The following is an essay written by one of our founders that explains how GivingJoe came to be!

Taylor Boone 3/29/1990

Carolina seeks students who are exceptionally curious.Tell us about a time when your curiosity led you someplace you weren’t expecting to go.

My mother has long been an innovative person. It seems as though each week she has a new idea or a new way to save the world. It is safe to say, some of her ideas are a bit bizarre, but it seems our family usually gets behind her latest cause to support her endeavors. This summer, however, my curiosity with one of her projects led to something even I couldn’t imagine; becoming an entrepreneur myself.

I wasn’t looking for a summer job. I wasn’t looking for something else to do. I had more than enough to keep me busy with football practice, summer camps, personal training, college visits and the second round of SAT’s. But it is amazing where inspiration will find you.

One afternoon in June, several buddies came over to play some NCAA football and for a long anticipated afternoon of leisure. My mother and her business partner were in the family room chatting up a storm over their latest idea. It seems they had found the perfect way to add a Member Rewards program to the new tennis league they had begun earlier in the year. I was seriously focused on my NCAA quarterback’s lack of completions, but I began to overhear terms like affiliate marketing, web links, sales and commissions coupled with names like iTunes, Sports Authority, Best Buy, and Circuit City. Curiosity finally got the best of me and I had to ask what they were talking about.

As they began to explain the concept behind affiliate marketing, my good friend Corbin joined the conversation as well. Could a company really receive a commission for every sale generated by the links hosted on their website? And, if so, just what kind of “real” store would make this deal? The conversation continued and we soon realized that thousands of merchants with household names are participating in affiliate marketing.

What a great way to earn money for college! All we had to do was create a website and wait for the money to roll in. Or so we thought. There was one tiny catch; people have to actually go to your website and want to click on your links in order to make money. So what would make people want to go to our website and help us raise money for college?

For the past few years, Corbin and I had volunteered for several charitable organizations and had seen firsthand how much money was needed to keep these organizations in business to support their cause. If we donated a portion of the proceeds, churches, charities and educational institutions all over the United States could benefit from a sale generated by a simple link from our website. With the economy heading down a rocky road, we knew this would be a great way for people to count their dollar twice. Once for the purchase they already planned to make and second as a way to help their favorite organization. As an added bonus, they would also be helping high school juniors and seniors continue their education. GivingJoe was born.

That simple question turned into a business plan, marketing meetings, web specifications and corporate policy. Our website is currently under development with an expected launch date of mid November, 2008 to capitalize on the holiday shopping season. We have already received several letters of endorsement from local celebrities in our area and have enrolled our first organizations. We are also accepting applications from high school seniors who will continue to enroll the organizations we support, which will in turn qualify them for a commission on the sales generated by that organization.

No, I wasn’t looking for anything else to do this summer, or anything else to keep me busy, but needless to say, I found it.