Now everyone can say ThankU and do good at the same time!
We all know that, don’t we? We help good friends and expect nothing more than a thank you. Many times this is good enough, since we collect karma points. With our new ThankU platform (www.thanku.social) we want to revolutionize the way we say thank you: Give thanks and do good at the same time!
ThankU users can send a virtual “ThankU” as a gesture of appreciation. The trick: supporting one of three good causes – planting trees, removing plastic from the ocean or protecting wildlife – gives your ThankU a special impact. This way you can surprise people with a personal ThankU message and e.g. a tree to be planted as a thank you gift with just a few clicks.
Why ThankU?
The idea for ThankU came to me because as a lawyer in the Berlin startup scene (tape.tv, YEAY, Podigee) I was – and still am – asked by friends and colleagues if I could answer their legal questions ‘real quick’. I thought it would be nice if I could ask for something in return for these favors, but not for my own pocket, but e.g. to plant trees.
My vision is that people use ThankU in their everyday lives to thank others and thus activate previously unused potential for good causes. In fact, researchers estimate that a person says thankU about two thousand times a year. If every adult in the EU and the USA sends a ThankU with only one tree as a thank you only twice a year, more than 1.3 billion trees would be planted. When we first projected this as a team, we were all flabbergasted.
How ThankU works
- Open the page thanku.social in your browser and click Send a ThankU
- Enter the name of the ThankU recipient and a personal thank you message
- Choose one of three good causes and the level of impact (e.g. number of trees)
- Pay the ThankU and share it with the recipient via link
ThankU users can create a personal ThankU page where they can share their sent and received ThankUs with others according to the motto “Do good and talk about it”.
ThankU is officially non-commercial
As a non-profit organization (gUG) according to German law, ThankU is authorized to issue a donation receipt for each ThankU sent. Our users can inform themselves about the use of the funds in transparency reports published online.
Currently the team works 100% on a voluntary basis — ThankU is our passion project and we want to contribute to a good cause with our work. Therefore we hope that our efforts will be rewarded with many sent ThankUs – new trees planted, plastic recovered from the ocean and protected wildlife habitat.
