Saving is not always a reflex, and giving to non-profits often comes with an open question; how much of your gift goes directly to the recipients? bunny.money, a local company founded by three French people, offers an original formula to save without thinking about it and lets you give to nonprofits with peace of mind.
By installing the cleverly called save for good® app, bunny.money lets you manage your level of savings based on your income and financial situation.
But also to donate part of this savings -according to your instructions, to the nonprofits of your choice. And if you lack inspiration as to the causes you want to support, you will find a list of nonprofits on the platform, that are already partners.
We met Fabien Lamaison, the CEO and co-founder of this Fintech company during a French Founders event, and he provided us with some details. An engineer by training, he willingly explains his interest in individual savings and the financing of associative causes; he mentions that from an early age, he liked to save money to feed his piggy bank and give to nonprofits.
But to get started, bunny.money relied on very concrete data concerning the household savings rate and donations level in the US.
Savings have exploded since the pandemic, and donations to nonprofits have not slowed down; quite the contrary. The OECD figures speak for themselves:
- Between 2019 and 2020, the household savings rate jumped from 7.9% to 17.05% in the United States. By the way, the phenomenon was the same in France, where savings rose from 9.21% to 15.73% over the same period (all figures here).
- At the same time, donations have also increased even if the ratio is lower with +5% in 2020 compared to 2019 in the USA, and 13.7% in France.
This surge in personal savings highlights a growing desire for individuals to cover their backs in times of trouble. The increase in donations shows unwavering support to help the community or causes close to people’s hearts, in all circumstances.
So, by offering a straightforward app, bunny.money comes at the right time.
In concrete terms, once the app has been installed and set up, it adds to your savings at a competitive interest rate (1% APY interest) and transfers, according to your instructions, a donation to the nonprofits of your choice. Contrary to custom, the platform does not take a commission on the donation amount.
Finally, the start-up is not only targeted at individuals, but it has developed a business offer: if each employer signing with bunny.money undertakes to systematically give the equivalent of the donations made by its employees through the platform, an amazing multiplier effect will come into play, and save for good® will take on its whole meaning.
The start-up aims to become the first banking application for individual donations and those made with companies.
Although in early stage, bunny.money operates according to the rules of the banking industry, which is particularly monitored in the United States.
Fabien Lamaison confirms that “saving with our app is as safe as saving with your usual bank since the deposits are insured by the FDIC, the federal agency which would reimburse any saver up to $250k in case the bank fails.”
He also insists on the fact that 100% of the amount that the user pays to the nonprofit of his choice goes to it, “we do not take transaction fees as it’s commonly the case with most donation platforms which take up to 10% of donations for remuneration.”
Obviously, the start-up has a plan for its own economic model and as soon as the amounts allow it, bunny.money will then be able to receive income on the savings entrusted to it from its financial partners.
Finally, Fabien points out that the company is a B Corp™ (abbreviation of Certified B Corporation™). This is the term used for any for-profit entity certified by the nonprofit B Lab as voluntarily meeting higher standards of transparency, accountability, and performance.
Concerned about transparency values that are too rare in the start-up world, it is therefore not surprising for our Fintech do-gooders to have taken no less than two years to bootstrap the app. They also recently launched a participatory campaign to support their project.
You can download the save for good® app, and start saving and donating (available on iOS and Android).
