COLUMN: Toilet paper with a purpose? I'm in
I love a good entrepreneurial idea, and when it benefits a nonprofit organization trying to make a difference, all the better.
This week I stumbled upon two such endeavors and had to marvel at the ingenuity of these young millennials who just want to make the world a better place. One project involves toilet paper, the other is an innovative way of finding homes for shelter cats.
Who Gives a Crap, a comical name for a toilet paper company, was started four years ago by three young guys who were shocked to learn that 2.3 billion people across the world — roughly 40 percent of the global population — don’t have access to a toilet, which leads to a host of diarrhea-related ailments that sicken and kill people in developing nations. Children are especially vulnerable.
The entrepreneurial trio, known on their website simply as Simon, Jehan and Danny, launched a crowdfunding campaign in which one of the guys sat on a toilet in a drafty warehouse until they’d raised enough pre-orders to start production. It took 50 hours to raise $50,000 and they were off ... the john ... and running.
Who Gives a Crap has been growing ever since. The philanthropic drawing card is that the company donates a full 50 percent of its profits to help build toilets and improve sanitation in the developing world. The company notes how every dollar invested in sanitation yields $5.50 in increased economic prosperity.
“Toilets are magical,” they quipped. It’s no joke, though, to provide such a basic necessity to those in need. So far this “profit-for-purpose” business model has raised close to a half-million dollars to help build toilets.
And there’s more. They’re using 100 percent recycled paper, bamboo or sugar cane in their toilet paper to be environmentally responsible.
The other innovative idea that caught my attention was a Canadian animal shelter that is using a comical car salesman approach to find homes for cats that have been turned into the shelter.
“Can I interest you in a pre-owned cat?” a young mustached Canadian asks in an online presentation that showcases pets offered by the Calgary Humane Society. “We have black cats, white cats, tall cats, short cats. We’ve got cats of all makes, models and colors!”
The video presentation is plastered with large flashing graphics, just like the ones we’ve all seen on TV that promote various makes and models of vehicles. A goofy guy in a mustache declares: “Approaching a top speed of 30 mph, this cat is ready to race home and straight into your heart!”
In the next clip the same crazy guy is making cat ears on his head with his hands and screaming “Felines! Felines! Felines!”
The strategy has proven to be pretty effective, the humane society reported.
I’m impressed with the creativity and commitment of projects like these. If you, like me, now have a hankering to order some eco-friendly toilet paper or adopt a shelter cat, then these folks and their marketing brilliance have done their jobs well.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.