Voice, an online marketplace founded by Wayzata High School alumnus Mitch Reaume, aims to create a space for consumers who want to add a little oomph—in the form of charitable giving—to their dollars. “I was looking at a pie chart of our spending and wondered what it would look like if the whole pie was having an impact,” explains Reaume, who is a student ministries pastor at Crow River Church in Delano, Minn. “And out of that, Voice was born.”
Voice, a marketplace for clothes, gifts and other goods—many locally made—donates 7 percent of its sales to Minnesota nonprofit organizations, which are chosen by customers and newsletter subscribers. Reaume is quick to point out that this donation doesn’t mean the customer is seeing a price hike on their purchases. Voice works with businesses that are willing to make a small sacrifice in their own profits to make the business model work. “One of the surprising things for me is that there are a lot of businesses that want to be more socially minded, but they’re not sure how to do that,” Reaume says.
Reaume jokes that while he doesn’t have the most experienced background in business development (“My educational training is in biblical and theological studies and communication studies, so that doesn’t do much for me,” he says), he hopes to grow Voice into a marketplace where “all of life’s everyday [purchases] can be bought in a socially minded way.”
For more inspiration, follow the Voice community on Twitter and Instagram.
