in a typically unconventional way.
It's been a fascinating journey and I've always been fascinated by the people who make this kind of big, systemic change happen. In this case, its Daniel Flynn.
In this episode we talk about the challenges of running a purpose driven social enterprise during a time of rampant capitalism, during a pandemic whilst up against the might and power and control of global multinationals.
And, we talk about the personal challenges that Daniel experiences as he grows as a human, a husband, a father and a leader.
I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
Michael
The Coles & Woolworths campaign
Why Thankyou is no longer selling bottled water
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