Tough times make us stronger.

Tough times make us stronger. ’Three years ago I thought that by now The Social Handshake would help hundreds of companies with their CSR by making doing good easy.’ We just had the kick-off at our 100th company.

Honestly, it did take longer than expected, bumps are part of the journey, thought us a lot and made us stronger. What I learned in challenging times:

Three years ago we launched hashtag#PayrollGiving ( the possibility to support charities straight from salary with tax benefits) in the Netherlands. A new benefit in The Netherlands, with high impact potential. One week later our country went into corona lockdown. The timing was off and companies were hesitant to start something new.

🚀 When our country opened up, we were ready, and soon got to full steam. More and more companies saw the impact they could make with Payroll Giving, saw more hashtag#employees wanting to make a difference, and decided to jump on board, and our impact numbers rose.

Just when we were going full steam ahead, the market changed again with the highest inflation numbers in years last fall. Just like we had seen before, all of a sudden the timing for Payroll Giving was off, and our growth slowed down.

It was the second big bump and I expected some serious conversations, and grumpiness even with our investors. Surprisingly, they showed me the positive side of the bumps:

—> When the market was off, we were still growing. Both our hashtag#impact numbers and MRR rose, only at a slower pace. That means our business model and our impact model works.

—> In economically challenging times our churn is limited, because people still want to do good. In tough times, the impact we can often make is the greatest!

—> In Challenging times we showed that we could hashtag#innovate. We introduced Emergency Giving to instantly support people in need after an emergency. We also introduced Charity Gift Cards, a great way for companies to say thank you to employees or company relations.

hashtag#Entrepreneurship does not always go in a straight line, it requires grit. Anyone out there will tell you it is a bumpy road. It is in tough times when we can show what we are made of and ultimately this makes our businesses more resilient and stronger.

🚀 At The Social Handshake we are full steam ahead again, helping companies with their CSR and creating impact. With 4 kick offs this January, we celebrate that our 100th Company is on board!

But the problems in the world increased over the last few years, and more companies need to become more involved with making impact to counter these problems.

We support companies who want to make a difference. If you would like to make a difference and be on this impact journey with us, please send me a DM.

Thank you, Victor, René, Thomas, Titus, Nick, Carla, Marijn and many others for your support and wisdom and for being on this bumpy impact journey with us.