It’s unusual to go to a cafe or a restaurant nowadays without being handed a loyalty card on your way out. The promise of a free cup of coffee once 10 have already been purchased is enough to persuade most people to stuff yet another card into their wallets and, more importantly, to make a return visit to wherever they have pledged their loyalty.
Stampify, founded by a number of Trinity graduates, is a social initiative that utilises this premise to try to combat world hunger. Mark Reihill, the company’s Head of Business Development, likened Stampify to “a loyalty card for charity”.
“Users collect our cards and use them when buying a coffee or meal from any of our partners, whereby they’re given a stamp in return. This stamp equates to one meal being donated by the partner to a child in their place of education in the developing world on behalf of the user. When the user fills the card, they return it and this means they’ve donated seven meals to a child in need.”
Reihill described how Stampify’s CEO Conor Leen, a Trinity graduate, initially came up with the idea. Leen was walking home from work one evening and dropped in to Tolteca. When he went to pay, he was informed he was entitled to a meal with his loyalty card, but on his cycle home, he saw a homeless man on the street. Leen couldn’t understand how he was happy to pay for his meal but was given it for free, yet this man would presumably go hungry that same evening. Leen approached Reihill and three others to work on an idea that might achieve some good.
“The initial idea was very different to where we’re at now, having pivoted for one reason or another”, Reihill says, “but we believe we’ve got a strong product with our current offering and the uptake from our users has been fantastic, with so many people having reached out to tell us how much they like the idea”.
“We offer businesses the opportunity to do some good – hassle-free and at minimal cost – versus establishing their own corporate social responsibility programme, but becoming a Stampify partner also makes economic sense for our partners. As such, we’ve seen places blown away by the impact they can make, but also see economic benefits, so it truly is a win-win.”
Stampify works with Mary’s Meals, an international charity aid organisation with over 80,000 volunteers, helping them in their effort to provide meals to children in need. Reihill said the Stampify meals “can go to any one of 18 countries”, such as Haiti, Lebanon, Myanmar and Zambia.
Stampify is run as a not-for-profit, it’s founders continuing to work their nine-to-five jobs. “I have to admit that juggling the two is difficult given Stampify is purely done in our free time and weekends, but we get enormous satisfaction in knowing we’re working to help those in need. All I can really say, without sounding cliché, is that we’re just in it to make a difference. The feedback we get makes it all worthwhile.”
Partners with Stampify in Dublin include Dublin Barista School, Cloud Picker, Bestseller and Coco Brew. Clair Dowling of Tiller and Grain, another Stampify partner who stocks the loyalty card, says: “I think it’s a really good concept. The fact that I can tell a customer that if they fill a card a child can eat for a week, is beyond incredible. We should all be doing what we can for charity. You can never do enough.”
