Tech Talks: how Views For Change is helping businesses give back
NearU
15 Dec, 2021
We've probably all heard the term Corporate Social Responsibility (or CSR for short) thrown around - especially given the circumstances of the past year and a half. Giving back has been more important than ever during the pandemic as many key charities have struggled to stay afloat.
Recent research showed that charities have felt the brunt of numerous lockdowns, with smaller organisations more likely to have stopped services altogether. In fact, 25% of charities with incomes under £10,000 had no choice but to shut down, at least temporarily if not permanently.
The spotlight has now turned to large enterprises to do their bit and give back in whatever way they can. A study by the Charities Aid Foundation found that over half of UK adults were more likely to buy a product/use a service if the company had donated to charity. The figure is even higher for millennials, who report spending 70% more on products with good values behind them.
That's where Views For Change comes in. Their platform allows companies to give back, whilst advertising simultaneously. Every click, swipe, or view of an ad results in a donation to a chosen charity, making giving back easier than ever in this digital age. NearU caught up with Founder, Nicola Telford, so she could tell us all about the business in her own words. Plus, she also recorded a podcast with us (featuring fellow tech-for-good founder, Charlie Rosier of Babbu), so head there next if you're still hungry for some tech-related content.
Can you summarise what your platform is/does in a sentence?
Views For Change is a tech-for-good platform that transforms marketing performance by harnessing the power of charitable donations as rewards for consumer engagement, action and attention.
Our client companies choose a charity from our extensive charity discovery tool; determine how much they want to donate per ‘donation event’ (eg: click, swipe or video view); and attach their advertising campaign. Each donation is unlocked when a consumer takes the desired action.
What role do you see technology playing in the future of work? How will your platform fit into that?
Right now, it feels like there is a platform to solve every pain point in work and business. But, now we’re moving into technology that creates ‘gain points’. Technology is moving from problem solving to value add.
We are also seeing an exponential increase in tech-for-good platforms, as businesses seek more ways to incorporate impact into their work. Consumers are demanding more from businesses these days with more than 90% of shoppersworldwide likely to switch to brands supporting a good cause.
In a candidate-driven employment market, team members are speaking up about the type of business they want to be a part of; research by Cone Communications found that nearly two-thirds of young people won’t take a job at a company with poor CSR practices.
At Views For Change, we are on a mission to create a positive impact in every business interaction, transaction and action. We deliver innovative donation mechanisms that businesses can utilise to improve their performance (in marketing initially) and have a tangible social impact.
How have companies been using your platform so far?
We’re still in the really early stages of our platform having recently closed our pre-seed investment round in September. Our users are B2C brands that advertise, and the agencies that service them.
Hybrid working - is it here to stay? Just give your personal opinion, no need to do masses of research on this one.
In short, yes. At least it is for us!
We are currently building our team, and to ensure that we can access the best talent; we recruit remotely. In fact, our CTO is based in France most of the year. This means we need to have a hybrid and flexible working practice in place to enable flexibility for our team that aren’t all together in one space all the time.
Furthermore, for the team members that we do recruit locally to our base in Bristol, we feel it’s important to meet their needs for flexibility around their lives. If I want to work-from-home or a co-working space a few days a week, it’s likely they want to too!
Any tech platforms you'd like to give a shoutout to while you're here? Maybe one that has helped your company during the transition to more digital working.
As I mentioned above, it feels like there is a platform for EVERY pain point. This is especially true for hybrid and remote working. We use Slack, GSuite, Jira, Confluence and others for our operations. We use Xero & Seedlegals for our finance & legal needs. We use Canva, ActiveCampaign, Calendly, Typeform for our marketing & sales requirements.
The one platform that I would highlight though, is PhantomBuster. I am obsessed with the power of it’s automation tools in marketing and sales.
Views For Change is all about giving back. Is there a particular charity (or charities) you wish more people knew about? Can you tell us a bit about them?
One of the promises we made ourselves as we embarked on this journey was to always champion smaller charities. The charities that don’t have the marketing budgets to promote their work, but are on the ground making incredible changes to people’s lives everyday. That’s why it was so important to build such an extensive database of charities for our platform.
I’d like to shout out to Bristol based loneliness charity, The Marmalade Trust, who supported us right at the beginning of our journey when we were just testing our concept. Their work in the local area (and nationwide) to combat and raise awareness about loneliness is incredible.
At NearU we're also giving back - time that is. Save yourself 2 hours on the commute every day and start spending it with your family, learning a new skill or getting a run in. Download NearU from the App Store or Google Play and start searching for a space near you. Can't find one close by? Just get in contact with us at [email protected] and request a specific space/location.
