Bizstartup.ie - NewsCards with a social conscience

The card, which costs €10 and is valid for 12-months, allows users to avail of special offers and discounts from businesses that signed up with gosave.ie.

The cards themselves are customised charity or non-profit groups – including schools and sports clubs – that want to use this model as a way of raising funds. Charities on board so far include the Jack and Jill Foundation, To Russia With Love, the Hospice Foundation, Offaly Community Forum and the Children’s Sunshine Home. 

“The charity can sell the cards directly to their supporters, or we can sell them through the gosave.ie website on their behalf – at no cost to them,” says Damien O’Brien, who founded Gosave.ie last August together with business partner Emmett Gallagher.

“So when a consumer pays €10 for his or her Gosave card, a large percentage of that price goes directly to a good cause,” says O’Brien.

Once they’ve invested in a card, consumers can look out for the gosave logo in shops and businesses, indicating they are offering gosave discounts, or check out the list of subscribed businesses on the gosave.ie website.  “Then all they have to do is present their gosave card to avail of a special offer or cut-price rate,” explains O’Brien. 

“Already, hundreds of businesses have subscribed to gosave, so this is a really good opportunity for Irish consumers to save some money.

“Our ultimate aim is to have businesses in every city, town and village offering card-holders special offers and discounted rates,” he continues.  “It’s completely free for businesses to subscribe – all they have to do is commit to providing a bargain for gosave card-holders.  In return, they gain a competitive edge in a marketplace that is increasingly demanding value for money.  And they build customer loyalty: gosave card-holders are more likely to return to their business time after time, because they know they will get favourable prices there.  In addition, they get to advertise their services for free on the gosave site.” 

According to O’Brien, who worked with Gallagher in Ericsson for a number of years, both in Ireland and overseas, the main motivation in developing gosave was to establish a model that was innovative and commercially viable, but that also gave something back to society. 

“We were focused on a social enterprise from the very first time we started discussing ideas for our own business,” he says.  “We are both married with families, and I suppose we had reached a stage in our careers where we wanted to spend more time with our families and satisfy our entrepreneurial urge.  Your priorities change as you get older, and we wanted to come up with a model that would enable us to earn a living, but that would also contribute significantly to the public good.

“We also felt there was an opportunity in the market. Nobody in Ireland was doing what we’re doing."

gosave cards are available for sale now from the Gosave.ie website, or by directly approaching the charities involved.  A full list of the discounts and special deals being offered by subscribed businesses is also available on the site. 

Pictured: Emmett Gallagher and Damien O’Brien, directors and co-founders of Gosave.ie