Our Story
The origin and mission of the B1G1 initiative.
In 2007, a group of small-business owners asked
“What if we could make something great happen in our world just by doing the things we do every day?”
That question deeply inspired them. And they correctly concluded, “That would be amazing!” So they decided there and then to make it happen. It needed to be simple, easy to do. They gave it a name ‘Buy1GIVE1’.
It took three years of concentrated work, breaking new ground and doing things that had never been done before, to make it a reality. Along the way they realized that it need not be related to ‘buying and selling’ things. So they changed the name early on to B1G1.
The beginning of Small
This is the story of the founder of B1G1, Masami Sato, and the challenges she faced while running her own small business. It was these challenges (the kind that every business owner has) that led Masami to imagine a different world — a world based on kindness and even a world full of giving.
Our Mission
TO CREATE A WORLD
FULL OF GIVING
Driven by her deep belief that every business has the power to create a significant difference, Masami embarked on a mission to make giving an inherent part of every business transaction. Today, B1G1 opens up an entirely new way of thinking and implementing sound, strategically important and deeply resonant ways of putting purpose, impact and social responsibility right at the very core of your business.
B1G1 does this by providing businesses with a Platform for Good and structure which allows you to create ‘when this …then this’ processes directly into your business. Actions that really do change our world can now be central to businesses of any size. And perhaps even better, you can now do that for as little as just one cent.
OUR JOURNEY
Celebrating 16 years of B1G1.
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2023
2023
TODAY, B1G1 IS GLOBAL MOVEMENT
Now, thousands of businesses ranging from tiny start-ups to multi-million dollar businesses have become bound together by the vital idea that businesses can be (indeed must be) a real force for good in our world. And what a difference that continues to make — at the time of writing (July 2023), B1G1 passed a staggering 325 million impacts.
325m
Impacts in our world
Paul Dunn, Co-founder, and Masami Sato, B1G1 Founder and CEO.
Together we think of each impact as a joyful smile. B1G1 really does bring that much needed sense of joy into everything we do… together with you.
