Results and Effectiveness

It’s still early days, but in the first few months Homepage for the Homeless has converted over 120,000 purchases into cost-free donations. That’s one donation for every single homeless person in Australia. The money raised is constantly being updated on the site to make sure people continue to use the site and contributing to the total. Please visit homepageforthehomeless.org for an up to date account of all money raised to date.

Creative Execution

Most of us are unaware, but when we see a product on a blog and click through to buy it, more times than not the blogger is getting a commission from the sale just for referring you on. We took that principle and applied it to charity, turning those commissions into donations at no cost to the consumer. We partnered with 10 of the worlds biggest retailers, each hand-picked to allow shoppers to buy anything they need. Through our partnerships we were able to send shoppers to the front page of our retailer's sites, rather than just to a specific product. Everything the shopper purchased on that visit therefore earned a commission. Finally, we encouraged shoppers to set 'Homepage for the Homeless' as their homepage, so it was always there before they shopped online. That way they never missed an opportunity to help the homeless.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

We all get bombarded by hundreds of charities every year. Homelessness is an important issue, but it struggles to compete in a charity-fatigued market for a share of the public’s generosity. The task was to get people who wouldn't usually contribute to a cause like this, to become ongoing donors.