Social Enterprise Thankyou Launches Bold Initiative to Help End Extreme Poverty by Seeking Partnership from Competitors P&G and Unilever, Two of the World's Largest Companies

MELBOURNE, Australia, Sept. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Australia-based social enterprise Thankyou announced an invitation to P&G and Unilever - two of the world's largest and most influential consumer goods companies - to make and distribute Thankyou products globally to help end extreme poverty. To convince these companies to take this bold move, Thankyou is asking people around the world to get involved and show the collective power of the many who believe in this change, through its campaign aptly named "No Small Plan."  Thankyou offers consumer products - personal care and baby product ranges - for the sole purpose of funding life-changing projects.

Thankyou was created to close the gap between the 736 million people* living in extreme poverty around the world and the $63 trillion spent on consumer products each year**. After all the costs in running a business to get great consumer products to people are taken care of, every last cent that Thankyou makes goes toward ending extreme poverty. With this model, Thankyou seeks to flip consumerism…for good.

'With $63 trillion spent on consumer goods each year while 736 million people are stuck in extreme poverty, we believe that business as usual is broken," said Daniel Flynn, who founded Thankyou in 2008 along with Justine Flynn and Jarryd Burns. "But we also believe that we, together with people and a partnership with one of the two biggest companies in the world, can change this by funneling the dollars spent on consumer goods into helping end extreme poverty."

Currently, Thankyou only sells its products in two of the world's smallest countries - Australia and New Zealand - but with COVID-19 increasing both global poverty numbers and demand for personal care products such as hand sanitiser, the company feels that now is the time to expand, and quickly. If either P&G or Unilever choose to accept Thankyou's invitation, together they could change the course of history and route millions of consumer dollars to ending extreme poverty.

To encourage P&G and Unilever to say "I'm in" and work with Thankyou to flip the system, Thankyou believes they need to see the collective impact of voices around the world rallying around one movement in the name of ending extreme poverty. To join Thankyou and show support, people can utilise their social media channels and follow these steps:

• Post a photo or share the campaign social title with the caption, "I'm in, are you?"
• Tag @proctergamble and @unilever
• Hashtag #thankyoutotheworld
• Share Thankyou's video to help this spread even further

Thankyou has set virtual meetings with both P&G and Unilever to take place at the end of the campaign. On November 5, Thankyou will announce which company is "in" on one of the largest digital billboards in the world, in New York City's Times Square.

Thankyou's launch campaign is titled "No Small Plan" because changing the course of history by redirecting millions of consumer dollars to go toward ending extreme poverty in this lifetime is, indeed, no small plan.

About Thankyou

Thankyou was founded in 2008 by a group of university students, and in only 12 years has grown into a movement of millions of people taking small steps to create big change. Thankyou's highly engaged community successfully petitioned the two largest supermarkets in Australia to stock Thankyou products. Additionally, Thankyou's supporters helped to reach a $1.2 million fundraising target to fund the organization's future growth into new categories and launch into New Zealand by rallying around "Chapter One," Thankyou's pay-what-you-want book.

To date, Thankyou has raised over AUD $17 million for impact partners serving the world's poorest populations. In the first 11 years, Thankyou's impact partners had helped over 857,000 people across 22 countries with access to basic human needs. Their current partners, which span over 14 organisations, work with local leaders and communities to address water, health, sanitation, economic development programs, maternal and child health programs in low-income communities. The sectors that Thankyou's impact partners work across differ from partner to partner, but they all focus on tackling extreme poverty (people living on less than $1.90 a day.)

Thankyou is as committed to preserving the earth as it is to helping those living on it with its responsible business goals. For more information on Thankyou and its goals, visit its website, at https://thankyou.co/.

*Source: World Bank
** Source: World Bank national accounts data and OECD National Accounts data files

SOURCE Thankyou.