GoHYHO featured in Dallas Business Journal - GoHYHO deals website aims to also aid community

Sept. 22, 2011 - PRLog -- Steven R. Thompson
   Staff Writer - Dallas Business Journal

A new online deals site aims to help draw customers to Dallas-Fort Worth businesses while giving back to the community.

GoHYHO, which stands for Go Help Yourself Help Others, allows consumers to direct 10 percent of their purchases to Big Brothers Big Sisters, The Samaritan Inn or the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation .  “We are ramping this up slowly, with one or two offerings a week,” said Bill Wallace, founder of Success North Dallas and co-founder of Addison-based Wallace Financial Group. “We are being very cautious on who the merchants are that we put into the system.”

Dallas already is home to ClickedIn, Time Warner Media’s deals service which gives 3 percent of proceeds to charity. Groupon, meanwhile, launched G-Team in the Dallas market last week. Groupon followers are able to donate directly to a cause through the G-Team, which is in 40 markets.

Wallace formed NB Global  Enterprises with business partner Nikki Moore to develop the Dallas market for GoHYHO.

The company founders, including Mike Cheng of Dallas, tested the concept in Chicago this summer.

The DFW site has run half a dozen deals, including a portrait session at CLIX Portrait Studio for $19.95. That includes $2 to charity. The session has a $69.50 value.

“They are now accessing dollars they would never see,” Wallace said of the nonprofits.

Donations are usually focused around specific programs, said Mary Hollock, executive director of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund’s Dallas chapter.

“This is something that we can put out to our audience and they can buy things that they normal would buy and spend money on anyway and we automatically get 10 percent,” Hollock said. “If we can get it ramped up for the volume we are anticipating, it could be a good supplement for us revenue wise.”

When consumers are able to donate to a charity while buying something they would have bought anyway, it’s “icing on the cake,” said Chad Sour, a social media and branding expert with the Dallas office of Atlanta-based Jackson Spalding.

With deal sites popping up, Sour said there is room for startups like GoHYHO if they have deals that consumers want.

“If they can start getting deals that rival that of Groupon or Living Social, like restaurants, bars, hotels, some of the more lifestyle kinds of things, then I think this thing has some legs,” Sour said.

Hollock agrees that it all depends on the types of deals GoHYHO can get.

“Like all new products, it’s a little slow in getting its offers together, but if new offers come into the fold, we think it has the potential to be a Living Social, with a social conscious,” Hollock said.

GoHYHO owners are not looking to grow the company large enough to sell it, Wallace said. He declined to project revenues or donations.

GoHYHO’s deals generally are 50 percent of retail prices. Merchant partners get 65 percent of the deal sales, Wallace said.

With Groupon, the percentage that goes back to the merchant vary based on the deal, said Kelsey O’Neil of Groupon’s Consumer PR division.

Moore, who works for a credit-card processing company, saw GoHYHO as a natural extension of her business.

“We’re trying to help the merchants grow the business and thank the donors for what they’re doing and also give to the nonprofits,” Moore said.

   Steven covers retail, hospitality, marketing and public relations.

Dallas Business Journal article can be found here: http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/print-edition/2011/09/0...

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GoHYHO is a Deals site where people receive top-notch deals & 10% of their purchases goes to a local nonprofit of their choice. A rich donor engagement experience is built into our site. It's a WIN-WIN-WIN for all: consumers, businesses, and nonprofits.