Turn waste into want
How would you turn wasted loyalty points into a currency for good?
Points for Purpose changed the concept of loyalty. We created a social experiment that enabled people with loyalty points to use them to help the causes they cared about. Points for Purpose was established to turn latent loyalty points (often referred to as waste) into much needed products for people and animals in need.
This idea commenced after Dave was offered 68,000 Qantas Frequent Flyer points soon to expire, by a friend in London. Having recently travelled through some third world countries, Dave thought about how he could use them to improve the life of someone without a place to call home. “I thought about how cold it might be and thought if I can’t put a roof over someones head, I could give them a warm nights sleep.” And so Points for Purpose was born.
What started as 7 x zero degree sleeping bags, soon turned into twenty, then fifty, and then hundreds of sleeping bags - each donated by extremely generous humans using their loyalty points. In the beginning, we targeted homelessness and providing warm night sleeps. Points purchased the warmest sleeping bags available on the loyalty program websites. Those bags were gifted to charities all over Australia to enable them to assist those most in need.
For many people who travelled infrequently, the 10 to 20,000 points they had gathered could not afford much, certainly not a flight, so most people left their points to expire. This, as it turned out was exactly what the loyalty programs banked on - points expiring! Having met with the GM’s of the 3 largest loyalty programs in Australia, all of them agreed that this concept was both unique and exceptional. However none of them partnered with Points for Purpose!
The concept spread fast, media embraced this feel good brand and hundreds of people joined in to make a direct difference.
About 12 months in, Points for Purpose was made aware of a known homeless man to us in Sydney who had been stabbed to death. This tragic and devastating news absolutely rocked us! Should we run away or toward this epic problem? We chose toward.
We collaborated with New Zealand’s Ryan Edwards, on a song that he wrote after hearing about this tragedy, called ‘How Do You Sleep?’.
With the help of SBS Australia, we pulled together local footage and released a music video “How do you sleep?” to raise awareness for homelessness in both Australia and New Zealand.
Our collaboration resulted in Points for Purpose launching in New Zealand and us securing our very first loyalty program partnership with Fly Buys NZ. Fly Buys NZ as an organisation were a pioneer, because they were at the forefront of a new way to give.
With more than 41,000 homeless people in New Zealand (1 in 100) and 17,500 homeless people in Australia (1 in 200), Points for Purpose had the real potential to turn a lot of waste into much needed want.
With Fly Buys NZ on board, we expanded our scope beyond homelessness to allow New Zealanders to use their points on the causes that Kiwi’s cared about the most: Homelessness, Domestic Violence, Child Poverty, Children in Care, Start of Life, and Animal Welfare.
With new leadership at the helm in Fly Buys NZ, our partnership came to an end after 18 months. We were thrilled that during this time thousands of points and hundreds of gifts were given to those in need across New Zealand.
Points for Purpose concluded in both Australia and New Zealand after three years of making a direct difference. We had proven that waste could be turned into want. During this time, thousands of points and thousands of gifts were gifted to those most in need.
If you are a social enterprise seeking strategic collaboration, then we’d love to hear from you.
