Who hasn’t already received an anti-stress ball or a key ring in the colors of a company? Objects that usually end up at the bottom of a drawer. What if companies replaced these gadgets with funding for social and environmental causes? This is the ambition of Captain Cause.
According to a recent survey carried out by Poll&Roll for Captain Cause, almost one out of two corporate gifts is put away in the bottom of a drawer or ends up in the trash, while 83% of employees would be ready to give up goodies if this money were donated to charities. Captain Cause therefore acts so that companies review their practices and turn to more sustainable or responsible gifts, as explained by Georges Basdevant, one of its co-founders.
Futura: What are the main lessons you were able to draw from this survey?
Georges Basdevant: Corporate gifts represent an employer brand lever to thank and promote their teams and partners, since 71% of employees have received them in the last twelve months. However, 76% of respondents have an overall positive image of companies favoring associations with goodies and 77% would like to be involved in the choice of these associations, revealing a strong expectation on the part of employees to engage in collective action and useful in their business.
Futura: So what is your solution?
Georges Basdevant: With Captain Cause, companies redirect marketing and communication budgets to fund associations with social and environmental causes that respond to today’s major challenges. In practice, each participant will direct a donation, pre-financed by the company for which he is employed, partner or client, to the cause of his choice. He is thus actively involved in supporting impact projects that he discovers and can follow.
Futura: Why is your start-up going to change the world?
Georges Basdevant: Despite constant growth for 10 years, the share of sponsoring companies in France does not exceed 9% for total sponsorship estimated at 3.5 billion euros. This is both a lot and a little compared to the worldwide amount of online advertising of the order of 500 billion dollars per year! If we redirected even 1% of this sum to sponsorship, we would multiply it by 1.5… We know that it is difficult for companies to free up new budgets for the ecological transition, especially in this inflation period. Our idea is therefore to instead convert part of the existing marketing budgets to impact projects. Captain Cause aims to play the role of trusted third party with the catalog of projects selected according to a dozen criteria. Everyone wins. Companies amplify the loyalty of their communities and the attractiveness of their brand. Customers, partners and employees contribute to causes close to their hearts, in the form of donations pre-financed by the company, and are informed of the effects of their action. The associations find a new source of financing and promotion of their project.
Futura: How was the project born and what are the next steps?
Georges Basdevant: We founded Captain Cause with Maxence Mathey, Frédéric Mazzella, Clara Pigé and Nathanaël Romano. We worked for two years to think about the project, test the interest of companies and the impact that this could represent for them, but also for employees and associations. Then, the adventure really started with our first operations at the beginning of 2022, and particularly the success of the event for the 20th anniversary of Great Place to Work, during which the goodies were replaced by pre-financed donations of up to 20 euros. Our catalog now includes around fifty projects and we are working to integrate donation mechanisms into daily services. This will allow us, little by little, for the general public to really discover the concept of pre-financed donation.
Futura: What will the world look like in 2050?
Georges Basdevant: I remain fundamentally optimistic because I am part of an ecosystem committed to action in favor of ecological transition. I am convinced that acting makes you happy, because it allows you to get out of everyday eco-anxiety and to have a positive vision. To quote the philosopher Henri Bergson, “ the future is not what will happen, but what we will do with it “. We have a collective strength to achieve this because change is difficult on its own. We are gregarious beings and it is for this reason that we thought of Captain Cause with the contribution of community warmth, to show a desirable and collective future.
Futura: If you were Prime Minister, what key measure would you put in place?
Georges Basdevant: I would work twice as hard on training, for example on the model of the Defense and Citizenship Day, to make French people aware of the challenges of the transition. It is also necessary, in my opinion, to have a more open and pragmatic vision of sponsorship in favor of the economic world, because it is still prohibitive fiscally for a company to support another company with a mission, for example. It would be interesting to extend the benefit of sponsorship to projects carried out by companies with an impact or a mission, to increase their positive contribution to society.
Futura: By the way, which topic of Futura fascinated you?
Georges Basdevant: The topic of digital pollution and rare metal mining inspired me on how to better use a smartphone. Extending the life of your smartphone is a good eco-gesture to reduce your environmental impact!
