The story of Epic began a long time ago in the mind of Alexandre Mars, its founder and CEO. Back then, it was not called Epic yet and Alexandre was a just 17 year-old entrepreneur who was organizing concerts at his high school. The seed of Epic was already there as Alexandre had an aversion to social injustice.
As Alexandre had a talent to detect emerging trends, he used it to create startups in the realm of digital marketing, mobile marketing and social marketing. He successfully grew and sold those businesses only to build substantial wealth along the way. In 2013, aged 39, he sold his fourth startup and observed that he was now in a position to achieve the goal he had in mind all along: to make giving the norm.
True to his track record as a serial entrepreneur, Alexandre carried out his own market study around the world over several years to meet with philanthropy foundations, philanthropists, social development experts, academics, NGO executive directors, and social entrepreneurs to identify the searing pain point that needed addressing.
The first outcome of this market study was the imperative to restore trust between donors and social organizations with an impact solution. To that purpose, Alexandre gathered around him a team of specialists in international development, social impact, open innovation, design thinking and technology to develop an industry-leading due diligence process to build and managed a portfolio of high impact social organizations around the world. Epic’s selection and monitoring process covers 45 data points of analysis over 3 main areas: social impact, operations, and governance.
Thanks to this robust portfolio of social organizations, the Epic team engages with major individual and corporate donors to offer them the opportunity not only to give strategically but also to experience their philanthropy like never before. In particular, Epic provides them with a web app to stay connected and engaged with the social organizations they support and leverages its collection of VR movies on every portfolio organization to transport donors instantly in the field and see the reality of their work.
The second outcome of this market study was the untapped opportunity to provide giving solutions to civil society so that individuals and corporations donate more. To that purpose, Epic leverages innovative and efficient instruments to raise funds. From payroll giving for employers and employees to transactional giving for businesses to equity pledge for startup entrepreneurs, Epic provides a perfect solution for everyone to make giving painless, systematic and optional.
Importantly, Epic partners with social organizations and donors on a strict pro bono basis so that 100% of the donations Epic receives goes to the portfolio organizations. The purity of this model is only made possible thanks to Alexandre’s commitment to cover the costs of Epic.
Epic has grown significantly with a select portfolio of social organizations, an active community of major individual and corporate donors, a circle of high profile ambassadors and a dedicated team that creates magic every day to make giving the norm.
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