Josh Murchie

The Little Phil app is influencing a new wave of feel-good philanthropy by inviting everyday donors to be part of the charity journey, placing its founder Josh Murchie as Griffith Business School’s Outstanding Young Alumnus award winner for 2023.

When socially-conscious business entrepreneur Josh Murchie travelled to Peru, he discovered that you don’t need to be rich to be a philanthropist.

The experience became the driving force behind Josh’s idea for the app Little Phil (short for ’Little Philanthropist’) which matches aspiring donors with charities in need.

Josh rallied together a likeminded founding team, and together, they steered Little Phil to success by combining a passion for grassroots charity, a love of volunteering, a sharp sense for business, and an industrious personal drive.

Little Phil now connects with almost 60,000 registered non-profit organisations and supports large companies to incorporate the culture of giving by empowering employees to choose a charity on behalf of their employer.

The app promotes the emotional experience of giving, because as Josh says, “People need to know how their donations will make an impact to feel positive about donating to charity.”

Unlike other ‘donate to a cause’ apps, Little Phil builds trust and promotes a connection between users and their charity and allows users to stay up-to-date with the developing campaign.

“People are more likely to endorse a campaign and share it with their friends and family if they feel they are part of the journey,” Josh said.

“My perception of charity in Australia had consisted of hiding from door knockers and avoiding people in shopping malls who are trying to grab your attention.”

“It’s often not a nice experience and quite often there’s a bad feeling of guilt associated with the industry.”

“I also found platforms designed to encourage charitable giving have been vulnerable to fraudulent charity campaigns.”

“We wanted to design a new way of doing charity which creates a positive experience and connects people directly to beneficiaries and causes.”

“Giving should be easy and make you feel good.”

For charities, Little Phil helps to eliminate fundraising fatigue, reduce overheads, maximise impact on campaigns and open up new and alternative streams for fundraising.

Josh’s talent for business began when he started working at an engineering firm after grade twelve, and then moved into telecommunications as a business specialist.

An overseas sabbatical landed him in more than 60 different countries and inspired Josh, who felt deeply affected by the generosity he witnessed all over the world.

“Some of the kindest and most generous people I've met in the world are the ones who have got nothing, and they'll give you the shirt off their back,” Josh said.

When Josh arrived home to Australia, he embarked on a double degree in International Business and Commerce, majoring in Accounting at Griffith.

As a passionate student, Josh co-founded Griffith’s Entrepreneurship Club. He was a committed volunteer and received the National Student Volunteer of the Year award in 2018.

“I felt really inspired during my time volunteering with Griffith’s Gold Coast Student Guild which is a non-profit organisation,” he said.

“It showed me you can find balance between social impact and profit.”

Josh credits the support he received from his mentors at the Griffith Business School for the platform’s successful start and inspired by his fellowship with the Griffith Centre for Systems Innovation during his post graduate studies.

Using the social enterprise business model to develop Little Phil, it allowed Josh to culminate his core values in perfect harmony, toward a sustainable business which makes profit for a purpose.

“The social enterprise business model is growing in popularity and investors are beginning to understand that you can see returns from social impact driven businesses,” Josh said.

“My experiences have given me the empathy necessary to understand how this product needed to be designed to accommodate a wide variety of users and provide a transparent and trustworthy experience for individual donors.”

“I love being at the grassroots of charity work, but I wanted to help others to do the same and I wanted to make a big difference, and that’s what Little Phil achieves.”