When Who Gives a Crap launched in 2012, co-founder Simon Griffiths sat on a toilet in the middle of their Melbourne warehouse and refused to get up until they’d crowdfunded $50,000 in pre-orders. It took 50 hours. The stunt worked because it was ridiculous, and because the cause behind it was serious enough that the contrast landed perfectly.
2.4 billion people lack access to basic sanitation. Who Gives a Crap donates 50% of its profits to organizations building toilets and improving sanitation in developing countries. They’ve since donated over $10 million.
What the Business Model Actually Does
The genius of Who Gives a Crap’s structure isn’t the product: it’s the supply chain and cost model. Toilet paper is a commodity people buy forever, in predictable volumes. By selling direct-to-consumer through a subscription model, Who Gives a Crap avoids the margin erosion of retail distribution while locking in recurring revenue that makes the 50% profit donation structurally sustainable rather than aspirational.
The product reinforces the model: bamboo toilet paper (significantly lower energy input than conventional), recycled office paper rolls (no virgin pulp, no deforestation), plastic-free packaging, carbon-neutral shipping. Each of these is a genuine sustainability improvement, and each one is also a credible differentiator in a category that most brands treat as pure commodity.
B Corp certification adds independent verification to claims that might otherwise attract greenwashing skepticism in such a commoditized product category.
The Sanitation Problem That Gets Underfunded
Sanitation consistently receives less philanthropic and development funding than its impact warrants. Poor sanitation kills. Cholera, diarrhea, septicemia (diseases that are almost entirely preventable with basic toilet infrastructure) remain leading causes of death in countries where Who Gives a Crap directs its donations.
In informal settlements, the upfront cost of sanitation can exceed 300% of a household’s average monthly income. The infrastructure that wealthy-country residents take entirely for granted (sewers, water treatment, pit latrines) requires consistent capital investment and government capacity that many communities don’t have.
Who Gives a Crap’s donation partners are specifically selected for being “local and innovative”: not large international NGOs with high overhead, but organizations working on sanitation at the community level with transparent fund usage.
The product is a subscription box of toilet paper. The impact is toilets. The gap between those two things is a branding decision that Who Gives a Crap has made with more skill than most purpose-driven companies manage.
What Retailers Can Learn From This Model
Who Gives a Crap has succeeded in making sanitation (which is not a topic most brands would choose voluntarily) into an emotionally resonant, shareable, subscription-fueling cause. The irreverent branding (“It’s time for some bathroom fun!”) isn’t an accident. It lowers the awkwardness barrier that usually keeps sanitation from entering polite conversation.
The transferable lesson isn’t “be funny about serious problems.” It’s that purpose-driven brands need to close the gap between the daily transaction (buying toilet paper) and the meaningful cause (building toilets). The closer and more specific that connection, the more durable the customer relationship.
Backers include Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes and former Unilever CEO Paul Polman: investors who have seen what genuine brand-cause alignment at scale looks like and recognize it here.
To find out more about Who Gives a Crap, visit their:
P.S. Who Gives a Crap’s subscription model includes auto-notifications when supplies are running low: a small UX detail that significantly improves subscription retention in a product category defined by people forgetting to reorder.