Lee Sujeong, CHERRY Charity Platform leader: “Donation should be easy and fun to the MZ generation.”

“Donating should be easy and fun to be with the MZ generation.”

Lee Sujeong , CEO of Korea’s first blockchain charity platform CHERRY (E4Net)

“Young people are not interested in giving? The problem is that the existing donation culture is not keeping up with the trends these days.”

After 26 years of leading the small and medium-sized IT company E4Net with annual sales of 20 billion won, Lee Sujeong , CEO, meets more NGO activists than people in the economic field these days. The world is experiencing economic difficulties due to Corona 19, and as a top manager, she seems to be worried about anxiety, but her expression when she actually met her is bright enough to arouse curiosity.

“The entire nation must be having a hard time with the prolonged pandemic, but more and more people are thinking about their neighbors who are more difficult than themselves and donating, giving me strength.”

She has been developing and operating CHERRY, a charity platform based on blockchain technology for the first time in Korea for the second year. This is why he has recently become more widely known as a philanthropist rather than a corporate executive.

“Since the platform has just celebrated its 2nd year, there are still many areas to develop, but the project is still ongoing, and a vision to overcome the prejudice that young people in particular are not interested in donations and nurture future generations of donors. I am delighted to discover the possibility that this is feasible.”

For her, CHERRY was the biggest challenge in her life as an executive who has walked the path of managing an IT company for 25 years. She could have chosen a stable and prosperous life because she had successfully run a small but strong company for a long time, but the question of sustainable donation practice led her to a new challenge.

“Before developing the CHERRY Blockchain charity platform, E4Net had a philosophy of returning 10% of profits to society. However, I thought that it was impossible to create a sustainable donation culture with only our company participating. I thought it was necessary to develop a project with a long-term perspective to create a donation culture that could spread beyond our company to the entire society.”

She started 'CHERRY' with the idea of ​​helping not only E4Net but also more people to participate in donations in a convenient way. What she felt was the need for transparent donations. “At that time, fraudulent issues about donations being misappropriated dominated the Internet. As a result, the donation culture naturally shrank, and I was heartbroken to hear the news that people who were participating in donations were also canceling their regular donations. So I decided to add ‘Blockchain’ technology with the know-how of running an IT company.” Blockchain technology is characterized by the fact that once the content is recorded, it cannot be manipulated or deleted. If the characteristics of blockchain technology are used to record and disclose the flow and use of donations, anyone can believe and participate in donations.

CHERRY, Korea’s first blockchain charity platform, was born that way, but there were difficulties even after that. “At first, I thought that developing the platform would make everything better. However, even after that, the task of operating the platform and developing campaigns that made it easier and more fun for more donors to participate remained.” She added that they are currently using more than the amount they have given back to society to develop and operate a donation platform.

CHERRY's vision is to create a donation culture that can last for future generations. Regarding the fact that the donation participation rate of young people has been pointed out through various reports, CEO Lee Sujeong pointed out this. “The important thing is that they are not uninterested in the donation itself. The existing unilateral and one-time donation method did not match their culture, so it could not provide motivation for donation practice. In fact, if you look at the ‘2021 CHERRY Hall of Fame’, which was released on December 12, you can see very interesting results.”

The CHERRY Hall of Fame is an online event that covers all the best donors among the donors who have made donations in CHERRY during 2021 and the best donation organizations that have raised money. If you look at the 10 donors who are ranked at the top of the rankings for the amount and number of sponsorships and have been named excellent donors, 8 of them are from the MZ generation, or 80%. Considering that 5 of the best donors, or 50%, were from the MZ generation at the Hall of Fame held last year, it can be seen that the trend of donation participation centered on the MZ generation is gradually strengthening. In addition, compared to the MZ generation rate of 34% of all users, it can be interpreted that the MZ generation is the main donor who actively participates in donations through CHERRY and forms ties with donation organizations.

“CHERRY is trying to differentiate itself from the existing rather simple donation campaigns by presenting participatory fun+donation campaigns such as Snickers Day and Dance Challenge. Consistently presenting fun campaigns that can be donated by walking and dancing in daily life is seen as a factor that can be spotlighted by the MZ generation, matching the spirit of the young people's pursuit of fun.”

In addition to this, she analyzed that the secret to her popularity was that she introduced a number of related campaigns in consideration of the characteristics of the generation who are interested in animal welfare and children's human rights. “If you look at the donors who were actually named in the Hall of Fame, you can see that they showed great interest in animal welfare and children's rights campaigns. You can conveniently donate to campaigns you are interested in using various simple payment methods that you use frequently, such as Naver Pay and Kakao Pay, and since the details of donations are transparently disclosed, it seems that young supporters are responding.” In particular, she said that future generation donors who will grow into future philanthropists feel special through CHERRY.

Another donation trend that appeared through the ‘2021 CHERRY Hall of Fame’ is ‘participatory ESG practice’. The campaigns that received the most attention from donors included World Human Bridge, which carried out the 'CHERRY Snickers Day' campaign, a walking donation campaign in which steps are directly donated, and Insuni and Good People, a corporation, and their campaigns. If the existing donations were limited to simply delivering donations during the year-end and Christmas seasons, donations that can be fun and participate in various ways anytime, anywhere, wherever you are, are in the limelight. In fact, the cumulative number of steps recorded through the ‘CHERRY Sneaker Day’ campaign for one year exceeded 56 million, which can be said to be a similar figure to the fact that all Koreans participated in the donation of walking, even one step at a time. In addition, among the new members who joined CHERRY in 2021, 20% of the members who seemed to have joined CHERRY to participate in the 'CHERRY Snickers Day' campaign showed high interest in the participatory donation campaign.

On the other hand, the fact that donation participation is spreading to small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners also attracted attention. 2021 was an exceptionally difficult year for small and medium-sized businesses and small business owners due to the prolonged economic downturn caused by Corona 19, but heartwarming examples of donations for neighbors in a more difficult situation than themselves followed. Companies that can be found around us, from a cookie bakery run by a young man and an oriental medical clinic that is in the limelight in the region to IT small and medium-sized enterprises and edutech venture companies, have been named in the corporate donation category of the Hall of Fame as a result of their small but meaningful donation practices. .

Kim Joon-sang, director of Dandelion Oriental Clinic, who donates 10 won per pouch of herbal medicine and 20 won per patient through CHERRY, said, “Choose a campaign you want among various campaigns and donate easily, and because it is blockchain-based, it is transparent and reliable, so through CHERRY. I am donating," he said. "I am proud to be able to grow and save the donation details as images and share them with patients and staff, gaining motivation to donate more money to the underprivileged in the future."

As she said, “Dream of a warmer world by changing the flow of money with blockchain technology, the meeting of transparent blockchain technology and donations can create a world where more people can trust and participate in donations more easily and comfortably. It is noteworthy whether there will be."