Conscious capitalism is a bit of a buzz phrase, but it means small businesses can turn a profit and make the world a better place.
That's been the aim of Lance Kalish and Ido Leffler - the founders of Yes To Inc, Cheeky and Yoobi - multi-million dollar enterprises that donate millions of products to charity.
They follow the 'one-for-one' model, where each purchase is matched by a donation. For each product sold at Yoobi - their kids stationery and office supplies business - an item is donated to classrooms in need.
"Literally the past three years we've been able to supply free school supplies to 2.5 million kids, which is well beyond our wildest dreams, " says Ido.
Yoobi initially launched in the US, but the pair found recreating the model in Australia was a bigger challenge.
Yoobi co-founders Lance Kalish and Ido Leffler. Source: Supplied
"We don't have retailers with the same scale to do that [here], so it was just about finding the right partner," Lance explains.
"I was actually watching SBS late night news and it was a back-to-school [segment[] with Lisa O'Brien, who's the head of the [children's charity], The Smith Family. And she was talking about how the families they support really struggle to give supplies to their kids."
Lance says that was an 'a-ha' moment for him. He rang up Lisa the next day, managed to get a meeting, and pitched a partnership with Yoobi.
"She loved it. She had a relationship with Officeworks, she said, 'I'll introduce you to Mark Ward, the CEO'. I went down and met him literally the next week and they expedited everything so that we got into Officeworks."
The pair are now eyeing the office supplies retailer Staples, with plans to launch to corporate customers.
"Companies have really started to approach us, with the fact that they wanted to have supplies that also mean something," Ido says. "If you're going to be buying a pen for your office, why wouldn't that pen also give back to a child right here in Australia?"
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