BOGO (Buy One Give One) - A transformational way to look at the playground of charity giving

By: David Anttony

If you look on Wikipedia you will find these descriptions for BOGO :

* An acronym in the retail industry that stands for Buy One Get One.
For example, you could say "Buy 1 DVD, Get 1 FREE!
* An acronym in slang British that stands for Britons Of Greek Origin or Greek Britons.
* Cebu, a city in central Philippines.
* Norway, a village in Norway.
* An alternate name for the Bilen ethnic group of Ethiopia or their language, Blin.
* The mascot of the ITESM CEM.
* BogoMips, an unscientific measurement of CPU speed
* BOGO lightBogosort, an ineffective sorting algorithm

When Mark Bent the creator of a solar powered light called BOGOLight started using the word BOGO he turned the meaning upside down. Instead of BOGO Buy One Get One Free it was inverted to become Buy One Give One Free. And BOGOLight's amazing torches do just that - with each one purchased, one is given free to a family group in a third-world nation where so many do not have the blessing of electrical power.

What's eventuating these days is that more people are jumping onto giving as a part of everyday experience. This year's goodpurpose™ study of shoppers' attitudes reveal that seven out of 10 (68%) shoppers would stay loyal to a brand during a recession if it supported a good worthy cause, and 71% express that when they think about the recession, they have either given the same or more time and money to good causes. This very same study highlighted some other significant points as well like :

* Half (52%) of shoppers globally are more likely to recommend a brand that
supports a good cause over one that does not.
* and 54% would help a brand promote a product if there was a good cause behind it.
* And going even further… Around the world, consumers voice a strong desire for
marketers to connect their brands to social action. Forty-two percent say that if two
products are of the same quality and price, commitment to a social purpose trumps
factors like design, innovation and brand loyalty when choosing one brand over the
other.

With sales of the SunNight Solar™ shooting up, and Mark's business receiving support from both customers and the mass media with over 15 major media articles in the last 12 months alone, this proves the statistics right.

Transforming Getting into Giving

In the minds of consumers, Buy One GIVE One hopefully will soon replace Buy One Get One as the new international giving movement led by Buy1GIVE1™ spreads ( http://www.buy1-give1free.com ). It is quite hilarious because as consumers we have been so programmed to hear the word Get when some one says Give. Many people still say the word get when I say I am from Buy1GIVE1. I predict that quite soon Buy One GIVE One will roll right off people's tongues as they feel more and more plugged into giving that they are automatically a part of when they buy.

Transactional or transaction based giving

Unlike normal charitable giving Buy One Give One giving is transaction based. By that I mean : every time you buy something you give something. In the case of SunNight Solar™ they give a physical light for every light sold. In most cases, businesses that become part of this special form of transaction-based giving, give in a completely different way. At Buy1GIVE1, giving starts from just $0.01 contribution per business sale. At this level no business in the world can say they cannot give.

The amount of money that is given is not what the focus is with Buy1GIVE1 transactional giving. The focus instead is on the story and sharing the joy of giving. After all, if you think that 1c is not a lot to give and cannot make much of a difference think again. Imagine if for every cup of coffee sold in a single day around the planet, a person would receive clean drinking water for a day from from their own well. That is millions of people who would be able to have safe drinking water each and every day. And with most diseases being waterborne, this would have a incredible impact on global health and well being.

It is the story of a thousand mile journey starts with the first step. To dig a well costs a few 1000 dollars so most villages in developing countries cannot afford to dig wells. But when you see that it only takes the sale of about 1000 cups of coffee to give clean well water to a person then you can see the blessing of transactional giving. Buy1GIVE1 giving is like the compound interest of giving - a little turns into a lot very quickly. The project to give a person clean drinking water can be found on the Buy1GIVE1 site.

Of course any company anywhere in the world can apply transactional Buy1GIVE1 giving to any service or product. This in anyone's view point makes for huge potential global change as the movement grows and grows with the support of businesses and consumers. And if companies do it through Buy1GIVE1 instead of doing it on their own, they reap the huge benefits from the leverage, and cross leveraging on a global giving community.This is the power of giving and doing things together.

The final power of Buy1GIVE1 transactional giving is that everyone wins - the consumer wins - at no extra cost to themselves they have made a difference through their purchasing choices - the business wins in so many ways - and the worthy cause or charity wins because they can now receive small amounts from many sources all aggregated and paid as a lump sum from a single source B1G1.

A new start - a new world - new thinking

If you look on Wikipedia now you should find that a new definition has been added for BOGO. It is time for a tide-change. A change from looking at GETTING to looking at GIVING. The subtlety in words so often points to a deeper underlying meaning.

Imagine a world where you awake and every time you buy you are giving a gift forward to someone who is in greater need than you right now. This is the magic of transaction-based giving - seemless and easy.

"... an acronym in the marketing industry that stands for Buy One GIVE One. For example, you could say "Buy One Meal and Feed a child for a day."

This is the world I want to be part of.

Just remember - you don't 'get' giving till you get giving.

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Buy1GIVE1 ( www.buy1-give1free.com ) is the home of the most powerful, impactful and change-making giving process in the world. Buy One Give One (BOGO) is now a global 'movement' bringing together businesses, charities and consumers in a way that has simply not been done before.

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