‘Change the world through one act of random kindness at a time’
Business Proposal [ July 2014 ]
Changing the World through One Act of Random Kindness at a time...
‘Change the world through one act of random kindness at a time’
A note from our co-founder...
plan to help change the world g the time to read through this, our Firstly my sincerest thanks for takin opportunity to give you a little at a time. I thought I would take this through one act of random kindness d to take it... inten we e about and our vision as to where insight as to how the project cam years, I recently became esses and industries for the past 17 Having been involved in several busin i as he began to make his foray Ellah ir Tanv Mr d partner and good frien reacquainted with my first business sold my share in a convenience marketing and design. I had recently back into the world of advertising, business working alongside him ng back into the freelance design store business I had and slowly getti projects to work on next. while I contemplated what other future thinking) I am always list, contemplative, compassionate, Being an INFJ personality type (idea a marked difference and has the value, helps people in need, makes looking for a project that provides r that ticks all those boxes. And this project is the first endeavou potential to leave a lasting legacy. actually came as a result of one Funnily enough the origin of the idea Anyhow... the background story? all matter of topics including into e delv conversations... the ones that of our legendary Friday afternoon y and sex. And weirdly enough, life, Universe, metaphysics, philosoph death, love, health, the meaning of that an old friend of his was given this idea. Tan happened to mention sex was the subject that spawned redeem at anytime (I’’l refrain from from his girlfriend, which he could a voucher booklet of sex favours ined in the back of my mind as we rema y the point). This topic obviousl giving details but I’m sure you get fast forward a few weeks... t that I looked like ‘that bloke from ce at work... and made the commen Tan’s wife, Missi, makes an appearan Almighty and the Noah’s Ark what she meant straightaway... Evan the boat thingamajig movie’. I knew idea came. One of my favourite the n the dead giveaway). And that’s whe ll) story (the overgrown beard being man) explains to Noah (Steve Care the end, when God (Morgan Free scenes from the movie is towards what ‘ark’ stood for... d? God: How do you change the worl ness at a time. kind om Evan: One single act of rand of Random, Kindness. on the ground with a stick] One Act, God: [spoken while writing A-R-K in with acts of random kindness. So ing together the sex voucher idea to friends From this, I then thought of bring gift and ness kind of s note or which people can write acts effect, create voucher booklets in ient the much more personal and tings card. This then gives the recip gree a e insid and loved ones, usually sed to money or a material gift. thoughtful gift of their time as oppo an online platform to facilitate the the concept, not least to develop Tan and I have since expanded on ical items (notepads, greetings phys om kindness), to produce more sending of virtual arks (acts of rand rate revenue and enhance gene help will g platform/strategy that cards etc) and to create an advertisin grassroots projects and small le us to raise valuable funds to help business brands. All this will enab . sured difference to those in need charities to make a tangible and mea people involved and to help raise of our Ark notepads in a bid to get We have already printed a small run website next which will be the and orm aim to build the virtual ark platf awareness of our project. It is our dfunding campaign on Indiegogo, To this end, we have launched a crow foundation for our future growth. 20% of funds raised to two charities for the build, will also contribute which in addition to raising revenue the outset. n) that have supported our idea from (Soundseekers and Childs i Foundatio help spread the word so we can e to our campaign or alternatively I sincerely hope you will contribut k achieve our £10k target... #send1ar ounder Kindest regards, Dan Pinkney, Co-F
One Ark: A non-profit organisation and social enterprise. Working together to help make our World a better place.
www.1ark.org.uk
Daniel Pinkney. Co-Founder and Partner. Hard-of-hearing INFJ dad of two with an entrepreneurial streak. Visionary, Designer, Marketer, Philomath, Fitness Fanatic. Lover of MBTI, Metaphysics and Apple Inc.
Tanvir Ellahi Co-Founder and Partner. ENTJ husband and dad of three with an entrepreneurial streak. Visionary, Designer, Philanthropist and Maverick. Owner of Out Of This World Creative Agency and Easby Holiday Cottages.
‘Change the world through one act of random kindness at a time’
Executive Summary... Who are we? One Ark (1ark): A non-profit organisation and social enterprise. Company setup Initially a non-profit partnership with a view to becoming a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) named the ‘SOA Foundation’ - SOA meaning ‘Send One Ark’, once the £5k threshold is reached. The Partners Partners and founders of the foundation are Mr Daniel Pinkney and Mr Tanvir Ellahi. Both have a successful background in the design, advertising and marketing field as well as running and operating businesses in a variety of industries. Our Mission To work together and help make world a better place... one act of random kindness at a time. The Problems 1. People often feel too powerless or small to help tackle good causes and global issues. 2. Materialist pursuits contribute to greed, unkindness and economic pressure. 3. Businesses need to show that they are not solely motivated to drive profits, and thereby improve brand value by working with charitable organisations and good causes.
‘There’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.’
Our Solution To design and build a platform that promotes collaboration and has consumers, charities and industry working together as one... Which in turn helps to make our world a better place. Our Platform To address these problems, we are aiming to build a platform that… 1. Raises funds for numerous charities and grass roots projects worldwide. 2. Urges everyone to be to be kind and thoughtful towards each other. 3. Promotes the spending of time as opposed to the spending of money.
~ Scott Adams (1957)
4. Gives businesses and corporate organisations numerous channels for advertising and sponsorship... which helps us raise funds for charities. We aim to show that people really can change the world through one act of random kindness at a time. Spreading kindness locally and helping those less fortunate globally.
One Ark: A non-profit organisation and social enterprise. Working together to help make our World a better place.
www.1ark.org.uk
‘Change the world through one act of random kindness at a time’
Holding page... Current holding page at http://www.1ark.org.uk (with signup form for email updates)
Ark notepad page at http://www.1ark.org.uk/guide.html (with Gumroad ecommerce facility to purchase notepads)
One Ark: A non-profit organisation and social enterprise. Working together to help make our World a better place.
www.1ark.org.uk
‘Change the world through one act of random kindness at a time’
The Online Platform... Proposed 1ark Website...
What the website will provide... The primary focus of the site will be to enable users to send virtual arks (acts of random kindness) to friends, family and colleagues via social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter) and email. There will also be an option to print the ark to give to the intended recipient. Eventually we hope to be able to raise enough funds to develop mobile apps (iOS and Android) that will take advantage of the mobile revolution and enable us to capitalise on regular and continued income from the sale of the app, advertising and in app purchases. All of which, help us raise valuable funds to support numerous charities and grass roots projects. The website will also showcase the projects we have helped (rotating images and links to the projects) and also enable visitors to purchase our printed ark products such as notepads, booklets, greetings cards, calendars etc. There will also be a blog to keep people up to date with where funds go and which projects we support as well as showcasing stories of acts of random kindnesses by our supporters and new ideas to build upon the kindness movement.
One Ark: A non-profit organisation and social enterprise. Working together to help make our World a better place.
SEND ARK Recipient Name Your Name Compose your ark... (ie. I will cook a meal for us and we’ll have a movie night)
Preview ark Buy an ark notepad or voucher booklet
How you can send your arks...
The virtual ark widget that will appear on every page of the website.
www.1ark.org.uk
‘Change the world through one act of random kindness at a time’
How the Virtual Ark will work... 1. Fill out the widget Add the name of your intended recipient, your name, and your ‘act of random kindness message’
2. Pop up preview A preview of the ark before sending which also enables you to select the service you want to use to send the ark.
SEND ARK Recipient Name Your Name Compose your ark... (ie. I will cook a meal for us and we’ll have a movie night)
Preview ark Buy an ark notepad or voucher booklet
How you can send your arks...
3. Thank you screen Once delivered you then have the option to receive a reward voucher from one of our advertisers... As every good turn deserves another. How revenue is generated... We plan on selling sponsorship options to business and corporates (ie their name/logo on the virtual ark). This can either be done on a CPM basis ie multiple companies pay for being showcased on a set number of virtual arks. Or we obtain one main sponsor who pays a retainer fee to be featured on all virtual arks sent. We also plan to incorporate a reward system whereby everyone who sends an ark gets the option of downloading a voucher from one of our a corporate partner. These will ideally be from organisations whose offerings complement our theme and promote the spending of time - such as restaurant chains, theme parks, cinemas, holidays etc.
One Ark: A non-profit organisation and social enterprise. Working together to help make our World a better place.
www.1ark.org.uk
‘Change the world through one act of random kindness at a time’
Physical Ark products... A6 Notepads These handy notepads contain 50 blank acts of random kindness that can be filled out and given individually to friends, family, colleagues, your kids and even strangers (ie to waiters/waitresses along with a tip, or just paying someone a compliment). Leave it at home or work for everyone to participate and hand out notes or keep one with you at all times to give out as and when you feel or see the need We have these currently for sale (along with a handy quick guide) at http://www.1ark.org.uk/guide.html How revenue is generated... • Through selling the notepads, voucher booklets, greetings cards etc through our website. • Through selling advertising space on the reverse of the vouchers. • Through selling sponsorship of the items (ie logo, name, design on the covers or reverse). • We can supply retailers such as florists, charity shops and convenience/ gift/card retailers with voucher books and notepads to sell (we allow them a small commission on the sale of each book). A6 Voucher Booklets These follow the same theme and format as the notepads but only contain a limited number of arks (Probably 3-5). The idea being that you can fill out all ark messages for that special someone (your partner or child for example) and then gift them in a greetings card as opposed to spending money on a material gift that doesn’t have much personal value. The reverse of the voucher may include an offer from one of our corporate sponsors (when we secure them) such as a 2 for 1 off a meal or half-price entrance to a theme park etc. As we grow our network then these offers can be geo-targeted so that our supporters get offers that are most relevant to them and their location. Other possible products • A6 Greetings Card (single ark message inside) • Postcard (single ark message on reverse) • Calendars • Promotional T-shirts, Mugs etc... ie “Don’t be a mug, make someone a cuppa” • Butterfly cupcakes (Friday corporate deliveries) Items such as the greetings card we have up for sale on our Zazzle store at http:// www.zazzle.co.uk/send1ark but we would be looking to produce these ourselves as commission levels are too small and items too costly. We would also be looking to produce a range of different cards for different events and occasions (ie Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Valentines, Christmas, Birthday for Him/Her, etc). We are also aiming to get children involved in the project by approaching schools for kids to come up with their own designs depicting what kindness means to them. These can then form the basis of a pack of greetings cards (ie for Christmas) that can be sold and even a calendar design.
One Ark: A non-profit organisation and social enterprise. Working together to help make our World a better place.
www.1ark.org.uk
‘Change the world through one act of random kindness at a time’
What the future could bring... Ark Widget used on charity sites The virtual ark widget that will be used on our site could be rolled out to charity and non-profit sites to increase engagement, virality, exposure and consequently advertising and sponsorship income to the charity as well as to our own SOA (Send One Ark) Foundation.
• Unobtrusive widget that doesn’t interfere with the site layout.
SEND ARK
• Tracking capability (see how many visitors use it) and reward visitors that send arks with vouchers. • Enhances social engagement. • Direct income to charity from corporate sponsorship of virtual arks.
SEND ARK Recipient Name Your Name
SEND ARK
Compose your ark... (ie. I will cook a meal for us and we’ll have a movie night)
Preview ark Buy an ark notepad or voucher booklet
Mobile App (iOS, Android) Taking advantage of the mobile revolution we can take the website further and create a mobile app to facilitate the sending of virtual arks. Add friends and contacts and message the arks directly to them (could also incorporate messaging facility). App could be sold at a nominal fee (£0.59) to recuperate the costs of building the app and then eventually generate revenue to give back to charities and good causes. There is also the option of using in app advertising and purchases to help generate additional funds. But it’s main purpose will be help increase exposure and funding through advertising partners.
One Ark: A non-profit organisation and social enterprise. Working together to help make our World a better place.
www.1ark.org.uk
‘Change the world through one act of random kindness at a time’
The charities and projects we support... Our ultimate aim is rather than tie ourselves to specific charities, is to look to support different projects as and when the need arises. That way we can pick and choose projects that we (and our supporters, fans, followers etc) want to help and support.
Childs i Foundation - http://www.childsifoundation.org Child’s i Foundation believes children should grow up in families, not orphanages. We’ve proved it’s possible to find families for abandoned children instead of placing them into long-term care in Uganda. Now we want to change the lives of other children around the world.
So for example, if a certain charity needs to purchase a specific item or funds for a small project they are doing, we contribute to that directly, rather than to the charity as a whole. This complements our small acts/working together theme... Many small acts in many different charities to make a concerted and unified impact. By supporting specific projects it also means our supporters know and can see their contributions making an immediate and tangible difference... rather than going to a larger charity and the funds getting lost (ie going towards wages and operational costs rather than to the grass roots level). However, in order to help raise awareness we contacted several charities and organisations with values and missions that were close to our hearts. We have two that immediately got back to us and who were very passionate and supportive of our project. As such we have included them as part of our Indiegogo campaign (20% of pledged funds will go to them) and in future we will be looking to develop our relationship with them and contribute to specific projects as we grow.
Sound Seekers - http://www.sound-seekers.org.uk Sound Seekers is dedicated to helping deaf and hearing-impaired people, especially children, in the developing world. We develop and support projects that improve access to education, lessen the impact of hearing loss and raise awareness of deaf people’s abilities and needs.
One Ark: A non-profit organisation and social enterprise. Working together to help make our World a better place.
www.1ark.org.uk
‘Change the world through one act of random kindness at a time’
Working together...
Charities and Non-profits
Increased social engagement with consumers. More opportunities to give, donate and help
Enhanced brand value for corporate. More avenues of fundraising for charity
Public and Consumers
Consumers more likely to purchase
Advertisers and Corporate Better relationships due to corporate affiliation with good causes
One Ark: A non-profit organisation and social enterprise. Working together to help make our World a better place.
Better Brand Value
www.1ark.org.uk
‘No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.’ ~ Aesop
www.1ark.org.uk The Old School, 6 Meldyke Lane, Stainton Village, North Yorkshire, TS8 9AZ Telephone: +44 (0)1642 724505 | Email: send@1ark.org.uk