Marketing is one of the most powerful forces shaping the world.
So last summer we launched Pimp My Cause to harness some of that power for good by connecting professional marketers with charities and social ventures they can donate their talent and expertise to.
We began by developing a matching platform that works a bit like online dating in that you literally search and browse listings of profiles to find your own best match - in this case in terms of the type of cause you are interested in, the skills you have to offer, where you are based and so on.
We now have over 500 professional marketers, collectively supporting around 330 causes with around 60 streams of pro bono marketing in progress at any time. More importantly, we have a model that can scale much further than that.
And we've started to develop a knowledge environment for the platform, bringing in top experts like Doug Richard from the Dragon's Den to share some of their experience and to pick one or two of their favourite causes to develop some new creative thinking for.
We have opportunities to support everything from big name charities like the RSPCA and Cancer Research down to tiny social venture start-ups, often with first in kind business models or ideas, like one of our personal favourites, Wheelchair Laser Tag.
And we are developing all sorts of custom collaboration and partnership opportunities for organisations who share our belief in the value of marketing for good, including our partnership with the Triodos Bank.
Our innovation pipeline includes a crowdfunding platform aimed at supporting marketing activities for organisations developing new social enterprise models and a spin-off solution addressing youth unemployment.
A vote for us is really a vote for hundreds of causes and millions of beneficiaries.