🌱🐰💰Impactful Corporate Philanthropy
The Good, the Bunny and the Money is our monthly take on the latest impactful success stories from across the U.S. and around the World.
'🌱 The Good' looks at nonprofits leading the way in impactful change;
'💰 The Money' takes a dive into the private-sector champions driving financial inclusion & economic development; and
'🐰 The Bunny' showcases the most promising collaborations between nonprofits and businesses working hand in hand for the People and the Planet.
The recent Giving USA report shows that charitable giving by corporations increased 23% between 2020-2021, to $21 billion. While sums donated grew, so too did the number of ways corporations are applying to give back. The help is more needed than ever with donations in 2021 down 0.7% after accounting for inflation. As economic conditions become more turbulent, the effectiveness of corporate philanthropy is more important than ever. In this edition, we explore the champions supporting corporations in maximising the impact of their giving.
🌱 The Good: Leveraging employee skills to maximise the effectiveness of volunteering
Who are Catchafire? A non-profit organisation based in New York making skill-based connections between professional volunteers and non-profit organisations. Catchafire’s platform allows volunteers to identify philanthropic projects matching their skill-set and the organisation’s philanthropic strategy.
They provide a win-win-win scenario… Private organisations can complete necessary work and give back to society. Staff members have opportunities to develop their professional skills, while non-profits can achieve their goals by leveraging skilled individuals and their expertise for maximum effect.
Impact metrics: Catchafire has data at the heart of its operations to ensure the effectiveness of time donated by highly skilled volunteers. (Check out their online data dashboard)
Impact stories: MTV staff leveraged their immense media capabilities to support the Centre For Employment Opportunities in developing a marketing toolkit to help communicate their important but complex stories.
💰 The Money: Getting the balance right between head and heart while donating
The situation: Followers of effective altruism believe philanthropic initiatives should focus on charities that improve the most lives per dollar. However, Effective altruism doesn’t leave room for donating to causes near the heart, like research to cure a disease or a local charity.
Approaching the debate from a different angle: That’s what the charitable giving platform, Giving Multiplier, aims to do. Instead of forcing organisations to choose between effective altruism or a cause close to their hearts (which may be less effective), it provides a system to balance both styles of giving.
How it works: Donors split their donations. First, they choose a personal favourite charity that’s not considered highly effective, and then they pick one of nine highly effective charities vetted by effective altruists. The user then decides how to divide their donation and Giving Multiplier will match both donations, but amplify donations towards highly effective charities.
The impact: Since launched in late 2020, Giving Multiplier has fundraised a total of $1.55mn from 3,500 donations (over $1mn has gone to effective charities).
🐰 The Bunny: The 1k Project and startups are helping Ukrainian families in simple, effective way
What is The 1k Project? The idea is simple: a distributed peer-to-peer support network that empowers sponsors anywhere in the world to send $1,000 directly to the bank account of a Ukrainian family.
How does it work? A network of trusted referral sources and volunteers manually review each application for support to assess and determine each family’s need, focusing on single mothers with 3+ children. The non-profit matches donors with a family that receives the funds directly to their bank account. Once the donation is received, the family send a picture, backstory and thank you note to the donor.
Transparency is vital: The 1K Project’s manual, detailed verification process and low-fee fund transfers ensure that each donation has the maximum impact.
#STARTUPSFORUKRAINE… is the latest campaign from The 1K Project aiming to leverage the collective power of startups and venture capitalists to raise $10mn and help 10,000 families in Ukraine. So far, $3mn has been donated.
🥕 What else we’re munching:
- Every year GiveWell, a charity and research organisation, distils in-depth research into a list of top charities that accomplish the most good for the least cost. It’s also become a significant charity with GiveWell’s Maximum Impact Fund, which distributes funds to charities depending on their effectiveness.
- Open Philanthropy takes a transparent, evidence-based approach to funding in four focus areas: global health and development, U.S. policy, global catastrophic risks, and scientific research.
- GiveDirectly, a non-profit traditionally focused on giving cash to impoverished people in Africa, will soon deliver money to poor residents in Chicago as part of a pilot programme for guaranteed basic income.
- According to research by the Massachusetts-based Center for Effective Philanthropy around 60% of nonprofit administrators said they believe climate change is an “extremely urgent problem,” but only about 10% considered this the most crucial problem to address right now.
Image Credits: Cover Photo by Cytonn Photography via Unsplash; Catchafire; Giving Multiplier; The 1K Project.
