In the two years since it launched, New York-based print and Web cataloger Goods That Give has sold a broad range of eco-conscious products, from gourmet foods to jewelry, made by socially conscious providers. But the company has now shifted its focus toward becoming an online application service provider (ASP) for nonprofit organizations, of which there are nearly 1.4 million in the U.S. alone.
“More than 80% of those nonprofit companies have overall budgets under $1 million,” says Goods That Give CEO Daniel Helfman. “And only about 2% of those organizations currently run online stores.”
Helfman says that Goods That Give’s ability to function more as an information technology solutions provider will also better serve his company in the long rum. “We had limited competition when we started back in 2004, but in the last 24 months the value proposition has diminished from a retail perspective,” he says. “That’s why we have decided to move away from retail sales and become a more transactional system.”
Goods That Give has already closed its retail Website and discontinued the print catalog. “The only way the catalog would go on is if someone purchased it,” Helfman says.