Gifting the power to do good

Christine Langdon’s birthday in 2017 left her feeling a bit uncomfortable. After being given a couple of things she didn’t need or want, she was feeling bad about the time, money and environmental resources that had just been wasted.

But rather than just watching the same thing happen again next year, she sprang into action. She discussed her idea with two friends Sue McCabe and Tracey Bridges and three months later the trio had launched The Good Registry, with the aim of putting the heart back into giving.

The gift of giving

Langdon’s job title is Chief of Good at The Good Registry, which offers a registry service for things like weddings and birthdays. But instead of the recipient receiving toasters and vases, they get to give money to their chosen charities. The service also offers gift cards that can be given as gifts, allowing the recipient to go online and donate, with about 70 different charities to choose from.

Langdon says the service is used by a range of people, in a variety of ways, all with the aim of reducing the amount of waste created from gifts that aren’t really wanted – including everything from the shipping to the wrapping paper.

“We’ve had lots of businesses that are using our gift cards to give to staff or customers instead of giving gifts at Christmases or birthdays, or for reward and recognition,” she says.

There have been small children using the registry instead of receiving an overwhelming pile of toys on their birthday, while other people use it for weddings and even bereavements.

“We’ve just had one young man who turned 27 and he had created a Good Registry for his 25^th, 26^th and 27^th birthdays.”  

Changing old traditions

Langdon says it understands this is a very new style of gift giving – something that can have a strong sense of tradition about it.

“Part of our opportunity is trying to change that default from: ‘I must give a gift’, to considering - how much meaning does the gift that I’m giving have?”

She believes the timing is right for the service, given the growing awareness around conscious consumerism.

“Coming out of lockdown we definitely saw a lot of people with the sense that they had gone without going shopping for a couple of months and hadn’t missed that. The thing that people really wanted more of was that sense of contribution and connection.

“And there is a growing consciousness around the planet, that our levels of consumption are exceeding what the planet can continue to provide for. People are realising that and choosing more often to consume a bit less and use their spending power for good where they can.”

The gift of choice

It was important to the founders that the recipient still received something and had a choice in how the gift was used – the gift in this case being the experience of giving and the associated endorphin hit, Langdon says.

However, she is conscious we are now in an environment where people may have less money available to give.

“Charities need our support more than ever. Instead of doing no gift, there is a real opportunity for businesses, and all of us, to go half way and use some of the money that you might have spent on gifts - if you find you do have that money - to give to charities that really need it at the moment.”