People’s Champion finalist 2017: Neighbourly

Start-up name: Neighbourly
Founder: Nick Davies
Started in: 2012 (launched in 2014)
Based in: Bristol
Business description: Online platform connecting local community projects with businesses

Shortlisted category:

The Founders Pledge Social Impact Award

The Neighbourly story:

Nick Davies founded Neighbourly in 2012 in a bid to repair the breakdown in trust between business and society after the great recession. He saw business as “THE catalyst for social change” and recognised how they could use their creativity and influence to create more inclusive societies.

Neighbourly is a “profit-on-purpose” internet platform for social good, connecting local community and charity projects with companies and people that can help them by giving donations of time, money or surplus items.

By giving organisations an online destination to coordinate their charitable work and providing surplus redistribution technology, it helps them to tackle waste, poverty and hunger and build trust in communities.

Clients including M&S, Lidl, Starbucks, Heineken and The Body Shop have helped Neighbourly redistribute over 1,400 tonnes of surplus food to date (equating to around 1.9 million meals), which would have otherwise been wasted.

Over the same period, more than 1,500 community projects have been supported through Neighbourly, with more than £5.58m in funds and 13,000 volunteer days pledged by partner businesses since launch. Bristol-based charity Feed The Homeless delivers at least 300 meals a week to people in need in the city.

In August 2017, the company launched its extended surplus catalogue, which enables non-food items to be donated through the site.

This enabled Starbucks to launch its Community Café campaign, which sees the coffee house chain donate everything from condiment shakers and milk steaming pitchers, to food and drink such as espresso coffee and syrups to community-run cafes around the UK.

Why Neighbourly made our shortlist:

Neighbourly firmly believes that business is “the most scalable and sustainable long-term solution to solving society’s problems” – and its growth so far is certainly backing up that belief. A business that’s building public trust in business is one we can get behind.

Where to find out more about Neighbourly:

Website: www.neighbourly.com
Twitter: @nbrly