Interviews

Name: Mark Reihill
Qualification: B.A. (2018)
Title: Head of Business Development for Stampify

Tell us about Stampify
Stampify is a loyalty card for charity that was founded by six Trinity alumni. Users can mix-and-match loyalty stamps from partner businesses whenever they purchase a coffee or a meal, and once complete our partners will make a donation to Mary’s Meals to feed a child for a week in their place of education in the developing world. One stamp equals one meal, so we give our users the opportunity to make a difference with every purchase.

If we look at a Trinity student who frequents coffee shops daily, they might go into a coffee shop, buy their coffee and get their loyalty card stamped - which, after 8 or 9 stamps, will eventually result in them getting a free coffee. However, with Stampify, users sacrifice this complimentary coffee in place of feeding someone who may have gone hungry otherwise.

What motivated you to set up Stampify?
Conor Leen, our CEO, came up with the idea when walking home from work about 2 years ago. He went into Tolteca, and availed of his free burrito from his loyalty card (having collected 8/9 stamps up to that point). When he was leaving the restaurant to go home with his burrito, he passed by a homeless person on the street who was most likely going to go hungry that night. He thought to himself how crazy it is that he had just got a free meal (even though he was in a position where he could purchase one just as easily), yet this man on the street would go hungry. It was something that really hit home to Conor, and after that, he came up with the idea and said it to the 5 of us to try to come up with an idea to help those less fortunate than ourselves. Having only launched less than 2 months ago, we've fed over 600 children.

All six of us have experience in charity work and helping to do some good is something we're all very passionate about. I spent 2 weeks in Lesotho while in school, building roads, homes and water wells for the locals. Some of the other members of the team were heavily involved in the Cancer Society in Trinity, with Conor O'Keeffe taking up the role of President throughout his final year in college. I often get asked from friends 'What's in it for you?' and 'What do you get out of it?'. My response is that Stampify is completely not-for-profit, and we don't take home a cent from it ourselves, but that doesn't mean I get nothing out of it. What makes me happy is being successful in our quest to make positive change and to see our idea grow, day by day. We all have an ability to make positive change, and working on Stampify is my way to do just that.

Who are your social enterprise idols - who do you look up to?
I would say Aoibheann O'Brien and Iseult Ward are people I look up to. They came up with the idea for Foodcloud while working on a project in college. They examined the amount of food being wasted by Irish consumers and businesses each year and the problem associated with food poverty among Irish people. Their work to date has been incredible, with over 40 employees with the impact they're making acting as extra motivation for both myself and the rest of the team to emulate.

Long term, do you have any plans to expand the organisation? If so, how will you achieve this?
We want to grow Stampify to a point whereby it's basically assumed that users will have the opportunity to have their card stamped everywhere.. We see Stampify becoming readily available across all businesses in the retail and service industries - whether it be a stamp when getting a coffee in a cafe, to stamps when getting dinner in a restaurant, to filling up your car with fuel. The opportunities are endless, and it's something we're really excited to keep growing. Our short/medium term plans are to build an app which users could use as opposed to a physical card, as well as expand outside of Dublin into other major cities in Ireland. Long term, we have focused on making Stampify's model as simple as possible so as to ensure that it is scalable, thus offering us the best possible chance to expand internationally. Also, we will look ahead to making the same impact back home, in Ireland. Currently we are providing meals to children in places such as India, Sierra Leone and Malawi. While continuing our work in these international locations, we’re hoping to move some of our focus home to help to positively affect the lives of Irish people who find themselves in difficult situations.

How do you plan to measure your social impact?
To put it simply, the more children we can feed, the happier we are! Currently we can see exactly how many meals we're providing which is helping us to measure our impact. The more partner businesses we sign on, the more places for users to get their cards stamped, meaning the more meals provided to children. It's as simple as that! Our primary focus at the moment is to get Stampify into as many places as possible, and we're always looking for new leads or connections to get into new places. Feedback we have had from our partners already is how surprised they are at how inexpensive it is to come on board with Stampify. They can make an enormous impact without having to do anything radically different, with us looking after all the smaller details. We are always looking for opportunities for Stampify to grow and expand. If you are interested in working with us, or possibly know somebody whomay want to come on board with Stampify, please do not hesitate to get in contact by reaching out to Mark via email at markreihill@stampify.ie. For more information on Stampify visit www.stampify.ie