Road to B Corp: Celebrating 12 years of ntegrity’s Growth
This month marks 12 years since ntegrity came into the world.
But I’ve often led with discomfort.
Until I was 30, I never imagined working in a business. I thought businesses were bad and charities were good. I thought businesses purely existed for wealth generation that was hurting the world and charities existed to do good and make the world better.
With a career in not-for-profits, I simply thought I wasn’t the 'type of person' who could start a business because I wasn't motivated by generating wealth for myself.
Image 1: Meeting my sponsored children on a trip to Zambia, my first taking online influencers to see World Vision's work.
But then I started to struggle with sleep. I loved my job as Social Media Manager at World Vision, but the growth challenges faced by the not-for-profit sector kept me up at night. I started to feel tormented by only being able to help one charity at a time.
Social problems are growing in every area — poverty, disability, domestic violence, gender equality, housing, mental health, climate change, and more. Australia’s wealth was increasing year on year but the pace of donations towards not-for-profits were failing to match the increasing need.
I wanted Australians to give more, care more, and engage more than they currently did. I desired a revolution of change for the whole charity sector — impacting one charity at a time did not feel like enough.
And I knew this ambition needed more than me. It needed a group of people who cared about the same things that I did. It needed a small army of people that were big hearted, ambitious, and bold.
From little things, big things grow
12 years on, our team is now 45 people across 5 different countries.
Image 2: Growing from 1 to 45 people in 5 countries!
We have raised over $40 million to help not-for-profits in Australia and around the world.
The majority of these funds raised have been via digital channels, using technology and channels to reach new and younger donors. Reaching new and younger audiences is one of the single greatest challenges NFPs face in 2024.
But the not-for-profit sector has still not been able to wrangle market share away from other sectors. Australians still spend more on clothing than they do on giving. This is not specific to Australia, globally we talk more about justice than we give to it.
At the 10 year mark, most agency founders feel a sense of fatigue and many are working toward an 'exit plan'.
But my goal is not to build a business or to win awards or to get to a certain head count that is deemed 'successful'.
My goal is 12 years old and still unchanged: transformational revenue growth.
The mission is not complete. And my ambition has grown. It’s not just for Australia anymore, but for the globe.
Revolutionary growth, together
We are more capable than ever to achieve our global mission.
Eight years ago, my husband Kyle joined ntegrity formally from 'in the background' co-owner to creative director — and our creative capabilities took off.
Two years ago, we restructured our company, its constitution and operating structure to that of a shared ownership model with four key partners — Garth, Amy, Ophelie, and Romena. All four held significant tenure at the agency and are committed to its long term vision of global transformational revenue growth.
Image 3: (Left to right) Romena, Amy, Ophelie, Kyle, myself, and Garth
In the next two years we will double in size, expanding our footprint globally:
We’ll invest more in research and innovation to understand how we can wrangle market share away from consumerism and into giving.
We’ll continue to partner alongside not-for-profits doing world-changing work that share a vision for transformational revenue growth.
We will continue to expand employee ownership, because we know that a bold vision like these is a marathon, not a sprint. We want our key talent to grow with us.
It’s not about one job or one client. It’s not even about being an agency. It’s about a dream to create revolutionary growth, together. With a team of people who can make it happen.
Image 4: At the Fundraising Institute of Australia conference we were proud to receive three awards for transformational revenue growth.
A business that benefits all
Ironically, in a full circle, we’ve needed to be a business to create this impact. But not just any business. A business that's intentional with impact, weaving our vision to ‘help good grow’ into every fibre of our organisation — be it culture, corporate governance, growth and more.
We are a proud B Corp.
We help hundreds of charities fund the impact of their work.
We donate 1% of our revenue
We help hundreds of charities fund the impact of their work.
We donate 1% of our revenue to not-for-profits directly.
We use our voice to speak out about key issues that affect charities (like why brands should stop bidding on each other’s keywords or why we need to change the narrative on charity overheads).
We are employee-owned, performance driven, and we reward our staff directly for driving growth.
I no longer feel uncomfortable saying I own a business.
I wear my B Corp badge with pride.
