The Good Registry – good vibes
Over-packaged, underwhelming and bound for the landfill. That might well sum up many of the presents bought at Christmas. Bought and given with all the good will in the world but an enormous amount of it received politely then shoved in the cupboard under the stairs to be re-gifted in a junk-go-round – corporate mug-givers, you know who you are.
The three wise women of The Good Registry – chief executive Christine Langdon and directors Tracey Bridges and Sue McCabe – had a better idea.
Instead of buying yet more stuff for family and friends for Christmases, birthdays, weddings and the like, they created gift cards for people to donate to a charity of their choice.
Four years, almost $1 million in donations and 21,600 gift cards later, they reckon they might have just made a difference.
The guts
Here’s how The Good Registry works: You buy a gift card from The Good Registry and give it to someone. That someone can
‘‘spend’’ the gift card on one or more of the 65 charities listed. Alternatively, people can create a charity instead of a gift registry in times when they might be expecting presents – like if you’re getting married but already have all the toasters you need.
The Good Registry’s charity partners represent a broad range of things that matter to New Zealanders, from environmental and health, food security to animal welfare. In a perfect world, there would be no need for charities, says Bridges.
But in the current, real world, there is a huge need. The cost of living crisis looms ever larger. Stories of people juggling bill payments with rising rents and expensive food are many.
‘‘Not only is there a need for the organisations out there doing the incredible work in the community, but they need all the money they can get to keep doing that work,’’ Bridges says.
The planet
Sustainability weighs heavily on their minds and is key in their social enterprise.
There’s an impact on the environment from the resource being grown, harvested, moved to a factory, the production process, the packaging, the wrapping, the shipping right through to the endof-life disposal of the product, Langdon says.
‘‘If we just consume what we need and what we know we are
going to use we could get the planet much more into balance and gift giving seems a really good place to start.’’
The good idea
The genesis of The Good Registry began with Langdon.
She had left the world of corporate communications to see what the universe had in store for her and turned to mindfulness blogging for inspiration.
On part of that mindfulness journey, she began de-cluttering her house. She remembers digging out gifts that had been stored in a cupboard and all but forgotten.
A drawer full of secret Santa gifts – back scratchers, mugs, a whole load of junk, really – all of
them gifts that had never been used and probably never would be.
That year when her mother asked what she wanted for her birthday, she asked for homeknitted mittens. What arrived was a big box and masses of packaging around a pair of oversized gloves made in China.
While grateful, she was never going to wear them. ‘‘I decided I would give them to a homeless person on Courtenay Place. I gathered some other things to give away while I was at it.’’
This was when she had the ‘‘aha moment’’. Instead of buying someone unwanted gifts that were going to be given away, wouldn’t it be better to give someone the opportunity to give to a charity of
their choice?
Better for the giver, the receiver, the charity, the planet. She discussed with McCabe and Bridges. Neither needed any convincing. They were in.
Since the launch of The Good Registry in December 2017, they have had more than 200 businesses sign up for gift cards to give their staff rather than the traditional mugs or other massproduced gifts. About 400 individual registries have raised money for myriad charities.
A new generation of givers
Could we be the generation that starts to teach children that a birthday or Christmas is about charity, Langdon wonders. ‘‘There’ll be something under the tree for them that they will need and love and use but also an opportunity to give to other kids who have less,’’ she says.
Just look at the website and prepare to be moved by some children using their birthdays to help others.
‘‘We’ve got one kid turning 10 this year who is doing a birthday registry for the fourth year,’’ says Langdon. That’s good.