Our Journey to £1,000,000
The past few days have been thrilling for GoodBox, to say the least. We have achieved our largest milestone to date. In collaboration with over 100 charities, GoodBox has raised £1,000,000 though our contactless technology. Whilst we knew this day would come around, it has arrived faster than we could have imagined. As we celebrate this achievement, we’d like to take a look back at ten of the key moments which helped us get here.
10: Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall
In March 2017, in partnership with Teenage Cancer Trust, we embarked on our first large scale trial of contactless giving. Our nerves began to disappear as people tapped away on the boxes throughout the night. The results reflected what we saw, with contactless donation revenue almost matching that from cash. This event sparked a flame for us, as what started as just a concept had become a reality.
9: The Natural History Museum
In June 2017, GoodBox first partnered with the Natural History Museum. This relationship has been monumental for us. GoodBox has facilitated thousands of donations, whilst the Natural History Museum has given GoodBox the credibility and recognition needed to grow further. The partnership has helped to direct our path, and it’s an understatement to say we would not be where we are today without it. It has allowed us to offer contactless giving in a multitude of galleries and museums such as Tate Modern, the Serpentine Galleries and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
8: St Paul’s Cathedral
When one thinks about London, their mind often turns to St Paul’s Cathedral. Lying in the heart of the city, it is a cultural icon for residents and visitors. The significance of the Cathedral to London plays a large part of why our partnership is so important to us. Since late 2017, a GBx Pro has been located within the Cathedral; it’s amazing to feel that we are a part of such a remarkable and historic building.
7: PayTech Awards
Friday the 13th; generally not a day for celebrating. However, in July 2018, it saw GoodBox pick up a shiny award. The PayTech Awards are a recent initiative that provides awards for excellence and innovation in the use of technology in the finance and payment industry. Team GoodBox was overjoyed to win the PayTech for Good Award; we hope it will be the first of many!
6: Mosque Partnerships
From the start, GoodBox’s goal has been to provide charitable payment solutions to all charitable organisations who need them. In early 2018, GoodBox developed a partnership with Dawatul Islam, a Muslim organisation based in a London mosque. A few months later, we placed a device inside of Abu Bakr Masjid, a large mosque in Reading. Being able to provide our services to a wide variety of causes has been of utmost importance to us and we are pleased to be able to deliver on this.
5: Cure Leukaemia
GoodBox has seen a lot of fantastic results from our contactless donation devices, so it is challenging to pick out one specific moment. However, one of our favourites was the turnout from the devices rented by Cure Leukaemia. After renting out 7 devices, they managed to pay for themselves within 45 minutes. Not only this, but Cure Leukaemia saw over 200% return on their investment on the boxes. All within one night.
4. Pitch at the Palace
In the closing stages of 2018, GoodBox made it to the finals of Pitch At The Palace 10.0. As the name entails, the event involves startup companies pitching their business at a bootcamp, before 12 finalists compete at Buckingham Palace. The aim of the pitch is to find more contacts in the respective field, find sources of funding, and obtain any other sources of help that an audience of high calibre can offer. We were chuffed to make the final, and honoured to be part of such a prestigious event. Plus, we got to snoop around Buckingham Palace.
3. Tripling our Team
Over the course of 2018, GoodBox has had to significantly increase its team in order to keep up with our rapid growth. This year, we have tripled the number of employees, welcoming designers, developers, thinkers and doers into the business (as well as hired our first intern). To house everyone, we opened a warehouse in Harlow, a regional office in London and relocated to a shiny new Manchester HQ.
2. TAP London Launch
For over a year, GoodBox has been working alongside TAP London to end homelessness in London. TAP is an organisation that raises funds for homeless charities operating in London and GoodBox have been a vital part of this journey. During the close of November, TAP London, with the assistance of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, launched 90 GoodBox devices in cafes, bars and shops across Central London. The devices have been an incredible success. With over £35,000 raised from over 11,000 donors, TAP is having an amazing impact on the lives of rough sleepers around London. GoodBox could not be more proud to play a role in such an incredible initiative.
1. Final Donation to £1 Million
The last great moment of GoodBox’s journey to £1 million is to do with the final donation that tipped us over the £1m mark. From day one, GoodBox has had the goal of developing and manufacturing its own devices. It has not been an easy journey, with many obstacles and challenges. Over the past few days, in preparation for the launch of our brand new devices, we have been testing them thoroughly. During this testing, we made sure that the donation that pushed us over £1m was with GoodBox’s own GBx Core. We couldn’t think of a better way to cross this milestone than with the device we are pushing out to the public in the very near future.
We would like to extend a thank you to everybody who supported us on the way. Whether you have offered a helping hand, donated, worked alongside us, or spread the word about who we are, we really appreciate what you’ve done.
Our future is brighter than ever, and we can’t wait to hit the next milestone.
