Thankyou’s Chapter One crowd-funding campaign reached its target of $1.2 million one day before its deadline.
The campaign, which launched on 26 February, raised funds by selling a pay-what-you-want book about the Thankyou journey called Chapter One, written by co-founder Daniel Flynn.
The social enterprise has sold 44,883 copies of its book online and through Relay, Newslink and Watermark bookstores in Australia and New Zealand, with Chapter One reaching best seller status (9000 copies) just two hours after launch.
The $1.2 million will fund the launch of a baby range to fund infant and maternal health programs and Thankyou’s expansion into New Zealand.
Profits from the sale of the book will also go towards funding a third milestone, to be announced once Thankyou baby and Thankyou New Zealand have been launched.
“At Thankyou we choose to have no shareholders and no investors so we can give 100% of profits to our projects, which is awesome for impact, but makes it hard to scale the business – the Chapter One campaign is our way of tackling that problem,” Flynn said.
While Flynn stayed true on his promise to the public to pack books in an Essendon Fields warehouse until the target was reached, 250 volunteers joined him to pack throughout the four-week period.
Corporate businesses including PropertyInvesting.com, Optus, Domino’s, Zadel Property, NAB, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac all made large purchases of books as a leadership and innovation tool for their staff.
For one week, a donor came on board to match fund purchases dollar for dollar to the value of $250,000.
The main campaign sponsor was Xero, and campaign partners QMS Media, oOh Media, A.mo.bee and ROKT supported with free advertising across Australia’s most sought-after spaces valued at almost $1 million.
FAST FACTS
- There were over 530,000 views on the Chapter One campaign video
- Chapter One achieved bestseller status two hours after it launched (9000 copies sold)
- QMS, oOh Media and A.mo.bee donated advertising valued at almost $1 million
- Over 250 volunteers packed books with Daniel Flynn in the warehouse
- Book sales in Relay, Newslink and Watermark (Airports) have outsold every business book launch and is second to only the Harry Potter sales.
- A double-printed cover of Chapter One sold for $1025 on eBay
- Most paid for a book: $1,300; Most paid in store: $500; Least paid: $0.50
- Thankyou has raised over $1.4 million, and counting. Visit chapterone.thankyou.co to view the tally.
