Earning Her Wings

Solving peoples parking problems and supporting charities in the process, Park Angel founder Elaine Linnell is doing good

- Zoe Walker Ahwa

Following a successful 15-year corporate career, Elaine Linnell decided to branch out on her own and launch Park Angel – a start-up that’s practical and purposeful. The premise is simple: it’s a programme that enables people to rent a carpark for a day, with the proceeds going to charity.

“You see it everywhere: companies have loads of carparks and on any given day, there are quite a few that aren’t being used,” explains the Auckland based event manager and mother of six-month old Rachel.

It was while working in events for Sovereign on Auckland’s North Shore that Elaine noticed there were a number of empty company spaces available every day, yet not a lot of external parking. “Initially, the goal was just to use the carparks downstairs. So many of my colleagues were parking so far away from work, and I was like, ‘Let’s use them,’” she says. “It was so practical, but once I saw that there were some financial gains to be made from it, I thought, ‘Okay, let me try this. I’ll kick myself if I don’t, because someone else will do it.’”

Park Angel is now aligned with five charities – Cure Kids, New Zealand Hospice, the SPCA, The Hunger Project and Voices of Hope – that carpark renters can choose to donate money to, and companies can also choose five charities of their own. So far, it has raised more than $1000 a month, from an otherwise “empty commodity that’s just sitting there”.