Back to NewsIn the fall of 2019, we met a regular guy named John who owns a nursery in the Niagara Region. Upon, having a chat with him, we found out he was sitting on around $600,000 worth of plants going into the winter. Of course the next question was, “What will you do with all those plants?” And his answer was, “They go to a dump pile.” That is just par for the course every single year at the end of the season….plants are ground up and composted.
John just happened to come to our BarterPay It Forward charity launch in June 2019 and was inspired by the way BPIF could turn business’s extra inventory and downtime into giving to charities…and he wanted to figure out a way that his plants could be used for good. Under regular circumstances, of course if he showed up at his favourite charity and tried to donate thousands of plants, they would be a little overwhelmed and wonder what on earth they were going to do with thousands of plants. And they for sure would have a difficult time using the plants to meet the needs of the community they serve.
Can you predict what happened next? Our own John, the CEO of BarterPay and BarterPay It Forward, had a face that lit up like a Christmas tree, as he explained that we could run a huge plant sale for them and use our ‘bartering machine’ to turn plants into donations that charities can actually use. We often picture it like someone feeding one end of the machine with the items, in this case plants, and the machine spits Barter Credits out the other end, now ready to be used!
Well, within 2 weeks, we shocked John and his Willowbrook Nursery team by selling over $40,000 in plants to BarterPay members all over Ontario. People who would not normally purchase from them bought truckloads of plants. John, then turned around and took the Barter Credits from the sale of the plants and donated them to BarterPay It Forward Foundation and we were able to gift those to charities across Canada!
So, plants that were headed for a dump pile were ‘magically’ put through a machine that turned them into giving!
A huge shoutout to John Langendoen and his team for being real life superheroes!
For the full story, watch this video:
So, here are action steps you can take to becoming a superhero just like John:
If you own a business, go and click here for more information.
If you know someone who owns a business, tell them they need to click here too!
If you are involved with a charity, click here to learn more!
If you know a charity who needs help go tell them to click here too.
THIS IS IMPORTANT: spread the word, share this website on social media, subscribe to the Youtube channel where all our videos are and share the videos. It’s awesome! You can see step by step how the whole incredible process works and who is impacted.
Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/BarterPayItForward
The more people know about this insane movement the better for everyone! Help us change the way giving happens across Canada!
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