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business elite canada
H
june 2014
june 2014
H
business elite canada
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cally well regarded for their
philanthropy, however Kitch-
en adds that too often these
programs were disconnected
from the core business and
even from the organizations
that their customers might
support. For Banks, Kitchen
believes the benefits are clear
across a broad set of areas;
customer engagement & ad-
vocacy, cardholder retention,
an incentive for bank card
use over cash, while also de-
livering a very positive brand
position. People registered
in the program, through the
nine Credit Unions, have re-
ported higher favorability of
their financial institutions
that enabled enrolment in
the ChangeIt program after
registering than they did prior
to joining the program.
Falling
in
line
with
ChangeIt’s mission of in-
cubating philanthropy, the
company recently received
recognition as a Certified B
Corp, or Benefit Corporation.
The designation of a ’B Corp’
is to business what the Fair
Trade certification is to cof-
fee, in that it is a certification
declaring that a company has
undergone a third party audit
and met rigorous standards
of social and environmental
performance, accountability
and transparency.
“Really at the essence
of the B Corp is the concept
of the `triple bottom line`,
so you are in business to be
commercially successful, and
there’s no question we’re in
business for that, but you’re
also in business to make a sig-
nificant social, environmental
and economic impact over-
all,” said Kitchen.
The impact of ChangeIt
lies in its ability to make a dif-
ference in large urban centers
and rural communities. Be-
cause of this the company was
selected in 2013 for the rec-
ognition of Best for Commu-
nities, and in 2014 the com-
pany moved up in the award
ranking to receive Best for the
World, sitting among the top
10 per cent of Certified Bene-
fit Corporations worldwide in
terms of impact score - large-
ly based on its revolutionary
business model.
“It really reflects who we
are and who we want to be.
As we grow and get numer-
ous banks on board in this
program and start seeing it
widely available, we think we
can turn that impact score
into real impact throughout
North America in terms of
helping charities becomes
more successful,” said Beaton
of the recognition.
“It’s really consistent with
our mission and vision as a
company right from the get-
go. It’s great validation to re-
ceive this award. I think that
we can discuss our mission
more broadly based on the
fact that there’s now a third
party accreditation to it,”
added Beaton. “Really this is
what we’re all about. It’s in
our DNA. We’re proud to be
recognized for it.”
A major technical integra-
tion agreement in 2013 with
TSYS, a leading credit card
provider in North America
that processes over 70 per-
cent of all MasterCard and
Visa transactions in Canada,
provides ChangeIt the ability
to grow rapidly and achieve
its goal of making a difference
in communities throughout
North America.
“Working with TSYS really
opened us up to a tremen-
dous share of the Canadian-
U.S. market with nominal
technical integration for a
partnering bank. It’s been a
huge watershed moment for
us because it opens up the
entire marketplace by mak-
ing it easy for Banks to say yes
to enable their customers to
give to their favorite chari-
ties,” said Kitchen.
Another one of the long-
term and ongoing benefits
that makes the ChangeIt pro-
gram unique is that it moves
charitable giving into a recur-
ring monthly space in the ev-
eryday lives of the customer.
From a charity’s perspective,
finding a way to get their do-
nors to provide ongoing sup-
port in a simple and painless
way has huge appeal.
Mike Kitchen & Dave Beaton
