Simon Griffiths

Simon is an engineer and economist turned social entrepreneur. In 2007 he turned down a corporate career to move from Australia to South Africa to immerse himself in his true passion: development aid. There he discovered that the biggest problem faced by NGOs and social entrepreneurs is a lack of funding.

Driven by a passion to use business to give back, in 2010, Simon had the idea to start a toilet paper company that builds toilets in the developing world. In 2012, he launched Who Gives A Crap with a crowdfunding campaign, agreeing to sit on a toilet on a live webfeed until he had pre-sold the first $50,000 of toilet rolls. The multi-award winning launch attracted global media attention and generated more than 2 million social media impressions.

Since launching, Who Gives A Crap has grown at 2-3x most years, primarily relying on word-of-mouth to fuel its growth. In just over 10 years, Who Gives A Crap has donated more than AUD$10 million.