“Being a part of the App Showdown has been a great experience for us. As a developer, it’s great that every year Intuit shines a spotlight on new apps, as it helps validate your offering and introduce it to the QuickBooks community.”
This is what Regis Malloy, founder and CEO of G1VE, says after participating in the 2018 Small Business App Showdown. What he isn’t saying is that G1VE was the grand prize winner, taking home the $100,000 that comes as a result.
As the subject of today’s Intuit Developer Spotlight series, we’re excited to shine a light on this innovative and selfless app. Regis sat down and shared with us how the app started, why the team chose to integrate with QuickBooks, what they’ll do with their prize money, and how the Intuit Developer Platform and support were instrumental in their success.
G1VE’s Origin and What It Does
How does an app dedicated to giving come about?
Regis explains. “The G1VE team is a happy band of techie idealists with experience in businesses big and small, and we felt more can be done around the interaction of small businesses, nonprofits, and customers—all of whom often have shared interests. So, we hatched G1VE, and have been working on it for about a year now.”
It comes as no surprise that the creators would describe themselves as ‘happy’. Who else but happy people would create an app with the sole purpose of helping QuickBooks businesses easily donate to nonprofit organizations and become social enterprises?
“Using G1VE, businesses can donate a percentage of their monthly revenue, usually 1%, allocated to their favorite nonprofits,” Regis says. “G1VE calculates, collects, and distributes their donations, provides them reports and information for tax time, and creates a customizable profile page showcasing their giving to their customers and communities.”
QuickBooks businesses who use G1VE not only give to their favorite nonprofits, but in return, they receive the benefits of:
- One consolidated, simple record of their deductible giving
- A secure portal integrated into QuickBooks
- Secure management of giving to multiple nonprofits through QuickBooks Single Sign-On
- Tools to turn their giving into a key part of their brand, marketing, and customer engagement as a social enterprise
On G1VE’s QuickBooks App Store link, the team has posted a video sharing how thrilled they are after winning the App Showdown. It also notes that “giving is good” for businesses because they say 71% of customers support social enterprises, 66% are willing to pay more to support companies committed to positive social impact, 88% are more loyal to socially conscious brands, and 81% tell their friends and family about businesses that give back.
This giving mindset is definitely helping the contest-winning app: Every person who has reviewed their app has given it 5 stars. One reviewer titled his, “G1VE is GR3AT! and writes, “G1VE makes being charitable easy and automatic. The system does everything for you and keeps everything in one place. It’s a no brainer for any business that is looking to give back on a regular basis.”
Why G1VE Decided to Integrate with QuickBooks
Regis says customers appreciate businesses that give back, especially when they can see how much the business is giving. “Businesses who give a percentage of revenue is something they can immediately relate to, more so than a percentage of profits since customers don’t have the data to know what that equates to.”
He goes on, “By integrating into QuickBooks, G1VE makes it easy and automatic for QuickBooks business users to donate a percentage of their monthly revenue to their favorite nonprofits. That would have been very difficult, if not impossible, for us to facilitate without integrating into QuickBooks.”
Regis points out the fact that the QuickBooks integration also provides a secure, centralized, and seamless experience for every user. And he has good things to say about working with the Intuit Developer team and platform.
“The Intuit Developer platform is great because it enables anyone with an idea to build an app that can be easily integrated into QuickBooks. The [Intuit] Dev team has supported us from the beginning: answering questions, providing guidance, and checking in after we launched our app,” Regis says. “Intuit Developer also manages a community forum where developers can connect with one another to get even more feedback and input.”
Where Does G1VE Go from Here?
While the future for G1VE is wide open, businesses are happy it includes plans to continue their integration into Intuit and further support QuickBooks businesses and accountants.
As to what they’ll do with the $100,000 from winning the App Showdown, Regis says, “We’ll invest it in ongoing development and marketing, primarily. It will help us launch a lot of new features on our development roadmap and help us reach more QuickBooks businesses looking to give back, strengthen their brand, and connect with their communities.”
He also thinks other developers should either continue or even start their own app journey. “Now is a great time for app developers. The barriers to entry have really fallen away with the advent of cloud-based computing and services in recent years, reducing the risk of developing many apps. That, coupled with platforms like Inuit Developer, really opens up the possibilities for app developers.”
And if they take his advice to get in the game, he says they should be using (or at least considering) AI, blockchain, and VR technology as they develop their ideas. He says, “They may not be applicable to every app—or at least not yet—but each will have a huge impact on how consumers and businesses interact with technology across every industry segment.”
We’re excited to see where Regis and his team take G1VE using his App Showdown winnings. We’re also excited to help other developers who are even now coming up with some amazing solutions that will help increase the functionality and bottom line of businesses in the QuickBooks community.
If you would like to join us, contact our team. We’ll be happy to partner with you during your app journey and look forward to hearing from you. Until then, stay tuned for our next developer in our Intuit Developer Spotlight series.
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