About Freecycle.org

The Freecycle Network is a unique non-profit organization that’s based in the heart of Tucson, Arizona, but operating on a global scale. With a grassroots and entirely non-profit movement, Freecycle.org boasts more than 5,000 local Town groups and over 11 million members globally. Freecycle.org facilitates a global gift sharing economy across 110 countries where members give and get items for free, fostering stronger community ties, and environmental sustainability. Whether it is an old door, a pile of mulch, or an unwanted mobile phone, Freecyle.org helps the community share and put to use items that would otherwise end up in a garbage bin and your local landfill.

The vision and mission of The Freecycle Network’s founder, Deron Beal, is to build a worldwide sharing movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources, and eases the burden on landfills – effectively “changing the world one gift at a time”.

The Freecycle Network recently celebrated their 20th Anniversary in 2023, and saved 807 million pounds of used items from going into landfills last year – which is over 15 times the size of Mount Everest when stacked vertically!

A screenshot of freecycle.org's homepage.

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The Challenge

As a non-profit organization primarily relying on grants, sponsorship, and ad royalties to fund their annual budget of about three hundred thousand dollars, maximizing advertising revenue was crucial.

Before coming to Publift, Freecycle.org faced a triple headed challenge:

  • Technical issues with their previous provider not always serving ads as intended
  • Low advertising revenue
  • Not receiving payments in a timely manner from previous provider

One critical issue that pushed Deron to see the back of it:

  • A major CMP issue
  • Costing almost $200/day, as provider wasn't able to serve ads at all on their site.

Freecycle.org sought a dynamic and managed solution that would proactively optimize their setup and improve their overall return on revenue, without putting an enormous amount of stress on their development resources. ‍

Our goal with Freecycle.org was to provide the support they so desperately needed and devised a robust advertising strategy for Freecycle.org that matched their unique mission.

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The Approach

Recognizing Freecycle.org's urgency and time of need, Publift swiftly assessed the situation and proposed a tailored solution.

The team at Publift understood the importance of getting ad revenue flowing again.

During the initial onboarding consultation, Publift was able to:

  • Assist with rectifying the implementation issues Freecyle.org was experiencing with their previous provider
  • Provide reduced commission rates, being a supporter of charitable organizations.

Publift introduced a plethora of backend optimizations, such as:

To the relief of Freecycle’s solo web engineer, the implementation of Publift’s single header script and body tags was also a lot easier and smoother than their previous provider, which meant Freecycle.org could get up and running within a few days!

Publift provided a comprehensive programmatic advertising strategy for Freecycle.org that maintained their existing ethos while leveraging analytical insights to propose ideal ad placements that maximized viewability, and subsequently, eCPMs that all contributed significantly in improving revenue and yield outcomes.

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The Results

The results from Publift’s technology meant that Freecycle.org was able to see results from Day 1.

The increased funds played a pivotal role in sustaining The Freecycle Network’s nonprofit mission, allowing them to continue providing a free and safe public forum, reducing waste globally, and fostering community ties.

Key results after working with Publift:

  • 85% revenue uplift after 1 month
  • 96% revenue uplift after 2 months
  • 28 brands blocked for brand safety

The Freecycle Network intends to use these additional funds to improve their backend infrastructure, support their thousands of volunteers and moderators, expand their reach to more people around the globe across multiple devices, and make it easier for their generous and caring community to connect with each other through their mobile devices through iOS and Android applications.

Freecycle.org's success story with Publift is a testament to the power of programmatic advertising in driving positive change. In the words of The Freecycle Network’s founder Deron Beal, "Such a relief when we know that one area of running our charitable nonprofit is just going to run smoothly and well. You are making much good in the world possible as over a thousand tonnes a day of used items are being gifted on Freecycle instead of being thrown away.”

We’re so glad that you feel this way about Publift, Deron. Thank you for placing your trust in Publift to help you continue in your wonderful mission that is The Freecycle Network! 

Experiencing technical issues or untimely payment or low advertising revenue like Freecycle.org before Publift? Contact us here to get a customized revenue uplift strategy for your site!

A graph of Freecycle.org's revenue pre and post working with Publift


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