About

Hi there and welcome to our blog!

My name is Johanna Kollmann and I’m a Sydney-based mother of 2 boys as well as the founder of Purposit. My husband and I have set this blog to discuss meaningful topics related to children and share some of our own stories. We also hope that this will be a place for us to get feedback from mums and dads on how to improve Purposit and make it even better.

One question I get regularly is how we come up with idea of Purposit. While this is quite a long story, I attempted to summarise it below so you can get a glimpse of our journey so far:

The idea of Purposit came about…

… when I was pregnant with our first child in 2014. As first time parents, Mario and I found ourselves reminiscing about the moments, events and aspects of our own childhoods that were the most memorable to us and how they helped shape our personalities and values to this day. We soon came to the conclusion that the most valuable, enriching and life changing memories and leanings came from experiences – travelling, being outdoors, and studying – rather than from material things.

Sure, we also had favourite toys and no doubt that the right toys will always play a role in the development and learning process of children. However, maybe we didn’t need all the toys we had – although we probably didn’t have much compared to today’s standards. Looking around and speaking to friends with young children, we realised that many of them felt overwhelmed by the number of toys their kids have. Many parents admitted looking at their child’s room and wondering ‘ wow, do we really need ALL this stuff?’.

The trouble is that, while some of these toys will hopefully make their way to charities and orphanages, sadly many will just be thrown away over time.

This is a big concern for us, not only because we live in a world where materialism and consumerism are more pronounced than ever before, but also due to the harmful impact that all waste – including plastics and chemicals from toys – will continue to have on our beautiful planet (and consequently the lives of our children and grandchildren).

As the pregnancy advanced…

… we found ourselves splitting our time between discussing baby names and trying to make a lose plan on how we could give our child as many exciting and life-enriching opportunities and experiences as possible. We thought about big milestones and occasions like university or overseas exchange-programs, as well as art and musical lessons to foster creativity. We also thought about gifts that would be fun and useful to help explore the world, like a bicycle or skateboard.

We quickly realised that to be able to provide for these ‘meaningful gifts’ – especially the big ones – we would have to start saving ASAP. Ideally, we’d get our family and friends to help us on the way, but how to actually do this was the big question.

As we approached the birth, we started receiving many baby gifts. While these presents – mostly toys – were well intended, several were duplicated, unnecessary or simply did not reflect our values. We have no doubt that these loving friends truly wanted to help, but maybe they did not know what to give or were too busy to find something more thoughtful. We all have been in that situation, right?

So we started to put together the pieces of the puzzle. Suddenly it all made sense. What if there was a way of channelling the money that was going to those unnecessary (or even wasteful) small gifts/toys towards more meaningful gifts and life experiences? To cut the story short (or shorter), that was the beginning of a 3-year adventure, which culminated with the launch of Purposit in March 2017. Time has flied!

We now have 2 children,  plus Purposit…

Of course, my husband and I are biased to talk about Purposit. With the help and feedback from friends and relatives, we designed the website and app with the intention of using it for our child (actually children as our 2nd baby was born in mid Feb!). It was also designed to get our family and close friends – I mean real friends, not everyone I’m connected to on social media sites – involved in the process.

We wanted the platform to feel personal with a clear connection between the contributors to the gifts and every child they are following. For us, it was crucial that friends felt like they were being part of the journey; not only funding/buying a gift but also really having a positive impact of each kid’s lives. It also had to be secure and private so the children were not exposed in any way.

Parents (or primary caretakers) are in charge and manage the gifts for their kids. After all, at heart no one has better intentions towards children than their own parents (or caretakers). We are very much aware that, due to life circumstances, different parents have different needs and visions for their children’s future. What all of us parents have in common is our determination to make the lives of our kids as enjoyable and fulfilling as possible. So mums and dads out there – use Purposit wisely and make the most of it!

Finally, we wanted to create something that would make everyone involved more conscious about what they buy and the implications to our environment. For our children to experience those amazing life gifts that the parents selected, we have to make sure that we preserve our precious nature and environment. The concept of ‘buy less, buy smart’ truly applies in the case of our environment.

And that was just the beginning…

Still new to parenthood, we find scary and exciting to think about how our actions and values will have an enormous impact on the development and character of our children. We tried to incorporate some of our values – for our kids and our planet – into the platform. Hopefully parents and friends who share some of our views and values will enjoy Purposit as a tool. Even for those who decide not to use it, we hope that it provides food for thought and ‘gifting with purpose’ grows beyond Purposit.

On behalf of our team, I hope your enjoy our blog.

Johanna Kollmann