During the “Faces of OzHarvest” series we chat with Adam McCurdie, CEO of Humanitix, a platform that donates all booking fees to charities. 

You’re one of the founders of Humanitix a not-for-profit ticketing platform that supports education projects. Tell us about why you decided to start up Humanitix and what you hope to achieve?

I was an engineer who’d seen the power of education to transform communities while working in Tanzania. My co-founder, Josh Ross, was a hedge fund analyst who’d been moved by his experiences in Sri Lanka after the civil war.

Our goal is to close the education gap. We believe that the world’s problems, from climate change to inequality, can all be solved by a world with fair, equal access to quality education. 

We started analytically, looking for the optimal model for impact. I mean, an engineer and a hedge fund manager? It’s just how we are. We decided to transform the billions of dollars in ticket booking fees into education programs for the world’s most disadvantaged children.

Without a dime of capital to get started, we agreed (on a handshake) to split Josh’s salary between us, so I could volunteer full time on Humanitix. In just 12 months, we went from working in a garage, to being funded by the Atlassian Foundation and NSW Government. In 2018, Humanitix won the Google Impact Challenge.

OzHarvest is one of the projects Humanitix has chosen to support, working towards feeding kids all around Australia. Why did you chose to support OzHarvest?

OzHarvest is an icon with an innovative model. We love that OzHarvest has captured the hearts and minds of the entire nation and that OzHarvest has so much evidence that what you do works. We can see it on a day to day basis. And to be honest, we’re excited for the day where we’ve funded a new van for OzHarvest (which won’t be long now!). We’d like to name it “the Humani-van”.

As a not-for-profit founder and incredible supporter of OzHarvest, why do you think it’s important to give back professionally and personally?

Personally, Josh and I are driven by having the biggest impact we can have. We’ve discovered that around the world, customers are looking for this too. Customers expect the businesses they work with to give back – event organisers aren’t any different. The model that Humanitix is pioneering represents a new expectation and standard that the world is demanding.