New Mobile App Mashes Up Foursquare With Corporate Responsibility

Sept. 16, 2011 - PRLog -- (New York) Truismo is a new mobile app, currently in development, that lets you find responsible businesses and learn more about how they support nonprofits and social causes. Check in, leave tips, share with your friends, and earn points and badges that show the causes you care about.

Here's how it works: Truismo recommends and shows you places based on your charitable interests, whether it's a big box store that supports a disease research nonprofit, or a local green business that donates to an environmental fund. You can participate in "challenges", which are sponsored by brands, and -- presuming you are already check-in using apps like Foursquare, Facebook Places, or Gowalla -- Truismo will notify you when you've racked up enough points to turn them into donations directly to featured charities of your choice. It's a fun new twist on using check-in apps to give back.

The concept came from Jon Sukarangsan, the President of Party4aCause, a New York-based volunteer-run nonprofit that assists charity organizations by throwing fundraising parties for them as a completely free service.Through working in the nonprofit community and corporate sponsors, he began to recognize the importance of companies that make philantropy and social responsibility part of their business model. "The idea for Truismo was born from the idea that the pursuit of profits doesn't have to conflict with social missions and values," says Sukarangsan. "If both big brands and small businesses can inspire social action and philantropy in consumers, then it makes the world a better place for all of us."

He adds that there is alot of noise out there about corporate responsibility, and sometimes it's hard to distinguish all the blogs, PR, and “greenwashing” from actual reality. Most CSR indexes today measure sustainability, employee relations, and environmental impact. But there's no common standard rating system, each industry is different, and small businesses are always looked over. Truismo breaks it down and shows you how businesses support nonprofits YOU care about.

Truismo also has additional interesting features which show you a meter of "good" businesses you check-in to, based on their social impact on hot topics such as fair-trade, sustainability, and third-world development. You can compare your "impact" meter to your friends, and earn points and badges, ultimately unlocking "ambassador" status in specific categories. For example, as a New York Ambassador for Arts & Culture on Truismo, you can get perks like invites to a slew of charity events for art-related nonprofits, discounted museum & gallery tickets, and more.

With development underway, Truismo has launched a fundraising campaign on IndieGoGo.com to raise money for development towards a beta release on the iPhone, soon to be followed by an Android release. To learn more about Truismo you can visit their website at Truismo.com or the fundraising page at http://www.indiegogo.com/Truismo-discover-socially-respon...

FACTS:
60% of Americans had a more positive image of a business when it supports causes they care about and are more likely to buy from the company, according to the 2010 Cone Corporate Responsibility Study
75% of Americans believe a partnership between a nonprofit and a company they trust makes a cause stand out.
Quote: “By the end of this decade, there will be no brands not engaged in causes.” -Arianna Huffington


CONTACT:

Jon Sukarangsan
Founder & CEO
Truismo | www.truismo.com
@jsuk

Links:

Truismo website: http://www.truismo.com
Fundraising page: http://www.indiegogo.com/Truismo-discover-socially-responsible-businesses
Party4aCause: http://www.p4acnyc.org