YOU! YES, YOU have the potential to create double IMPACT with a single act: Spread happiness by getting fit!

Imagine glimpsing into a popular park or a beach in your neighbourhood. Apart from the usual elements of nature, you must have also pictured people jogging, running, practising yoga or just taking long breaths while soaking in the view. 

People are constantly galloping to maintain a sound balance between their hectic work commitments and a healthy lifestyle in this fast-paced world. Our Honorable Prime Minister has also repeatedly emphasized on the deep impact of a healthy body; not limited to one’s daily life but also mental well being. The stress, however, is on trying to strike that balance because it never is as easy as it appears! Our ever-distracted brains have a million things buzzing around within and with a plethora of worldly pleasures at our disposal, sustaining a healthy lifestyle takes a lot of conscious effort.

Technology has played a huge part in making fitness fun. All our new age smartphone and wearable devices can give you in-depth coverage of your fitness activities while motivating you to hit all your goals.

Technology, as a facilitator as well as a motivator, becomes vital when situations like the ongoing COVID -19 outbreak mandate social distancing, thereby taking away a lot of the motivation to exercise and stay fit, at a time when fitness should be of prime concern.

So, how can you keep your motivation levels in check to promise a consistent healthy version of you as you walk towards your life goals, meanwhile doing your bit for the greater good?

Wouldn’t it resonate better with you if somehow there was a way to link your fitness goals to a social cause through gamification? What a beautiful world would it be if you could be both self-caring and humane by achieving merely one task? Well, that beautiful world is now a reality, thanks to the IMPACT fitness app, using which you can Run a mile, and change two lives!

IMPACT is more than your conventional fitness app, compared to say a MyFitnessPal or a Google Fit or even Endomondo. Available on Android as well as iOS, IMPACT allows you to marry your fitness goals to opportunities of social welfare, thereby increasing the drive behind getting fit in the first place. One can choose to donate their fitness activity to a cause and raise money for it. The app gives you a special reason to stay fit by linking every step you take with a charitable contribution for a righteous cause. It is, as the people behind the app describe it, “India’s first fitness and kindness app”. 

The idea behind IMPACT was conceived by Ishan Nadkarni, an IIT Bombay alumnus who was always into extra-curricular activities and sports as much as he was into academics. Ishan is an internationally rated chess player along with being an inter-state football player. All was going well till he ended up with a shin injury that put him in recovery and rehab for almost 4 years. That period of rehab taught him the importance of mental and physical fitness, and having gratitude for what one has, which in turn led to the birth of the core philosophy behind IMPACT. 

IMPACT is a revolutionary idea. The actual app taps into your inner conscience to help you achieve your fitness goals and with Ishan at the helm, IMPACT is trying to disrupt the industry by charging no fees to the NGOs for raising funds for them. Where a typical org would charge a fee of around 5-15%, IMPACT as a fundraising partner for NGOs has refrained in following the practice, channelling all its proceeds to the welfare of the community thereby, having a real solid ground-level impact.

The industry needs many more passionate change-makers like Ishan to make a global impact and upping the perception of both fitness and kindness. IMPACT as a platform has the potential to one day raise awareness and funds for climate change, women empowerment, child education, a fitter and more productive India! 

Before IMPACT, Ishan had a taste of a corporate career at Housing.com while IMPACT’s co-founder Nikhil Khandelwal, also an IIT Alumnus, was working with Bewakooof.com.

THE SOCIAL IMPACT

The fact IMPACT brilliantly manages to combine health and fitness with social contributions has helped it garner rave reviews and a sizable fan following within a short period. 

IMPACT has grown to become a community of 5 Lac changemakers who have together covered 4 Crore Km (that’s the equivalent of 100 trips from the Earth to the Moon by the way) to raise more than INR 30 Crores for 38 social causes. Partner NGOs have benefited to the extent of INR 2.3 crore by having a partner that fundraises for free, funds which they in turn use to execute additional on-ground campaigns, activities and interventions where necessary. The total beneficiary count from all of this – a whopping 60,000 lives enriched, and 20,000 saplings planted. 

IMPACT has also brought likeminded people- who care about causes and are action-oriented - together, to catalyse 100s of micro-level people movements for local positive change.

Leading from the front, Ishan has personally matched 14 NGOs to 11 corporate entities thereby fundraising a total of INR 14Cr for 12 social causes. Their prominent partnerships include Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA) with Hero MotoCorp, Think Foundation with Aarti Industries, and Akshara Center with G.Mills. Just last year IMPACT helped Project Prerna by Mahindra in organising a 52-day long walkathon. 10,000 people comprising Mahindra + Swaraj employees and their friends and family raised a commendable INR 1.4 crore for the cause. 

Ishan has also been instrumental in the growth of the IMPACT community, from 10,000 changemakers in 2018 to a staggering 5,00,000 changemakers in 2020. He has been a speaker and a participant in many marathons and walkathons across Maharashtra to spread the message of the #DigitalDandiMarch app.

Impact as a fundraising partner for NGOs has refrained in collecting the fundraising fees of approximately 45 lac, channelling all its proceeds to the welfare of the community thereby, having a real solid ground-level impact. 

IMPACT is a brilliant way to “healthify” yourself while contributing to the well-being of society at large. Follow the links given below and start impacting lives for the better.

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sharesmile.share

IOS App Store: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/impact-fitness-charity/id1143265464

How can Catalyst IQ help your business?

Catalyst IQ is an exclusive community of CXOs from leading companies across industries, designed to empower their member community by creating opportunities & strategic partnerships to scale their businesses. Their core idea is to empower new-age entrepreneurs and start-ups to make the right calls and to hit the ground running. Having access to the Catalyst CXO community allows a venture and its people to benefit from the wealth of industry-specific knowledge available at their disposal. 

In the case of IMPACT, Catalyst IQ has till date successfully managed to connect the team with CEOs of Fortune 500 Pharma companies like Lupin, Novartis, Max Healthcare to name a few, for these organisations to match their CSR goals and core values with IMPACT's widespread platform. Catalyst IQ successfully pitched to the Promoter of Lilavati hospital to invest in the seed round that Impact raised in 2017.

If you would like to explore the possibilities of taking your business to the next level– Join hands with Catalyst IQ. Above all, don’t hesitate to do something, to bring about a change, to make an IMPACT!