Groupon Grassroots Launches Social Venture Week, Offers Groupon Payments™ Service to Social Venture Partners and Members of Social Enterprise Alliance
Today Groupon
Grassroots, the philanthropic program at Groupon
(NASDAQ: GRPN), announced the launch of Social
Venture Week and the expansion of Groupon
Payments™ to all Groupon Grassroots venture partners and Social
Enterprise Alliance (SEA) members. For the next 14 days, Groupon
will feature a series of social ventures across the country.
Additionally, all social venture partners will now be offered the
Groupon Payments tool, which launched in September 2012 to Groupon
merchants, providing a better way to accept credit cards at the
guaranteed lowest overall rates.
Groupon Grassroots routinely runs 10-15 campaigns a week with local
nonprofits across the US, totaling just over 500 in 2012. Social Venture
Week specifically features a collection of social ventures: For-profit,
mission-driven businesses that seek to provide sustainable solutions to
achieve a social objective.
The campaign will showcase a variety of causes, ranging from youth
mentorship and disability programs to employment training and upcycle
innovation. The social ventures in the series include:
-
Aspire
CoffeeWorks
-
Project
Repat
-
Humphrey’s
Street Coffee Co.
-
Women’s
Bean Project
-
Senda
Athletics
-
Bright
Endeavors
-
Better
Way Imports
-
Raise5
-
Callie’s
Coffee
Additionally, all partnering social ventures now have access to Groupon
Payments. The service is built into the Groupon Merchants app for the
iPhone and iPod Touch, and is backed by a guarantee to be the lowest
cost option to accept credit cards. As credit card fees can be a burden
for mission-driven organizations, Groupon Payments relieves that strain
and simplifies the process, featuring:
-
Swiped transactions - MasterCard, Visa and Discover (1.8% plus $0.15
per transaction) and American Express (based on industry category)
-
No hidden costs or monthly fees
Participants also receive credit card deposits in bank accounts
overnight.
“We’re proud to be featuring a selection of such innovative social
ventures - ones that truly illustrate a thriving cause-driven business
model,” said Patty Huber Morrissey, Head of Social Innovation at
Groupon. “We’re also excited to offer Groupon Payments to our social
venture partners, allowing them to relieve some of the stress in
managing credit card transactions, save money by avoiding high credit
card fees and ultimately focus more on their core mission.”
Groupon's work with social ventures isn't new - Last year, Groupon
Grassroots, Groupon
Getaways and Spark
Ventures collaborated to offer Groupon subscribers a
once-in-a-lifetime volunteer trip to Zambia. The trip is set to commence
January 19th, and you can find personal updates from Grouponers on the
blog here.
Per Groupon Payments Offering: The guarantee of lowest possible rates is
only available to Groupon merchants, Groupon Grassroots partner
organizations and SEA partners located in the United States. Merchants
must provide proof of current third-party rates for identical services.
Participation is subject to the terms of the Groupon Payments Merchant
User Agreement which may modify or discontinue the guarantee and the
underlying services at any time. The guarantee is void where prohibited
by law.
About Groupon
Groupon
(NASDAQ: GRPN) is a global leader in local commerce, making it easy for
people around the world to search and discover great businesses at
unbeatable prices. Groupon is reinventing the traditional small business
world by providing merchants with a suite of products and services,
including customizable deal campaigns, credit
card payments processing capabilities
and point-of-sale
solutions to help them attract more customers and run their
operations more effectively. By leveraging the company’s global
relationships and scale, Groupon offers consumers incredible deals on
the best stuff to eat, see, do, and buy in 48 countries. With Groupon,
shoppers discover the best a city has to offer with Groupon
Local, enjoy vacations with Groupon
Getaways, and find a curated selection of electronics, fashion, home
furnishings and more with Groupon
Goods. To subscribe to Groupon emails, visit www.Groupon.com.
To learn more about the company’s merchant
solutions and how to work
with Groupon, visit www.GrouponWorks.com.
About Groupon Grassroots
Groupon
Grassroots, launched in July 2010 in Chicago as G-Team, features
local campaigns nationwide, enabling Groupon followers to do good, have
fun, and make a real impact in their communities. Groupon Grassroots
uses collective action to gather support for worthwhile causes and
produce tangible results for local organizations. To learn more about
Groupon Grassroots and how to become a featured organization, visit http://grassroots.groupon.com.
To subscribe to Groupon, visit http://www.groupon.com.