Leading Our Community Driven Purpose, Brooke Thivierge, CCO

So we would like to introduce you to another member of our team. Brooke Thivierge, our Community Manager and all around “keep us together and pointed in the right direction” superstar. It’s hard to think about Brooke without mentioning Riley (the dog) who, with the exception of Brooke’s husband, is her most frequent and constant companion in addition to being official Office Dog here at Ethix.

Ethix is a growing company so we all wear a lot of hats but Brooke manages to shift fluidly between customer care, sales team support, internal operations and community management. She blogs, posts, tweets, calls, answers, acts, listens, supports, organizes and, most importantly cares. Brooke is the one who finds the time to organize us around giving to MISSSEY for Christmas to support their work with sexually exploited youth. She remembers holidays and birthdays and packs decorations into the office to get us to feel something other than busy. She is great at her job but she also knows that small gestures of appreciation and acknowledgement are just as important as big social impact gestures and as a company that is all about community, Ethix owes much of it’s own to Brooke’s commitment and care.

Getting Technical With Our CTO Brian Thivierge

Brian perfectly fills the position of Chief Technical Officer here at Ethix. His wealth of knowledge, experience, sensibility and compassion for the “dumb” questions keeps us all working with confidence that we are in good hands. Like all of our other team members, Brian is incredibly valuable in his department and all the other areas that we finagle him into.  Brian maintains the computers, phones, office equipment, website, forums, live webcasts, newsletters, and even the marketing material and e-tools that many will see or use. He has been called a web guru, marketing genius but most importantly he is “our tech guy.” Thankfully his tech knowledge is paired with his creative ideas that help build and improve our growing company. So, technically speaking we’re not just lucky to have him, we’re thrilled!

America’s Voice Today

I hope you all voted today. Choosing a candidate for president is very important but I hope you also researched and voted for the many propositions that will affect us all. From our food to our schools, these issues are up for our vote, make it count! As the days goes on I hope the country can unite in the celebration of freedom and choice. We need to pull together and be reminded of our country’s brotherhood and be grateful for those who have fought for our rights. Take pride in your vote and your voice and remember that everyone is rightfully entitled to their opinions and choices. This is what makes America a freedom leader and makes me proud to be American!

The Not So General Election

 

Vote with your business

Just a few short days until our next general election.  Everybody, well almost everybody, gets a vote.  Not everybody feels like they have a say.  Democracy gives us a chance to choose every 4 years but each and every day we are making choices that probably have a greater impact on our economy, our culture and our collective health than the ballot that we cast.  If I think about my day, I can choose to get up at 6am instead of 7:30am and have time for a swim or a trip to the gym before work.  Then I can pick between the kale and eggs in my fridge or the really amazing (and I mean really amazing) chocolate croissants that are just a quick stop on my way into the office.  Hmmmmm??????  Bike or drive, lunch box or restaurant… it goes on and on and, when I think about it, these are all economic decisions.  What products will I buy and what industries will I support?  Am I funding the problems or driving resources into areas where people are looking for solutions.  The thing is that we live in a economy that is shaped by a cultural and political system rather than a culture that is shaped by an economy.  I think that means that our real voting power lies in how we spend our time and our money.  How we allocate our resources.  The great American thing about that is it brings us back to the fact that we really do live in a democracy even while our politicians butt heads and behave like arses in Washington.  Vote with your business, vote with your wallet, vote with your feet and your facebook friends and your page fans and then tweet tweet tweet away and vote some more.

And while you are at it.  Vote for Ethix.  We “”sell” the difference we want to see in the word”:)

Team Building Is Already Successful At Ethix

A few weeks ago we hosted an evening event here at our Oakland office for our new and potential outside sales representatives. We are so happy with the success of this event with a great turnout full of people who really get what we are doing here at Ethix. They came, they ate, they chatted and asked their questions. We really appreciate all of your questions because they help us grow and get better at what we do. We also love to hear success stories that let us all learn from each other. We have so many new forums and webcasts that have really started the connection of our outside sales team. Not only do we want our sales people to feel supported by this community but to also know that Ethix really supports it’s representatives and celebrates their successes on a personal level. We are so proud to have a team of people promoting social business responsibility and community building with us and that also have a passion for this movement.

We really appreciate your feedback so:

Contact us via website

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How The Ethix Community Partnership Can Work

Ethix is based in the Jack London District of Oakland.  As soon as we opened our offices we reached out to the local neighborhood association, The JLDA to see if we could support them in their fundraising for the application to be a Business Improvement District (BID).  This is a great example of how our Community Partnership Program works.  The JLDA has already spent time and effort building relationships with local merchants and working with them towards the goal of becoming a BID.  They have done a great job of building a community of committed residents and business owners who want to see the neighborhood improved.  We are developing a relationship with them and have added the Ethix Program to the ways in which they can raise money to support their area.  We have started reaching out to local merchants with the JLDA’s advocacy and support and requesting that those merchants designate the JLDA as the recipient of their 25% donations.  The association will benefit from a residual income stream to pay for programs that benefit the merchants.  The merchants benefit from lower fees and neighborhood improvement that does not cost their business any extra money and the residents benefit from a cleaner, safer and more vibrant local business community.  By converting fees that would traditionally disappear onto the balance sheet of large financial institutions into funds for community improvement and development we are strengthening the ties between businesses and the neighborhoods they are in.  I think that is pretty cool and I am excited to see this program used all over the country by neighborhood and merchant associations that want to save money and raise money using Ethix.

Sales Representatives With Disabilities Thrive At Ethix

Do you know someone with a disability that requires them to work from home? Ethix is hiring independent sales representatives………This position can be done from home with just a phone, computer w/internet, and passion to find leads that turn into sales. All training & support is online with phone support if needed. We think this would be a perfect opportunity for someone who is visually impaired, in a wheel chair, injured, transitioning from the military, ect. Think of the possibilities and call us or share with the people you know.

Ethix Loves Local Technology and Supports Green Businesses

Tesla Image All of us at Ethix Merchant Services are eco-friendly and love local business helping the planet. We think the Bay Area based company, Tesla is doing amazing things worth sharing. So, check out the image of our awesome website displayed on the new Tesla Model S. This is a brand new luxury electric car that rivals Mercedes and BMW for class and comfort. We were amazed with the speed, looks, handling and especially the fact that it is all electric!

Thanks for paving the path to the future of eco-friendly cars and commutes Tesla. We’re proud of what you are doing here in the Bay Area to help the planet as a whole.

Spend Local and Pass on 4 Times the Benefit to Your Community

“Choosing a locally owned store generates almost four times as much economic benefit for the surrounding region as shopping at a chain, a new study has concluded.  The analysis also found that eating at a local restaurant produces more than twice the local economic impact of dining at a chain restaurant.”  This is the conclusion of a research study from Civic Economics.  Powerful stuff and very much in line with what we are trying to do at Ethix.

Ethix has changed the merchant service business model which typically funnels profits away from the neighborhoods where businesses are located and made it local by returning 25% of total revenues back into the organizations that are working to build community in their areas.  A radical departure in financial service fee structuring and a simple and effective way to keep money local and put it to work in ways that make a difference.

Helping Organizations Make A Difference-Community Building

 

Global CharitiesWe are dedicated to the organizations doing good in communities and worldwide. We support them like you do, by choosing merchants that donate to charities, getting our cars washed by school kids, buying cookies from scouts, writing checks annually to causes, donating toys for the holidays and more but as a company we do something unheard of… WE DONATE 25% OF OUR REVENUE TO NON-PROFITS AND CAUSES! If you are one of these organizations or are an advocate for them you should read on.

Use Ethix to process your credit cards – Join as a non-profit and

  • Reduce fees you pay on credit and debit card donations
  • Receive a monthly 25% rebate on Ethix fees
  • Raise money by introducing Ethix to your community of donors

We are here to help by providing printed material and email templates to reach your supporters and introduce Ethix as a way to donate more to your cause at no cost to them.  These donations come from the 25% donation of our revenue that we make in fees from each merchant account. This donation will be a monthly, residual check that you can count on for the life of each merchant account, which means years of income for your organization.

Call us to sign up!

(510) 844-5903