Hermione Taylor is here to make sustainability something that
people really want to do. How? With her newly launched website, DoNation. The clue's in
the name - it's sponsorship, but with a twist of green which
thrives on action, friendship and a positive vision of
sustainability. The idea is, instead of sponsoring someone with
cash, you choose a green action and commit to it, bringing you one
step closer to a brighter, healthier and more sustainable
future.
Hermione Taylor, DoNation founding director,
speaking at the launch party
The Start team were at the launch party to find out more. From
the moment we entered the room, people's enthusiasm for the project
was apparent - there was a such an enthusiastic buzz in the
air.
Katie Shaw from Green Futures magazine opened the evening and
observed the diverse crowd the event had pulled in. "It goes to
show," she said, "that an idea like DoNation appeals to such a
wider variety of people than a traditional "green" audience.
Hermione Taylor, the founder, then stepped up to describe how
DoNation came about. In 2009, she and a friend set themselves a
challenge of cycling from London to Morocco in two months, but felt
bad about asking their cash-strapped mates for sponsorship. So,
they came up with the idea of asking people to commit to a green
action for the duration of the trip instead.
"Asking my friends to commit to take on these actions opened up
a way of cash-free, green sponsoring without me becoming a
finger-wagging bore!" she told the gathered crowd. More than 200
friends, and friends of friends, agreed to specific carbon-saving
actions - from washing their clothes at 30 degrees to cutting down
on eating meat. Sponsoring through action is a great motivational
tool.
Although the people who sponsored Hermione already knew about
their impacts, they kept putting off doing anything about them. But
the gentle nudge of a friendship helped get them started and a
sense of solidarity kept them going. If you're asked to do
something for a friend, knowing that other friends have agreed to
do it, you're more likely to stick with it.
So what was the result of all this? A saving of more than 16
tonnes of carbon, which is the equivalent of 84 flights from London
to Morocco. What's more, almost three-quarters of the sponsors
stuck to their actions beyond the two months.
This showed Hermione that the concept had legs, spurring her on
to take the idea and turn it into an incredible opportunity to
create a nation of doers. And so DoNation was born.
Asking people to support by doing is a really interesting way of
reframing sponsorship, and makes it an inherently social experience
that's fuelled by feel-good, passion and fun. What inspired
Hermione was the desire to break the environmental deadlock - she
wants to get everybody doing green things, not just the "greenies".
And to make it simple, social and enjoyable - not a mundane
chore.
So, will DoNation revolutionise the concept of sponsorship by
replacing cash with action? Well, according to Hermione, if
each of the 300 people in the room at the launch party signed up
we'd save 250 tonnes of CO2 - that's the equivalent of taking 40
cars off of the road in the UK for a year.
And it appears that the buzz of the launch is contagious -
DoNation fever seems to be taking hold, with people already signed
up and using the site to set up challenges and ask for sponsorship.
It seems now's the time to get doing!