Our thoughts on Charity V Not-for-profit Commercial Entities

Lately, we've been spending time thinking about how the Evrythng model fits the remit of grant giving organisations that want to support progressive groups trying to fix the big climate questions, but are set up to support charities and not for-profit businesses that pledge to distribute all profits to the cause. 

Whilst Evrythng is not a charity per se, we exist solely to act as a funding vehicle for charities without extracting a single penny of profit for personal gain.

The reason we think Evrythng can fit the funding requirements of these groups is because of our radical new business model: Evrythng has no for-profit investors and will never be bought, sold or listed on a stock exchange. Our legal structure will make this permanent: intellectual property and brand assets will be locked in trust and cannot be monetised for private gain. That is why we describe ourselves as a not-for-profit business, even though that is not strictly correct as we exist to make as much profit as we can before giving every single penny away.

This is all underpinned by our radically transparent approach to governance and financial reporting - we operate a 100% open accountancy model where anyone can log into our accounts in real time and track every penny as it moves through the business. Just email hi@evrythng.cc and we’ll give you a log in.

In addition, Evrythng businesses are run by micro teams, often just one person, and their pay is commission-based only and capped at an equitable rate. This means that if we sell £1 or £100m worth of goods, the salaries remain capped and the profit from sales is released immediately - this is a globally unique approach to the problem of fair salaries and charitable activity and is inspired loosely by the Dr. Bronner model. 

One way to think about our model is that Evrythng is the not-for-profit retail arm of every Climate / Nature / Environmental protection charity that exists.

You can buy a Greenpeace T-shirt or a Wildlife Trusts beanie online, but imagine if every coffee, chocolate bar or bottle of gin you bought at the corner shop, the supermarket or out on the town, sent 100% of its profit to the cause. With $11tn in profit generated from consumer spending each year, redirecting this revenue stream at scale could help move the economy away from extractive practices that simply fuel the climate crisis, and towards funding the solutions we urgently need.

Whilst this seems like an insurmountably huge target - can a scrappy UK start-up really redesign the economic model that governs 80% of the world’s population? - we believe the only way to find out is by getting on and building it. Our successes so far (including exclusive partnerships with Green Man Festival, Shambala and Laine Pub group owned by Punch Pubs etc) are a clear indication that big commercial entities are ready for this systemic change too. 

So why are we run as a business and not a charity?

We believe that business can be the purest form of activism. 

Charities rely on donations and the fundraising process is perpetual: “Thank you for last week’s donation.  Can we please have one this week too?”. 

Over time, the pool dries up and you have to spend more and more on fundraising initiatives. 

But if you are a successful business then money can flow like a river into your bank account - you buy cornflakes, you eat cornflakes, you buy cornflakes… repeat, for life.

Kellogg’s are very happy to make all that profit from you (for life!) and they do so by extracting value from natural resources. Alas, those resources are under extreme stress from the climate emergency and biodiversity collapse - to such an extent that we believe it’s no longer okay to extract profit from them at all.

What does that mean? We believe that if you manufacture food or drink then you rely on natural resources - therefore 100% of your profit should be used to fund nature based climate solutions and habitat protection etc. 

Obviously that’s a very difficult pivot for Kellogg’s et al - their shareholders won’t allow it and all their systems are set up to make as much profit as they physically can.

That’s why we need initiatives like Evrythng - not-for-profit businesses that are fearlessly commercial, operated by experts in their category and designed to cut off the profit stream from the incumbents and use it as a funding vehicle for the crucial, large scale and public facing climate, nature and environmental initiatives that will allow us to restore the planet.