The results-sharing event was held in Dong Rak Ga, an office dedicated to non-profit startups run by Daum Foundation. Over 40 attendees from different companies, foundations, and public-interest groups flocked to the event, in addition to the seven teams chosen for the third incubating project, revealing the keen interest in not-for-profit startups.

Representatives of Dream Spon, Sugar Square, Project Planet, ZAONE, Wear Again Lab, Interlab, Onda School presented their major accomplishments from the past eight months and their future plans. In the column, we will look into the cases of Dream Spon, ZAONE, and Wear Again Lab.

First off, Dream Spon is a highly accessible scholarship platform. A scholarship platform may sound quite new to some, while some may be fed up with the idea. Put simply, it’s a platform where students can get information on available scholarships. The biggest feature of the platform is that you can create your own scholarship that reflects your own philosophy even with a small amount of money. This means that potentially, I could start a Kim Taewoo Scholarship and there are already many such scholarships made on Dream Spon. Cases that they presented that day include a scholarship given to teenagers who came up with great ideas to tackle climate change. The winner received 200,000 won collected from 20 college students who donated 10,000 won each. This demonstrated that anyone can donate money for scholarships. (We also saw that many Amorepacific employees have been participating in the platform, donating as little as 10,000 won or a large sum of money through the matching gift feature at the beginning of the year.)

I met Ahn Sungkyu, CEO of Dream Spon, and asked him a few questions. He said, “We are handling donations via an outside company, but once we are designated as a charity, we can process receipts on our own,” stressing that companies or brands can create their own scholarship ecosystem on Dream Spon. He went on saying that they transparently reveal the result of donations to donators and that donators can name the scholarships themselves so that more and more companies and brands are showing an interest in Dream Spon. In fact, many Amorepacific brands and Amore Mall are already donating a part of their profits to environment groups or various NPOs, but they have always thought it would be better if they could use the brand name or communicate donation results directly to the customers.

However, on Dream Spon, they are able to use the brand name like Sulwhasoo Scholarship, LANEIGE Donation, or Amore Mall Contributions. You can designate the recipients or make creative scholarships. There are already a myriad of ingeniously crafted scholarships like Scientific Calculator Scholarship, Fountain Pen Scholarship for State Exam Applicants, North Korean Defector/Teenage Defector Scholarship, or the Coffee Scholarship for Teamwork of XXX College Students. (We must avoid putting too much emphasis on academic or regional ties, but it’s good to encourage students from the school you’ve graduated from with donations). Of course, it’s a good idea to donate to big NGOs and NPOs, but being able to choose the recipients of scholarships or the means of providing scholarships on the basis of brand identities is also an attractive way.

There is normally no commission for small donations, but contributions from brands, channels, or companies are delivered after excluding a certain amount of commission. In general, Dream Spon takes between 8 to 15% commission. In other words, if you sponsor 1 million won, recipients get between 850,000 and 920,000 won. Donators may want to deliver the entire amount to recipients, but this approach is necessary to ensure the stable operation of the platform.

Annually, as much as 7 trillion won are delivered to students nationwide through scholarships, and the number of Dream Spon users is said to have exceeded 200,000. Dream Spon not only provides an excellent platform that increases access to scholarship information for those in need, but also helps people who want to sponsor or support younger people. I hope you can all make your own scholarship and help the people who need them.

Next is ZAONE. They are a non-profit startup that provides playthings for children by converting industrial waste into toys. In the result-sharing event, ZAONE presented how they turned CJ Hetbahn containers into toys in an exhibition and a video. Amorepacific has also explored various ways to utilize used cosmetics containers by, for example, using empty bottles as plant vases and planting succulents, or mixing them with UHPC or upcycling them altogether into a flowerpot. However, making toys from industrial waste is quite a fresh approach. ZAONE uses discarded goods like plastic containers, the soles of sneakers that can be deformed into different shapes and let children develop their own games or toys to unleash their creativity. The phrase, One Hundred Children, One Hundred Games well reflects their corporate philosophy. Their website does not yet have a whole lot of content or use cases, but now that the environment has emerged as an important issue, the attempt to turn industrial waste into materials for safe toys is quite significant itself.

The third company, Wear Again Lab is a non-profit startup that researches and suggests daily zero waste activities by holding campaigns and making content aimed at spreading a culture of sustainable fashion and clothing. One of the leading activities of Wear Again Lab is 21% Party, where people exchange clothes they have not worn for a long time with one another. Do you know the ratio of clothes in the closet that you haven’t worn for months and years even? It amounts to 21% according to a survey conducted by Wear Again Lab, which shows us the reason why all of us unanimously say, “I have so many clothes in the closet but there’s nothing to wear!” 21% Party has been held in 10 regions across the country this year. So far, 658 people have come to the party and exchanged 2,580 items. Before COVID-19, a monthly flea market was held in front of the Gu Hall where I could get children’s clothes at just 1,000 won. The flea market was held this May for the first time in two years, making me anticipate the end of the pandemic in the near future. Since there are so many Millennials and Gen Z who are enthusiastic about environmental campaigns, you could say that the trend for used clothing has made a comeback. I mentioned in the previous column that the Amorepacific Group has exchanged goods the employees have not used for a long time through Beautiful Saturday, while some of our brands have donated clothes that their models wore in their commercials (although they looked too lavish for people to wear in daily life).

Jung Juyeon, the CEO of Wear Again Lab said, “I want to start a craze for exchanging clothes by holding 21% Parties in more than 100 places in Korea,” which is actually quite feasible. If many brands and channels hold 21% Parties on the sidelines of customer events combined with environmental themes, there would be a favorable response from customers and participants who will be able to, perhaps unexpectedly, find some rather decent clothes. There are actually many people who give away clothes they don’t wear to their colleagues, so Wear Again Lab is a non-profit startup that got the idea from the biggest issue of the time.

Reportedly, as much as a truck full of clothes (approximately 2.6 tons) gets either incinerated or placed in a landfill every second. We often see scenes from underdeveloped countries with heaps of clothes in environmental documentaries. Of course, it’s a good idea to swap clothes that you don’t wear with your friends, but wouldn’t it be better to make the best use of the wardrobe you already have and refrain from buying new clothes that you don’t need? So, hypnotize yourself by saying, “I already have enough clothes in my closet.”

Wear Again Lab has allowed customers to open their own 21% Party, instead of running it as their own exclusive business. Anyone can hold the clothing swap event, the 21% Party, anywhere with their friends and colleagues. They also offer a set of party tools that consist of a user manual on how to hold the party, as well as some useful items for the event. Try holding the 21% Party right away with your friends!

In the Non-Profit Startup Incubating Project 2019, UnivAlli, WNC, Media Noon, WallDaam, menTory, Today Good Action were selected, while Neet people, Mindful Gardeners, MoN, AROUND, Kobbulso Lab, Big Change were chosen and received support in 2020. Below is a brief introduction of these startups (The chart includes four companies from the seven companies that received support in the Non-Profit Startup Stage-α 2022 but were not introduced above.)

This is a list of non-profit startups that received support from the incubating project by Daum Foundation.

In conclusion, I’d like to end the column by introducing institutions that were chosen as not-for-profit startups in an incubating project by Seoul NPO Center.
6th year: Gangnam Cats, Public Private Group, 99 College, Inner Side Expedition, Neulpeum Value, Dodam, Mobile Edu, Stella, Child Abuse Investigation Psychological Support Group CAP, Amidahae, Art Circle, Female Driver Project Unnie Car.
5th year: Move IT, WIPERTH, Local Energy Lab, Yuhyudang, WallDaam, Now Youth Action.
4th year: Dadareum Network, Wear Again Campaign, Almang, Act It, Project See I’m in, Peanut.
3rd year: UnivAlli, Rhythm of Hope, Antica, Neet People, Homo Inter, Milk for Lao.
2nd year: Reflector, Prisming, Off the Menu, Dream Lab, Saessak School.
1st year: Tojung, Sisbro, Sgsg Project, Animal Recognition Research Institute.
(Click below for short introductions of each institution.)
First to fourth year teams chosen as not-for-profit startups in the incubating project | Gallery view (notion.site)

Some companies overlap those from Daum Foundation, but I believe that we can continue to tackle social problems in a new way backed by these supports.

 
I hope this column has provided you with a fresh perspective on finding a new non-profit startup partner that can help solve social problems.