Masami Sato, CEO of B1G1 on SPEAK|pr with Jim James

Masami Sato, welcome to the Speak PR Podcast.

Thank you for having me.

Masami Sato, you're the founder of B1G1, and you're joining me today from Singapore, which is a place close to my heart as well. Tell us about B1G1.

Okay, so B1G1 sounds a little strange, right? But B1G1 also stands for the idea of buy one, give one. And so if you imagine a world full of giving where, for example, you have a cup of coffee, and then at the same time, a child child in need receives access to life-saving water. Or every time you purchase a book, a tree gets planted. Or every time you go to see your health guru or doctor, then somebody else in the world receives access to healthcare. So this is the world of B1G1. And how we make it happen is by working with businesses around the world and help them embed effective giving in what they do. So this is a business initiative. And since starting B1G1 in 2007, we have worked with close to 3,000 businesses, and those businesses have already created over 200 million giving impacts. So these impacts could be number of trees being planted or meals being given or books being contributed and so on. So yeah, so that's kind of B1G1 in a nutshell.

That's amazing. And having just recently joined, I was impressed as well by how structured and how organized it is. And from a public relations point of view, interested in the CSR element as well, Masami. So one of the aspects that struck me was that the platform that you've got that helps companies like East West PR to share what I'm doing. Can you just talk about how you connect those 3,000 companies and all of those worthy causes?

Yeah, because when we look around the world and what's happening, actually we don't have a, you know, lack of of giving. Like there are lots of opportunities for people and companies to donate money to charities. But what we realized when we started Be1j1 was that there were 3 important things that were missing in the business giving or charity giving space. Those were impact, habit, and connection. So the first thing is impact, that we realized that even when people or companies are donating money, it was always about the amount of money you give to, you know, specific charity, for example. And it wasn't necessarily clear or tangible about the impact that people get to create by giving. So we realized that giving can be much more tangible and clear in terms of the outcome that a specific amount of money can create. So we focused on that. And then the next thing is habit. So if everything is driven by ad hoc activities such as a big charity ball or a natural disaster that happened, and then suddenly lots of donations go to a particular cause, but then it only happens once and then die down. So we realized that habit was very important in making long-term lasting impact. So, and then finally, we also thought that giving can really unite people together and bring people together with a shared sense of like giving spirit, so that when businesses are giving, and if they are inspired about what they are doing on a day-to-day basis through their work, and then sharing their genuine sense of sharing and the giving spirit with their customers, team members, then giving has potential to unite people together. So that's why everything we do in B1G1 today focuses on those 3 things. So you just asked about the sharing part of how businesses get to share what they are doing. So it's possible because we, you know, focus on these 3 things: impact, habit, and connection. And so, for example, if business giving was really about embedding giving, then it could be that every podcast episode might create a special impact, or every download of specific resources could create an impact. And it's very easy in B1G1 for businesses to find specific projects that they get to support, even from just 1 cent. Right? Like, so even just 1 cent can create an impact. A few dollars could plant trees in specific regions or help educate children in various different countries. So when things are tangible and every time businesses are doing good through their business activities, then we could provide them like, you know, dynamic widgets that they could embed on their website, which shows the actual impact count. Rather than just the fact that the company ABC supports charity X. So in B1G1BAY, like, we always think about this, you know, using innovation and technology in making giving more meaningful and impactful for the companies that we work with.

And I've seen that and the widget and the opportunity for companies like EastWest and these 3,000 companies to To build a good habit and contribute on a regular basis, I think is really a great a great way of doing it. How are you sort of connecting those companies? If a company signs up to B1G1, how can they find which companies to to connect to, Misami? Because we've all got different different interests, haven't we?

True. One thing about B1G1 because we don't necessarily target one industry, like we are not about just restaurant and then trying to. With as many restaurants as we can, or just working with a specific service business. Like, because the B1G1 model actually works for all kinds of businesses, and, you know, we, we can even work with very tiny business or even startup companies because it's very, very easy to do so. So that's why sometimes it's difficult for us to say, okay, this is exactly how we are going to connect with these, you know, Businesses.

Okay.

So in our case, how B1G1 has grown over the years is through a lot of referral activities. So in the earlier days, when there was no demand and also awareness for social impact or even corporate social responsibilities, we had to get out and then go and visit the different business meetings or events to try to talk to individual businesses and get to know them. And so it took really a lot of time to get to know more and more businesses and bring them on board in this initiative. But over the years, I think the awareness is building that more and more business people today are thinking about how to do more meaningful work, you know, whether or not it's about effective giving. That's still a work in progress, like in the world, but still more and more business owners are really like wondering how they could Have a greater sense of purpose, or to make their business activities more meaningful and purposeful. So with the growing awareness for this kind of business mindset, it became much easier to reach more business people through word of mouth. So many of the companies that we work with, they are the ones also championing this messaging and the spirit of giving and spreading the word. So they you know embed the widget on their website or spread. spreading the word in different social media channels. And by empowering them to share their own sense of kind of, you know, passion and purpose and impact, then we can reach more businesses. So that's how we are spreading.

I love that, Masami, the way that you're helping companies like mine by using these widgets to make it go viral. Because what you've got with the widget is actually a totalizer. Right? It continues to demonstrate both at a B1G1 level but also at an individual company level what you've contributed, which I think that dynamic element makes it really, really real. Tell us a little bit about the, the organizations that are within B1G1 that are the recipients. How are they impacted and how are they kind of connecting to those contributors?

So because we focus on impact, so that's why the type of organizations that we work with are also focused on the impacts that they are creating. So they may not be necessarily very famous charity brands that everybody knows of, and many of the cases these organizations as a charity, you know, brand, they may not be so well known, but we choose them based on the specific ways they bring different impacts to the world. So they may have come to us through also recommendations and referrals from other charities or other businesses that we work with. Regardless of the ways that they come to us, we take them through the assessment process that we have and make sure that these organizations that we bring in, in this initiative meet the criteria we set, because it's really about the impact that we get to create. So the organizations need to have experience experience and track record in that specific area of work, and then also have a good financial management as well. So it naturally limits the type of organizations we work— we can work with immediately, but still, that's fundamentally one of the important components. And we also work with them closely to make sure that we break down the impacts in a micro impact unit. So this is kind of one of the ways that the B1G1 model works for businesses in a very unique way, such as like every time you send an email, you actually can make a specific impact, you know, such as give access to water to someone in need for a day, or every time you have a meeting, you can, you know, give a brick to, to build a school, or you could plant a tree or clean up the beach or so. Yeah, so the tangibility is a key. And we are very fortunate to be working with some amazing charity organizations that are doing really great work.

And so what you're talking about there is almost sort of micro donations, isn't it? You know, so rather than sort of saving up for a hero check, one can actually contribute $1 if you like to. Is that right, Masami? So it becomes very, very granular, right?

And that's very important because when we try to do something really big, then sometimes we become overwhelmed or we feel like we are not ready to do such a big thing and then delay the actions. But if we could do, if we could create a small impact, even with a small amount of money, then actually there's no need to wait until the business becomes very profitable or super successful, you know, so that one day you can set up your own foundation or anything like that. So we really love the fact that even small business can embed giving in the day-to-day activities that they are having. And then at the same time, experience the joy of giving and the impact that they get to create together with the people that they work with.

I can see that having joined and started to review some of those companies and organizations. So just take us through some of the categories and some of the countries where the recipients are, can you?

There are more than 42 countries that we have projects in, and there are more than 500 projects. So it's difficult to say, you know, exactly where B1G1 projects are, but those projects are also aligned with the Global Sustainable Development Goals. So which means then in all of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, businesses get to find a specific project that kind of align with that. So for example, there are plenty of environmental causes today. In the really early days of B1G1, I think in general, like, people and businesses wanted to support more emotional projects like supporting the child education or, you know, helping people with disabilities. So these are more popular projects. But today, more and more companies are also keen to support environmental causes such as planting trees or cleaning up the beaches or even like saving the food waste and delivering the rescued food waste like leftover food to people in need so that certain type of impact can serve 2 different purposes, like rather than one, one type of impact. So there are lots of creative projects that are coming up now that many charities are becoming more innovative in terms of how to use limited resources to create the greatest impact. So we really like excited about how this innovation is driving the change much faster today.

If one then is using the platform, do I communicate directly with the recipient of the money and do they write back to me, or is B1G1 as an intermediary kind of filtering what's going on?

Yeah, I understand, like, we really understand the desire to have direct contact, but we actually intentionally minimize this and there are reasons. First of all, let's say when we facilitate really direct contact between givers and recipients, sometimes it ends up creating a sense of dependency in the recipient side because they feel like they are helped by somebody else who has more, and then naturally they feel like that's their position. So, and then also when we want to maximize the effectiveness of the work that these organizations are doing, then it's better to focus on helping them make the impact rather than making them too busy facilitating these contacts between donors and recipients.

Yes, right.

So we kind of control this, and then, but because we really want to make the giving experience more meaningful, of course, for the donors too, so that's why B1G1 plays a part in sharing all sorts of updates to the people who are giving, but not necessarily making that direct link to the specific beneficiary of the giving. So that's one thing. Another thing we do though is the facilitation of study tours. So even though today we cannot have these trips happening because of the pandemic, but before the pandemic we had annual study trips where we took a small group of people to visit the certain projects, and that gave them an understanding of the impact being created. But whenever we had this kind of experience, we always introduced the group of people visiting those project locations as like learners. You know, we are here to learn from you rather than these are donors who help you. So it's very important to make sure that any form of interactions and connections we form are very equal and never about who is giving and who is being helped.

No, that's really nice. So you're avoiding a sense of dependency and also of control. What does it cost? Because one of the Criticisms of charities is often that too much money goes on the charitable organization and too little on the recipient.

So our model is different from usual charity model because we never take a percentage of donations from the companies giving to different causes. So 100% of all the giving that businesses would do would go to the project. And we even top up their credit card charges in the process because if like it's 1 cent to give access to water to somebody for 1 day, and then we top took a percentage, then that 1 cent cannot go to give water. So we top up the bank, the credit card charges as well. So the question is then how do we run this initiative and cover all of the associated costs? So luckily we have the business membership model. So tiny businesses will contribute a little bit toward this thing called the Movement Fund, which helps us to then develop all our systems and resources, tools for the businesses. So we are, as a social enterprise, really focused on delivering value to participating companies, because they are like our clients, right, like members. So that's how it's run. And then larger companies might contribute a little bit more toward the movement fund. So we make sure that the resources to build the initiative and the donations that goes to the project are clearly separated.

And I think it's also a charitable organization registered in Singapore and the UK, right?

Basically, the giving part will go to the registered registered charity in the States, and then the membership component will be the one to go to the social enterprise in Singapore. But either way that is, there are also more and more, you know, projects joining in the United Kingdom as well. So if you want to support the local charities, or if you want to invite the charities that you know of to B1G1, you could do so as well.

If people want to find out more about you, where can they come to connect to you?

So the best place to go to is b1g1.com. But also, if you are interested in connecting with me personally, then you can find me on LinkedIn as well.

Masami Sato, founder of B1G1. Thank you so much for joining me today all the way from Singapore on the Speak PR Podcast.

Thank you. Great to be here.

Great. So you've been listening to Masami Sato, founder of the B1G1 Group. group. And I will put links to her website in the show notes. So thanks for listening to this episode of Speak PR. In the meantime, I wish you the best of health, a sustainable business. And just think about every time you're doing something, could you be giving something and sharing something? Because my experience is that there's a lot of value in creating value, but even more in sharing that value with others. Thank you so much for listening.