Tickets for good, not greed: Humanitix Changes the Narrative on Ticket Pricing
Charlotte Ege, FestForums | November 25th, 2024
Image Source: Humanitix
From festivals to conferences to fundraisers, promoting events and selling tickets has been made easier using dynamic digital online platforms. However, the ticketing industry has become inefficient for both hosts and buyers due to the hassle of booking fees and the for-profit mindset. Humanitix is a non-profit ticketing and event promotion service that emphasizes tickets for good, not greed. Founded and headquartered in 2016 by high school friends Adam McCurdie and Josh Ross, Humanitix dedicates 100% of booking fees to charity. Ross and McCrudie are dedicated to “disrupting” the ticketing industry and reinventing the standard around ticket pricing.
Ross explains in an interview with Forbes, “Imagine a world where Amazon’s mission wasn’t to make shareholders rich but to save the Amazon rainforest. Then I can guarantee you the Amazon rainforest would have been saved ten years ago.” Ross believes that technology is the best way to leverage change in today’s world, and Humanitix is the perfect ticketing solution to help make real change.
Adam McCurdie and Josh Ross, founders of Humanitix and childhood friends; Source: Humanitix website
The winner of the 2018 Google Impact Challenge, Humanitix has since grown significantly and expanded to events across the world, in the US, UK, Canada, and New Zealand. They have partnered with several charities including Code.org an education innovation nonprofit dedicated to the vision that every student in every school has the opportunity to learn computer science, Room to Read, a non-profit dedicated to freeing the world from illiteracy and gender inequality, and The Life You Can Save, a non-profit working to improve the lives of people living in poverty by changing the way people think about and donate to charity. They just released their 2024 Impact Report, and in this year alone they have donated over $6.5M to charity, and have helped host over 250,000 events. According to Sarah MacDiarmid, Humanitix Head of Brand, this year they have also expanded their impact by allocating 100,000 AUD each to some of their longest-serving staff members, allowing them to choose the charities they wanted to support. Since this was so successful, Humanitix has expanded this program for all staff to participate, and in turn, has deeply expanded their impact across various causes.
MacDiarmid also touched on how festival organizers are looking to have more ethical alignment, from implementing ADA-accessible practices to environmental initiatives. However, Humanitix sheds light on the potential of event technology to be ethically aligned as well. “When Humanitix first started, the founders were motivated by a desire to do the most good possible.” says MacDiarmid. “They weren't initially focused on ticketing but wanted to find a space where they could maximize profits for [social] impact. Ticketing emerged as an ideal industry—an industry notoriously hated with all kinds of shady practices. We realized this was something we could really revolutionize.”
Jessica Markowitz, Humanitix US Team Lead, mentions that one of their goals was “to avoid being “just” a charity, or “just” a ticketing platform with a charitable component. We wanted to offer high-tech, user-friendly solutions that meet the needs of modern event organizers.” Markowitz also mentions how they “make sure that the branding for each event organizer takes center stage, not ours.” Thus, they have made creating your event highly customizable with options to add brand logos, colors and content and an integration with Canva design tools, while also allowing organizers to embed ticketing directly on your website.
The events industry can be highly unpredictable, and so Humanitix also has a very effective and easy-to-reach support team. Additionally, obtaining and scanning your ticket is made easy for attendees. According to Markowitz, “From a tech standpoint, we make it easy. You don’t need to purchase additional hardware. Everything, from ticket purchasing to scanning attendees, can be done through our app on your phone.” According to a case study on their partnership with the Sohn Hearts & Minds Conference, Humanitix made event registration seamless due to its strong user interface and registration scanning process. Not only was this organization aligned with Humanitix’s philanthropic mission, as Markowitz would call a “double impact effect,” but they were also assisted by the ease and intuitiveness of their digital platform.
Humanitix is the official ticketing platform for FestForums 2025! We are so excited to have them as our partner and to have their General Manager and former Head of Operations, James Humpherson, speak on the “Tomorrow’s Tickets Today” Panel. Visit Humanitix.com to read more about their mission and get passes for FestForums 2025!