Recently, while stuck at home, socially distanced, scrolling Instagram, Jonathan Funke, a young, passionate entrepreneur from Berlin caught my attention with one statement: “When you sit in a café, you tip the waiter. Imagine you could tip the person behind this coffee – imagine you could tip the coffee farmer”. That’s how I discovered Tip Me: a socially conscious company allowing direct, transparent tipping from consumers to workers, bettering the lives of people further along the supply chain. I sat down (virtually) with Jonathan, the man behind the idea, to find out more about his revolutionary concept.
Jonathan (in the middle) in Pakistan
Hi Jonathan! Could you introduce yourself in a few words
I’m Jonathan Funke, born and raised in Berlin, Germany. I founded my first social company when I was 4 years old. There was a radio station that introduced its new slogan “only for grownups.” At 4 years I thought that was totally unfair! So I told my father we should start a radio station only for children. And so we did. We interviewed the German President, Jane Goodall and indigenous civil rights, activists. Radijojo still exists until today and was awarded by UNESCO.
Meeting these inspiring people taught me two things: The first thing was that change is possible, and the second was that it is done by “regular” people, just like you and me. The only difference is: They just do it.
When did your journey into social activism for fair production start? What was the turning point that made you be interested in this important cause?
I think I’ve always been a real sustainability nerd. I started my first blog on human rights and environmentalism when I was 14. Every week, I released a new article, so I researched day and night on the Arab spring, whistleblowers, and how to reduce your carbon footprint and sustainable economics. Eventually, I ended up with fashion. Back in 2014, the first store of the fast-fashion company “Primark” opened in Berlin. I went to a demonstration demanding human rights in the factories and fair wages. And when I understood that workers in the global south only make 3% of the price we pay for their product, I felt it was my responsibility to find a solution.
Let’s talk about your amazing initiative, Tip Me: When did this idea come to your mind, and what made you eventually take it and make it a real thing?
After the Primark demonstration, I couldn’t stop thinking about the massive inequality. Only 3% of the price people pay for a garment actually goes to workers. So when I sat in a café and tipped the waiter with 10% of the amount, I thought: I want to tip the coffee farmer, too. We’re living in the 21st century. There must be some way to make that possible.
So I built a small website and started giving talks on my vision. One of the biggest German newspapers found it somehow, and I was given the opportunity to give a TEDx Talk. I knew this was my new thing! And eventually, an amazing team formed around the idea. We started testing if and how people want to tip. From small boxes in fair fashion stores, PayPal Links and then very basic software, we slowly evolved to what Tip-Me is nowadays.
Ok, now its time for you to tell us… what exactly is Tip Me?
After sitting in a café and enjoying a good cup of coffee, we all tip the waiter, right? Imagine we could tip the coffee farmer! now it is possible with Tip Me: it enables you to tip the people that made your product. Whether it would be your shoes, jeans, coffee or chocolate, with tip me you can find out who made your product and tip them directly. You can do so in all the online shops that partner with tip me.
We are building an easy, convenient solution for every one of us to fight global inequality. All it takes is a click of a button to send a thank you around the world. All tips are collected in a digital pool and then split fairly between the team. The tip is sent directly to the individual account of each individual worker.
Global inequality is one of the most pressing issues. It is deeply connected to other issues, such as climate change, children’s education, and women’s rights. That is why the UN has made ending poverty the #1 goal of the Sustainable Development Goals we as a global society want to reach until 2030. And tip me is doing its part by making consumption a lever to reach this goal!
What is the process a brand who wants to work with tip me has to go through?
The process is very simple and straightforward. We have built a solution that can be implemented into any online shop within a few hours. The brand can choose their favorite design and customize the texts & images. Tip Me adds the software to the website and we are ready to start collecting tips.
In order to distribute them, the brands introduce us to their production sites. They provide us with the information we need to distribute the tips directly to each individual worker. We have a global network of partners that evaluate whether the information is correct and scans it for any potential bad actors.
tip me sets up a digital pool where all tips are collected. After a certain period of time, e.g. 3 months, we distribute all the tips fairly between the workers. Each and everyone receives the money on their personal accounts.
What are the requirements that brands have to have in order to work with tip me, and how do you ensure that they meet those requirements?
We only work with brands that fulfill the standards of the UN worker organization ILO. That means no child labor, the right to form unions, contracts in writing, etc. We want to create a living income for everyone on this planet. And every brand that wants to join us in this challenge is welcome
How do you eventually set up a Tip Me program with a brand? Do you physically go directly to their manufacturers to meet the people, or everything is done online?
Tip Me loves to visit the factories (Of course. I mean, who doesn’t like to travel the world!). It’s also great to tell the personal stories of the workers and how their lives are improved by the tips, but it’s not necessary. We have the infrastructure to cover the entire process online. We get the data we need from the factory and analyze it. And then we are ready to go!
How can you ensure that the workers really get the tips they deserve? Are there any special tech supplies you need to make it happen?
Tip Me is the only company on the globe that sends tips directly to the individual workers. There are no middlemen between tip me and the people. That makes our solution more secure and transparent than any other. The key is to link each worker to an individual account. We have different options we can use here: in Vietnam, most factories we work with have bank accounts for their staff. In Kenya employees are paid via text message and tip me can integrate into this solution, too. So there is no fancy technical set-up required. We always integrate tip me into the system that is already in place. What the workers need is some a personal account to receive our tips, but that can be as simple a just a SIM-card. We collect all the tips in a digital pool and split them fairly among all workers in the team. So everybody gets their fair share.
Tip Me is the only company on the globe that sends tips directly to the individual workers. There are no middlemen between tip me and the people. That makes our solution more secure and transparent than any other.
Jonathan Funke, Founder of Tip Me
How do you keep track of changes in the brand’s supply chains?
Before every tip transaction, we get the newest data from the factories. Then we analyze it. Tip Me can check if there are new employees and who left, we check the hours worked and the salary paid. Additionally, we have a global network that validates the employment and the salaries of the individual workers every time before we make a Tip Me transfer.
Working with Tip Me requires brands to look deep into their supply chain, and apart from providing a better livelihood for garment makers, farmers and workers, it also helps to bring supply chain transparency to the front. What are other advantages/ positive results of joining Tip Me, from a brand perspective and a customer perspective?
“Who made my clothes?” That’s a question 289,000,000 people asked on Instagram last year. With Tip Me you can actually find out. We believe that certifications, audits, and labels are great to make fashion more transparent and fair. But in the end, we, humans, are social animals. There is nothing more powerful than a personal connection. One of the biggest positive results of joining tip me is that consumers reconnect with the origin of their product. And this personal connection turns customers into loyal advocates.
What brand have you worked with till now?
So far, we have worked with three of the most sustainable, fair and (to be honest) cute brands there are Bayti Hier, Ethletic and Dawn Denim. Bayti Hier is a company that uses fashion as a bridge between cultures. Syrian refugees combine German and Syrian textiles to show how cultural exchange is a benefit for everybody. Mohammed, one of the workers, was able to get his German driver’s license because of his tips!
Ethletic is the first-ever brands to make a 100% fairtrade shoe. Of course, it’s also vegan and eco friendly. They produce in a factory in Pakistan, where their workers get free lunch, free health insurance, and free transportation. The tips enable workers to repair their motorcycle, buy diapers for their children and build saving to start a small food store. Dawn Denim is the one (and only) brand to ever receive 100/100 points at the Brand Assessment of the Fair Wear Foundation. They produce fair jeans in their own factory in Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam. The tips enable workers to support their children’s education.
Is Tip Me an NPO? How do you sustain yourselves?
Tip Me is a social company. We cover our expenses by charging brands a fee for using our software. We will reinvest our profits into growing Tip Me and making it accessible to more people around the globe
What are your plans for the near future? Where would you like to see Tip Me going towards in the next 5 years?
There are some amazing vegan & ethical brands going live with tip me in the next months. After Pakistan and Vietnam, we are now expanding to East Africa and South America. Sustainable outdoor clothing companies reached out to us and want to collect tips for their workers. So there is a lot in progress right now!
In 5 years, Tip Me will be the hippie brother of PayPal. We will be working with over 100 companies, both big and small, around the globe and support 50,000 families in reaching their personal goals. Tip Me will be a mechanism that reduces global inequalities one day at a time, sending millions of dollars to the global south and empowering individuals.
Tip Me will be a strong political advocate for living wages in global supply chains. By showing how transparency and fairness can be implemented, even by a young startup like us we want to increase the pressure on the big players to make fair wages the new normal.
Is your focus mainly on the fashion industry? Do you think about expanding Tip Me to other industries as well?
Currently, we are focussing on fashion. Our solution for online shops works great for fashion products.
We definitely want to expand into food and are already building relationships with major supermarkets.
How can people support your mission?
We are constantly looking for new brands that want to collect tips for their workers. If you are a brand, feel free to reach out at any time. If you have a brand in mind that would fit, feel free to mail them our website or Instagram profile. The more awareness we can create, the better!
Do you have a life motto/ a piece of advice you received that resonated particularly?
The best advice I ever got was: “Better live than being perfect”. Tip Me didn’t start out with a global payment infrastructure and sophisticated supply chain tracing. We started with PayPal. We didn’t even know if a single person would tip. To find out we built a lot of small tests: PayPal links, tipping jars in sustainable fashion stores and many more. When we saw that they worked we moved on to the next stage.
Building a social project doesn’t have to be an incredible leap of faith. You can start with a small side project. And if it gains traction you can grow it. The most important thing is that you start. It’s always better to live than to be perfect.
What’s your favorite thing about your work?
I only get to talk to great people. Everyone I engage with, be it brands, consumers, government officials, they all have the same goal in mind: improve the situation for workers around the globe. And these people are always fun to hang out with.
One specific event/ moment that will always stick with you throughout your journey with Tip Me?
The moment when we showed our solution to the workers in Pakistan. My friend Mohammed got so excited to see his own face on the shoe he made. For him, getting a small thank you from the other side of the globe was such a rewarding experience. It showed me that we are working on the right thing. Connecting consumers and producers directly is such an important step to make fashion fair. The way he got excited will definitely stick with me forever.
What do you like to do when you are not working?
I love to go on long walks and listen to podcasts. “Pod Save the world” is my favorite on politics. And “Harry Potter and the sacred text” treats the Harry Potter series like the bible or the koran, seeking the deeper meaning in it. It’s a lot of fun!
Any last words to our readers?
Try it out. Whatever it is you are thinking about doing. Maybe it’s just a fun hobby or it will become your future job. Or it will completely suck, but open the door to something even more exciting. Nobody knows. But all of that is better than not starting at all.
To learn more and join Tip Me, go to their website and follow them on Instagram!
Love what I am doing? if you find my work somewhat valuable, please consider supporting me through my Ko-Fi page 🙂 I invest a lot of time researching, writing and building a community, and your support would mean a lot!
For more outfits, inspiration, and updates follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Bloglovin‘
Until next time,
Noa