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Explore articles, toolkits, and information on corporate giving programs from the experts.

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10 Charitable Giving Ideas Based on Moments That Matter for Employees

If the business of HR is to manage — and enhance — the employee experience, an understanding of Moments That Matter (MTM) may be one of the most critical tools the HR professional can add to their repertoire. The HR world adopted the term from the customer relations department, which refers to the moments in a customer's life when they are likely to make the decision to buy a product or service. In HR, it refers to the moments in an employee's life, both professional and private, that can most influence their feelings about their job and their employer. There are many ways to employ a Moments That Matter approach to employee management, but there's one that's often overlooked — incorporating it into the company's corporate giving strategy. Here's why you should, and some ideas of how your company can do it.

Moments That Matter — What It Is and Why It Matters

The idea behind the MTM management philosophy is that certain moments in your employees' lives have an outsize impact on their work satisfaction and attitude toward the company. Some of them are fairly generic — the job interview, their first weeks on the job, and promotions, for example. Others are more personal: an expectant parent, for instance, is likely to be influenced by how well — or poorly — HR helps them navigate the changes surrounding that milestone. Each of these experiences contributes to the overall employee experience with your company, and managing them well can play a big role in improving employee morale, job satisfaction, productivity, and retention.

Which Moments Matter?

As suggested, the answer to that question can vary from employee to employee. There is, however, some agreement on the most common moments, and suggestions for determining which moments matter the most to your employees. Gartner, Inc., an internationally respected HR consulting firm, lays out five types of moments likely to have the highest impact on employees in a recently published paper. They include moments that are:

Emotion-generating: like personal anniversaries and life milestones.
Scalable: have the potential to influence many employees.
Frequent: happen many times over the course of a day, week or month.
Business-aligned: moments that align with corporate strategy or culture.
Critical talent-aligned: impact a specific population with critical talents in the organization.

Understanding which moments matter to your employees can help you create policies and procedures that acknowledge them and respond to them positively and positively. In order to do this, it's vital that you equip your HR department with the tools to identify important moments and respond to them with empathy and clear guidance.

Corporate Philanthropy and Moments That Matter

More and more research shows that employees care about working for a company that aligns with their values. They want to work for a company that makes them proud, one that takes corporate responsibility seriously (CSR) and that supports — or empowers them to support — the causes that matter to them. Many employees are motivated by a company's commitment to give back and are engaged by corporate giving strategies like donation matching, group volunteer efforts and community giveback days. When you incorporate MTM into your corporate giving strategy, you can exponentially increase the impact on both your employees and the causes they support.

10 Moments That Matter-Inspired Charitable Giving Ideas

If all of that explanation left you buzzing but still unsure how to combine it with your corporate giving strategy, here are 10 ways that you can use Moments That Matter to inspire, motivate and engage your employees.

1. Make Corporate Giving Part of Your Employee Benefits Package

The job interview is one of the first times your employee will have contact with the HR department. Use that moment to explain that corporate giving is part of your standard employee benefits package, and show them how you make it easier for them to support the causes that matter to them.

2. Celebrate Work Milestones With Charitable Donations

Instead of — or in addition to — recognizing work anniversaries or achievements with swag, offer a bonus donation to be made to the charity of their choice. If you're using the Groundswell platform, it's easy to simply add the appropriate amount to the employee's giving account. You can even set it up as part of the policies that administer the program.

3. Use Data From Your Employee Donation Programs To Help Identify Moments That Matter

Many employee benefits management companies provide data and feedback to your company that can give you insight into what matters to your employees. Use that data to help identify giving trends and refine your program to make it more appealing.

4. Reward Team Milestones with a Giving Stipend

Sure, go ahead and have that pizza party for the team when QA checks off on their work, but why not give them something even more meaningful — add a little something to their charitable giving stipend. You're being doubly rewarding by giving them the power to support the causes they care about.

5. Recognize the Employee of the Month with the Opportunity to Make a Difference

It's nice to get your picture in a place of honor when you're voted Employee of the Month, but you can do better by giving your EOTM a chance to do more good. It's easy to set up one-time additions to an employee's giving fund based on their designation as a valued employee.

6. Give the Gift of Giving for Birthdays

Birthdays are a classic personal moment that matters — and many people celebrate by making a donation to charity. Even Facebook recognizes that — their Birthday Fundraiser feature is one of the platform's most popular. Empower your employees to be more charitable on their birthdays by making a birthday donation part of their benefits package.

7. Mark Work Transitions with More Donating Power

Take the opportunity to recognize work transitions — the end of a probation period, a promotion to team leader, or moving to a new department — with a contribution to their giving fund. If the transition is a promotion or other permanent rise in the company structure, you can even make it a permanent increase in the company's charitable giving program.

8. Celebrate Personal Milestones With a Contribution

There's no better way to make employees feel valued than demonstrating that you notice — and care about — what's happening in their lives. In addition to standard milestones, such as weddings or a new addition to the family, you can also celebrate the achievement of a new degree or certification, closing on a new house, or being recognized by a community organization.

9. Share the Celebration of Company Milestones

It's common for businesses to mark milestones by making a donation to charity. Whether your company is celebrating Founder's Day, recognizing their 1 millionth sale, or marking the awarding of a big contract, let your employees share in the festivities by making a contribution to their donor funds to distribute as they see fit.

10. Extend Your Annual Holiday Bonus

Add a little something extra to your holiday bonus program — an extra contribution to their employee giving fund. Many employees celebrate holidays with a donation to their favorite charities anyway. Why not empower them to give a little more?

How Groundswell Helps You Meet Moments That Matter to All of Your Employees

The right software program can make it easy for you to match moments that matter to the unique interests and needs of all of your employees. Designing a corporate giving program can be challenging, with many factors to consider and incorporate. Groundswell is designed to be inclusive, private, and empowering. By putting the power to give into the hands of each employee, the platform eliminates many barriers to giving that are inherent in traditional corporate match programs.

Employees can donate on their own timeline, rather than during a specified giving period.
There are no complicated forms to fill out and have approved.
Charities get their donations all at once rather than having to wait for the matching part of the donation.
Employees can give to the causes they support without worrying that their donations will expose parts of their private lives they'd rather not reveal. You can read more about how the Groundswell platform helps make employee giving more accessible and welcoming to everyone in the blog Is Your Donation Matching Program Inclusive and Equitable? Probably Not.
The simple interface makes it easy for your company to respond quickly to current events that have a wide cultural impact and provides a way for your company to be supportive to diverse groups among your employees.

Of course, your company can — and should — support your employees' charitable efforts in other ways, as well. You can create moments that matter for your employees by, for example, sponsoring weekly, monthly, or annual team volunteer opportunities. The time spent building out playgrounds, repairing homes for seniors, and serving meals at a local food kitchen all have the potential to be part of the reason your employees feel that they matter, not only to your company, but to the community at large.

Final Thoughts

Moments That Matter is more than just a current HR trend. It reflects a long tradition in the HR field — one of philanthropy and benefit focused on employees and their needs. When your company recognizes the most impactful moments in the lives of its employees — and provides them with a way to recognize, celebrate and navigate them — you are strengthening the relationship between your employee, your company and the community. In short, everyone benefits. Learn how at Groundswell.

Featured Resources

68% of Nonprofits Say This About Donations vs Volunteers - “Show us the money!”

Recently, leaders have stopped organizing employee volunteer events and shifted towards gifting and matching programs for good reasons.That's because company leaders have discovered that they're not the only ones that think volunteering isn't the best place for highly-skilled employees to spend their limited time. In fact, two-thirds of nonprofit leaders agree that donations are often better than organizing and overseeing volunteer events.A recent poll conducted by Groundswell of 500 nonprofit leaders indicated 68% preferred receiving monetary contributions over facilitating a corporate volunteer event.If you've considered putting together a volunteer event for your employees or setting up a corporate gifting and matching program, you're in the right place.This article helps you decide what programs are best for you and your organization, what benefits and drawbacks come with organizing volunteer events, and why companies are moving away from sending their employees out and moving towards offering employees a gifting and donation match program that sends money directly to nonprofits.

Volunteers or Donations?

Volunteering is at the heart of many charity and nonprofit organizations. Without people willing to volunteer their time to support the causes they care about, some nonprofits would fall short of their goals.However, while the act of volunteering is noble and well intentioned, not all volunteers and volunteering activities are created equal. Most organizations that rely on volunteers to deliver services strive for volunteers who are willing to show up consistently, complete training, and execute tasks according to standards.For example, the Boys and Girls Club’s lifeblood is community members who sign up to mentor at-risk youth. Mentors who consistently meet with, coach, and encourage their mentees can have a profound impact on that child’s life. Conversely, a volunteer that quits after two meetings can devastate a child’s self-esteem.Similarly, Feeding America - the largest network of foodbanks in the U.S. - relies substantially on volunteers to help operate its food warehouses. But, just like any Amazon fulfillment center, maintaining an efficient operation requires effective human capital management, including volunteer scheduling and training on tasks like storing, packing and shipping different types of food items. Having dedicated volunteers that commit to consistent work shifts allows FA operations leaders to plan effectively.There are countless examples of how committed volunteers can make a difference, but anyone considering a day of volunteering should ask themselves important questions about what the nonprofit they’re aiming to support needs most: time or money?

The Truth About Why Companies Love Corporate Philanthropy

Corporations love sending employees to help nonprofits because they see it as a win-win-win: nonprofits get support, employees get engaged, and the company burnishes its reputation..It’s clear that an army of employees adorned in color-coordinated shirts emblazoned with the company’s logo, deployed out into the community with rakes or paintbrushes, makes for a great photo op. The activity sends a message to the community that the company cares, and that’s a good thing as corporate stakeholders increasingly demand that company’s focus on social impact.There’s also no doubt that the activity engages employees. It often gets them out of the office and mingling with one another in a low-stress, lighthearted way. Many will return to the office grateful that their employer prioritized making a difference.But what about the nonprofit? Have they received the resources they need most to execute their mission best?

The Pros and Cons of Hosting Volunteer Events

Corporate volunteer events are events organized by nonprofit organizations at the request of a company, often through a corporate social responsibility (CSR) team.These events generally last a few hours, typically around the same time as an employee all-hands conference or retreat. They can be hosted at the company’s headquarters or at the nonprofit’s location. Often, employee volunteers are untrained, and despite wanting to make a difference, likely have no direct tie to or passion for the nonprofit’s mission; meaning most will conclude the event with no intention of volunteering with the organization again.If coordinated with the nonprofit effectively and resourced appropriately, corporate volunteer events can create value.

Here are the pros and cons of corporate volunteers.

Benefits of volunteering:

Positive employee experience - employees that volunteer often walk away with a good experience and positive outlook on aiding others.
More hands on the project - some projects benefit from more people on a project, like with community clean-ups.
Positive company image - Employees that volunteer contribute to the philanthropic values of a company and improve its public image.

Drawbacks of volunteering:

Additional work for the nonprofits - Organizing an event, training new volunteers, and managing an unfamiliar person can take a lot of effort and resources away that could have otherwise been used on supporting the organization's cause.
Reduced efficiency - The best nonprofits build efficient systems to do their work. Oftentimes, corporate volunteer events operate outside these systems. This can happen geographically, by dictating the location be at the corporate office, or otherwise by having to accommodate volunteers unfamiliar with the established system or process.

Volunteering isn’t always equitable and inclusive - Not every employee can participate in a volunteer activity. For example, if you’re cleaning up a beach employees with mobility issues could be left out.
Smaller return on investment - Volunteer events take a lot of work to plan, coordinate and execute, and sometimes - especially absent an additional monetary contribution from the company - the effort doesn’t yield sufficient impact.
Unpredictable effort and labor - The skills of volunteers can range from amateur to expert, which can make it tough for organization leaders to get high-level contributions.
No time -- Businesses are busy. Not all employees, executives, investors, and board members have the time to commit to volunteering, making it easier to donate money instead of time.

While volunteering can have a handful of benefits, it can sometimes come with a great deal of unnecessary administrative duties that take valuable resources away from an organization's limited resources.

Four Valuable Insights From Nonprofit Employees

Along with uncovering the reality about corporate volunteer programs, our poll revealed important insights into the truth about how nonprofits leaders felt about shifting trends in corporate philanthropy.According to our research, 79.4% agreed that corporate volunteer events are often more focused on employee experience than generating desirable outcomes for the organization's causes.Notably, 56.2% experienced a corporate volunteer event that didn't lead to efficient outcomes for the organization's cause.Perhaps in light of that, 72.2% believe corporations should make monetary contributions to offset the effort required to facilitate corporate volunteer events.Finally, a remarkable 42.2% believe planning volunteer opportunities for companies is actually a distraction to their core mission.

Here's Why Donating Is Better Than Volunteers.

Just like any business, having working capital is crucial for charities to deliver consistent outcomes.For nonprofit organizations, donations help fuel campaign initiatives, purchase supplies, pay for employee salaries, cover the cost of insurance and support efforts made by the entity. Even volunteer events cost money! Who do you think covers the cost of those bottles of water, ham sandwiches, and cans of paint?In other words, donations support nearly every facet of an organization, from supporting their infrastructure to facilitating initiatives and backing campaigns.In nearly all cases, donations are much more flexible than volunteering. Donations can be used for anything related to the organization's operation while volunteering is limited to labor-specific tasks. Volunteering is also limited by the volunteer's level of expertise, whereas donations can be used to hire experts to accomplish the same task using less effort and resources.

Have You Launched Your Company Gifting and Matching Program?

Since donations generally contribute directly to the organization's central mission while providing them with ultimate discretion in how to deliver impact, corporate leaders and their employees are realizing their contributions can go a lot further when donating money instead of time.If you’re curious to learn more about how corporate gifting and matching programs work, you’ll find more resources on our blog.

Featured Resources

Is Your Donation Matching Program Inclusive and Equitable? Probably Not.

Corporate employee gift matching - where an employer matches an employee’s gift to a charity - has been a mainstay of major companies for decades. It has unlocked billions of dollars of community funding and helped donors double their impact. It’s also inequitable and lacks inclusion as matching programs currently operate. Fortunately, there’s a solution.

But first, a history lesson.

In many ways and for many reasons, GE is one of America’s most iconic companies - though notably its star has dimmed since its peak several decades ago. GE was born by Thomas Edison, became a founding member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (where it stayed from 1907 to 2018), and was awarded countless patents for innovation across aviation, healthcare, and energy.

However, an innovation GE rarely gets credit for is its innovation in corporate philanthropy. In 1954, GE rolled out what is often credited as the first workplace-giving program. In the nearly seven decades since GE reports that it has matched over $1.5 billion in employee gifts. That’s an astounding number.

Yet GE’s program has not evolved much since its inception. Sure, it uses a software platform to help facilitate gifts (one that could use a good ol’ fashioned overhaul) and they’ve probably increased the amount they’ll match (it’s currently a generous $5,000 per employee). But the basic construction remains the same - and therein lies the problem.

Today’s standard matching gift program works like this:

An employee gives money to a charity; they then submit that donation receipt to someone on staff (often in HR, finance, or perhaps a dedicated corporate social responsibility or CSR function). That staff member then must vet the charity to ensure it’s a registered 501c3 with the IRS and that it meets the company’s stated program requirements (for example, many companies won’t match gifts to places of worship - like a church - despite them being tax-exempt organizations). Finally, if all goes according to plan, a form is submitted to the accounts payable department and a check is issued from the company to the nonprofit - often weeks or months later.

Many folks would rightfully point out that this process seems like an administrative nightmare - and it is, both for the employee and the employer. But what’s often not discussed is that it is also by nature exclusionary and therefore inequitable.

How so? Let me explain.

The existing process - even if supported and enabled by software platforms that ease (but don’t eliminate) some of the administrative burdens - requires the employee to disclose where they have given to charity. On the surface, this may not seem like a problem - how else would the employer know where to send the matching money? But spend a moment and imagine all the reasons that someone may not want their employer or work colleagues to know the specific charities you are supporting.

For many people, their philanthropy is deeply personal and inspired by lived experiences. An employee that grew up in an abusive household may support a local domestic abuse shelter. A member of the LGTBQ community that is not yet open about their sexuality certainly wouldn’t want their coworkers knowing they support the Trevor Project. A recovering alcoholic may not want to submit the receipt for their monthly donation to Alcoholics Anonymous.

So what happens?

They simply don’t participate. They feel excluded.

The inequity is further exacerbated when companies determine that some causes or issues are worth matching, but others are not. In GE’s example, the determination that the company will not match contributions to houses of worship - churches, synagogues, mosques, and others - is akin to telling GE’s employees that what matters to them is not worth matching.

Now, we should be fair to GE. Because of GE’s matching program design, any matches sent to charities are coming from GE. Iconic brands like GE must be very careful in creating a perception that they are affiliated with or endorse any specific organization, or in this case, faith. That’s certainly reasonable - but it’s demotivating to the practicing Catholic who dutifully tithes 10% of her paycheck each week to her church.

(As a disclaimer, we draw the line at any nonprofit, religious or not, that stands for hate, and you won't find any classified hate groups available to fund in the Groundswell app.)

Essentially, today’s standard matching program makes about as much sense as if an employer chose not to deposit employees’ paychecks into bank accounts, but instead forced those employees to submit receipts for all of their expenses so that their cost of living could be reimbursed. How comfortable would you be with inviting someone into your personal life in that fashion?

So is there a better way? Yes, there is.

Modern matching programs must evolve to reflect the capabilities of our modern tax and financial technology ecosystem. Groundswell (www.groundswell.io) is doing this by making donor-advised funds (DAFs) accessible to anyone, and by specifically creating a corporate benefits platform that provides one to employees. By providing employees with Personal Giving Accounts built on top of donor-advised funds, our platform can disaggregate someone’s decision to be charitable (the moment they contribute to their Groundswell account) from their decision on what charity to support (sending their Groundswell funds to a nonprofit).

With Groundswell, employees contribute to their Personal Giving Account and companies can match those contributions according to their matching program rules. At that point, the employee controls the funds - they can direct the full amount to whatever qualifying charity they choose when they choose.

Because funds sent to charities are distributed by the Groundswell Charitable Foundation, companies no longer have to restrict where their employees give - because the company is never directly associated with the gift.

Information provided back to the employer is anonymized. They will know all the charities that were supported but will not be able to associate them with individual employees. The result is that companies can better understand what their employees truly value, without violating their privacy.

With Groundswell, employers can take meaningful action that drives home their commitment to DE&I initiatives while providing a unique employee benefit that allows employees to freely be their authentic, charitable selves.

Let's have a conversation - what do you think?

Featured Resources

What Is Corporate Philanthropy and Why Should You Care?

If the words "corporate philanthropy" call up images of pink ribbon campaigns, big donations to very visible causes, and big brands improving their image through charitable donations, hang tight.There's a lot more to the picture than big-dollar donations to well-known charities and causes. In today's business world, businesses of all sizes and in all sectors are committed to giving back to their communities through some form of charitable giving — and "charitable giving" takes on many forms.In fact, as of 2021, 85% of U.S. companies have a formal corporate giving program in place, and they donated a combined $20.77 billion to charitable causes.But what is corporate philanthropy, exactly, and what are the best ways for your company to give back to the community? The answers to those questions are evolving as a society — and employees — become more knowledgeable, engaged, and interested in how the companies they deal with affect the world around them.

What Is Corporate Philanthropy?

Corporate philanthropy refers to activities and investments voluntarily made by businesses to make a positive impact on the community around them. That's a very broad umbrella. It covers everything from giving money to donating expertise and encouraging employees to volunteer for community organizations. If your company hosts a food drive for Thanksgiving, buys uniforms for a local soccer team, or offers a matching donations program for charitable giving, it is engaging in corporate philanthropy. Learn more about corporate giving and why it's important in our resource section.

Who Benefits From Corporate Philanthropy?

The benefits of giving back are many, and not just for the organizations on the receiving end of donations. The business also reaps benefits, as do the employees and the general community. In a world where consumers increasingly expect companies to be socially responsible partners in our world, having a formal corporate giving program in place is a vital part of doing business. Charitable donations aren't just a sunk cost of doing business, though. There are clear benefits for the company when they make the choice to give back. Those include:

7 Types of Corporate Philanthropy

The face of corporate philanthropy has been evolving rapidly, especially in light of the last few years of upheaval and technological advances. These are the seven most common forms of corporate giving. Many companies engage in more than one, and many more are rethinking their strategic corporate philanthropy plans as corporate social responsibility takes on more importance to customers and employees. More on that later.

Employee and Board Stipends

Some corporations provide cash stipends to employees or board members, which they can donate to the charities or causes of their choice.

Volunteer Support

Companies may organize, support or give paid time off to employees who volunteer for organizations in their community. The support may be technical — an accounting firm may provide training and expertise to a startup nonprofit, for example — or more general, such as gathering a team to help paint houses or build playgrounds in the neighborhood.

Corporate Sponsorships

The Little League team, a fundraising event by the local food bank, a fashion show put on by a local charity — these are all examples of businesses using corporate sponsorships as part of their overall corporate philanthropy strategy. The corporation makes a donation to charity in return for being prominently mentioned during the event.

Community Grants

A company may offer grants to community organizations that apply for them and meet specific criteria to qualify. Walmart, for example, offers grants ranging from $250 to $5,000 to local community organizations. Often, the grants are given through a foundation established by the company for the purpose of making corporate donations.

In-Kind Donations

In-kind donations are donations of goods or services instead of cash. This type of donation is more common among smaller businesses, such as restaurants donating pizza to a local homeless shelter, or providing coffee and donuts free of charge to a weekly parents' group meeting. Similarly, many companies donate a "portion of x sold" gifts to charity. Stop and Shop, for example, donates a dollar to a local organization for each reusable shopping bag purchased by customers.

Donor-Advised Funds

Donor-advised funds — DAFs — are a variation on making grants to charities and causes through a foundation. In a nutshell, a DAF is like a personal charitable giving account, similar to a health savings account. The donor can make donations at any time and receive an immediate tax advantage. The funds sit in the DAF until the donor decides to disburse them to the charity or cause of their choice. DAFs offer several benefits that make them the fastest-growing charitable giving vehicle in the U.S.

Matching Donations

We saved this one for last because matching donation programs are among the most common corporate giving programs — 9 out of 10 companies have employee matching programs. Traditionally, an employee makes a donation to a charity or cause, and then either they or the nonprofit submits a form to the company, which then makes a second donation to the charity, effectively doubling — or sometimes tripling — the original amount. Despite their popularity, matching gift programs account for only about 12% of cash donations received by nonprofits, and an estimated $4 to $7 billion in matching gift money is never distributed. That's because the entire process can be cumbersome, both for your HR department and for the nonprofit receiving the donation.

A New Kind of Corporate Philanthropy — Philanthropy as a Service

Groundswell believes that it's time to rethink how matching donations programs work. Groundswell makes it easy for companies to launch a charitable giving program that takes advantage of all the benefits of a DAF for them and their employees. The Groundswell platform unlocks the potential of DAFs reimagining corporate philanthropy using the x-as-a-service model. Philanthropy as a service — PHaaS — lets you skip the complicated process of setting up a foundation, hiring accountants and handling all the day-to-day nuts and bolts of managing a charity. Instead, you get a simple, transparent platform that allows your company and your employees to support the causes they believe in without all the friction that accompanies traditional matching donation programs. Your company reaps the benefits of having a defined charitable giving program. Your employees are more engaged, with their privacy protected and their autonomy honored, and the causes they support get their donations without the hassle of chasing down the matching funds. It's a win-win-win solution that empowers everyone in the equation.

Final Thoughts

Corporate philanthropy has evolved over the years, and it's evolving faster than ever thanks to technological advances and changing social attitudes. If you're ready to take the next step in corporate philanthropy, reach out to us to learn more about what PHaaS can bring to your company.

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Corporate Giving Program: The Complete Business Guide to Running Gifting and Matching Employee Benefits

Corporate giving programs are growing in popularity among thriving businesses and for many good reasons.

For companies, corporate giving programs can improve their reputation and brand image, attract and retain employees, increase customer loyalty, boost sales, and reduce taxable income.

For communities, corporate giving programs address social and economic needs, improve the quality of life for those in the community, promote civic engagement, and build stronger bonds between community members.

In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about launching and running a corporate giving program, information from what a corporate giving program is to learning the different types of corporate giving programs and choosing the right one for your organization.

What is Corporate Giving?

Corporate giving is the act of a corporation or business promoting the welfare of others, generally through charitable donations of funds or time. It is a form of corporate social responsibility (CSR) that can benefit both the company and the community.

Corporate giving is a win-win for both companies and communities. It is a way for companies to positively impact the world while benefiting their own bottom line.

How do corporations commonly make charitable donations?

There are many different ways that corporations can give back. Some common forms of corporate giving include:

Cash donations: This is the most common form of corporate giving. Companies can donate money to nonprofit organizations that support causes they care about.
In-kind donations: Companies can donate products or services to nonprofits. For example, a company that makes food could donate food to a local food bank.
Employee volunteerism: Companies can encourage employees to volunteer their time to nonprofits. This is a great way to get employees involved in their communities and to give back to the causes they care about.
Cause-related marketing: This is a marketing partnership between a company and a nonprofit. The company donates a portion of its profits to the nonprofit when customers purchase its products or services.
Matching gifts: Companies can match the charitable donations of their employees. This is a great way to encourage employees to give back and to double the impact of their donations.

What is a corporate giving account?

A corporate giving account is a donor-advised fund (DAF) specifically designed for businesses. DAFs are charitable giving accounts that allow donors to make tax-deductible contributions and then recommend grants to charitable organizations over time. Corporate giving accounts offer many of the same benefits as traditional DAFs, but they can also provide additional benefits for businesses, such as:

Tax benefits: Contributions to a corporate giving account are tax-deductible for the business, just like contributions to a traditional DAF.
Flexibility: Businesses can use their corporate giving account to support a wide range of large and small charitable causes.
Simplicity: Corporate giving accounts are relatively easy to set up and manage.
Professional management: Many corporate giving accounts are offered by third-party providers who can help businesses with the administrative details of giving.

A corporate giving account may be a good option if your business is looking for a way to make a charitable impact.

Most common types of corporate giving programs

Gifting and Matching

Corporate gifting and matching programs are a way for companies to encourage their employees to give back to their communities. These programs can take many different forms, but they all have the same goal: to make it easier for employees to donate their time and money to causes they care about.

One type of corporate gifting program is a matching gift program. In a matching gift program, the company will match employee donations to certain charities, up to a certain amount. For example, a company might match employee donations to the United Way up to $500 annually. This is a great way for companies to double the impact of their employees' donations.

Another type of corporate gifting program is a volunteer grant program. In a volunteer grant program, the company will give employees paid time off to volunteer for certain charities. This is a great way for employees to give back to their communities without sacrificing work hours.

Corporate gifting and matching programs are great for companies to show their employees that they care about giving back. These programs can also help to attract and retain top talent, as employees are more likely to want to work for a company that shares their values.

Here are some of the benefits of corporate gifting and matching programs:

Employee engagement: Corporate gifting and matching programs can help to increase employee engagement by giving employees a way to give back to their communities.
Employee morale: Corporate gifting and matching programs can help to improve employee morale by showing employees that their company cares about giving back.
Company reputation: Corporate gifting and matching programs can help to improve a company's reputation by showing that the company is committed to social responsibility.
Tax benefits: In some cases, corporate gifting and matching programs can provide tax benefits for the company.

If you want to give back to your community and show your employees that you care, consider starting a corporate gifting or matching program.

Volunteer Grants

A volunteer grant is a monetary award given to a nonprofit organization by a corporation to recognize volunteer work being done by a company's employees. This practice is widespread in the United States. Corporate giving programs created to encourage volunteerism by a corporation's employees by providing volunteer grants are called volunteer grant programs or Dollars for Doers programs.

Philanthropic organizations offer grants for individuals to volunteer with nonprofit organizations for an extended period of time. These are sometimes called volunteer grants but are normally referred to as fellowships. In these cases, a volunteer receives a stipend from a nonprofit to live and work within a community in need. Companies typically state that any 501(c)(3) nonprofit or school is eligible for their corporate volunteer grant scheme; most however require a minimum number of hours served.

Volunteer grants can be a great way for companies to encourage their employees to give back to their communities and to support the causes they care about. They can also be a great way for companies to build relationships with local nonprofits and to show their commitment to social responsibility.

If you are a nonprofit organization interested in applying for a volunteer grant, be sure to check with your local corporations to see if they offer such a program. You can also find a list of companies that offer volunteer grants online.

Other Types of Corporate Giving Programs

Fundraising Match

A fundraising match is a type of corporate giving program in which a company matches employee donations to a nonprofit organization. For example, if an employee donates $100 to a nonprofit, the company might match that donation with another $100, bringing the total donation to $200.

Fundraising matches are a great way for companies to encourage their employees to give back to their communities. They can also help to raise more money for nonprofits.

Community Grants

Community grants are financial awards given to nonprofit organizations or other community groups to support their work in the community. They can be used to fund a variety of projects, such as:

Programs that provide direct services to community members, such as food banks, homeless shelters, and after-school programs.
Projects that improve the community's infrastructure, such as parks, libraries, and community centers.
Initiatives that promote social change, such as those that address poverty, hunger, or education inequality.

Dollars for Doers

Dollars for Doers is a type of corporate giving program in which a company provides monetary grants to nonprofits where its employees regularly volunteer.

Here are some of the benefits of Dollars for Doers programs for both companies and nonprofits:

Companies:
Increased employee engagement and morale
Improved company reputation
Tax benefits
Nonprofits:
Increased funding
Increased visibility
Increased volunteerism

Team Volunteer Grants

A team volunteer grant is a type of corporate giving program in which a company provides a monetary donation to a nonprofit organization when a group of employees volunteer together. These programs are designed to encourage team building, community service, and employee engagement.

There are many different types of team volunteer grants available, each with its own set of eligibility requirements and benefits. Some companies offer grants for any team of employees who volunteer together, while others require that teams meet certain criteria, such as a minimum number of volunteer hours or a specific type of service.

Volunteer Support Programs

Volunteer support programs are designed to help volunteers find, prepare for, and succeed in their volunteer roles. These programs can provide volunteers with a variety of resources, such as training, orientation, and support networks.

There are many different types of volunteer support programs available, each with its own focus and target audience. Some programs are designed for specific groups of volunteers, such as new volunteers, young volunteers, or volunteers with disabilities. Other programs are designed to provide support for specific types of volunteer work, such as disaster relief, environmental conservation, or social justice.

Annual Giving

Annual giving is a type of fundraising that focuses on raising money from individuals on an ongoing basis throughout the year. It is a critical component of a nonprofit's fundraising strategy, as it can provide a steady stream of income to support the organization's ongoing programs and services.

Annual Grant Stipends

An annual grant stipend is a type of grant that is awarded to individuals or organizations on an annual basis. These grants are typically used to support ongoing programs or activities, rather than one-time projects.

There are many different types of annual grant stipends available, each with its own eligibility requirements and benefits. Some grants are open to all applicants, while others are only available to specific groups of people, such as students, artists, or nonprofit organizations.

Internal Employee Fundraising

Internal employee fundraising is a type of fundraising that takes place within a company. It is a way for employees to come together and raise money for a cause that they care about.

There are many different ways to raise money through internal employee fundraising. Some common methods include:

Donation campaigns: Employees can donate money directly to the cause.
Matching gifts: Companies can match employee donations, which can double or triple the amount of money raised.
Volunteerism: Employees can volunteer their time to the cause.
Product sales: Employees can sell products or services to raise money for the cause.
Special events: Companies can host special events, such as bake sales or walk-a-thons, to raise money for the cause.

Employee Product Donation Programs (EPDP)

An Employee Product Donation Program (EPDP) is a corporate giving program that allows employees to donate company products to nonprofit organizations. EPDPs are a great way for companies to give back to their communities and to engage their employees in philanthropy.

There are many different ways that EPDPs can be structured. Some companies allow employees to donate any company product, while others only allow employees to donate specific products. Some companies also require employees to get approval from their manager before donating, while others do not.

How to start a corporate giving program for your company

Here are the steps on how to start a corporate giving program for your company:

Set your goals. What do you want to achieve with your corporate giving program? Do you want to raise money for a specific cause, or do you want to encourage employee volunteerism? Once you know your goals, you can start to develop a plan.
Choose a cause. What cause is important to your company and its employees? Once you've chosen a cause, you can start researching nonprofits working to address that issue.
Develop a plan. How will you raise money or encourage employee volunteerism? What are your timeline and budget? Once you have a plan, you can start to put it into action.
Promote your program. Let your employees know about your corporate giving program and how to get involved. You can promote your program through company newsletters, social media, and other channels.
Measure your results. How much money did you raise? How many employees volunteered? How did your program impact the cause you were supporting? By measuring your results, you can see how effective your program is and make adjustments as needed.

Here are some additional tips for starting a corporate giving program:

Get buy-in from senior leadership. It's important to have the support of senior leadership in order to make your corporate giving program a success.
Involve employees. Employees are more likely to be engaged in a corporate giving program if they feel they have a say in its run.
Make it easy for employees to give. The easier it is for employees to give, the more likely they are to do so.
Track your results. It's important to track your results to see how effective your corporate giving program is.

How does corporate giving affect employees?

Corporate giving can have a number of positive effects on employees, including:

Increased employee engagement: Employees who feel like their company is giving back to the community are more likely to be engaged in their work and to feel a sense of pride in their employer.
Improved morale: Employees who feel their company is making a difference in the world are likelier to be happy and motivated at work.
Reduced turnover: Employees who feel like their company is committed to social responsibility are more likely to stay with their employer for the long term.
Increased productivity: Employees who feel their work is meaningful are more likely to be productive and go the extra mile.
Improved reputation: Companies known for their corporate giving programs are often seen as more reputable and trustworthy by customers, investors, and the general public.

In addition to these direct benefits, corporate giving can also have a number of indirect benefits for employees. For example, employees who are engaged in their work and who feel like they are making a difference in the world are more likely to be healthy and happy. They are also more likely to be involved in their communities and to be positive role models for their children.

Overall, corporate giving can be a win-win for both companies and employees. It can help companies to improve their bottom line, their reputation, and their employee morale. It can also help employees to feel good about their work and to make a difference in the world.

How companies can benefit more from their corporate giving?

Companies can benefit more from their corporate giving in a number of ways. Here are a few tips:

Choose a cause that is aligned with your company's values. When employees see that their company is giving back to causes that they care about, they are more likely to be engaged and motivated.
Get employees involved. Employees are more likely to be supportive of a corporate giving program if they feel like they have a say in how it's run. Consider allowing employees to vote on which causes the company supports, or to volunteer their time to local charities.
Measure your results. It's important to track the impact of your corporate giving program so you can see how it's benefiting your company and the community. This will help you to justify your investment and to make improvements as needed.
Get the word out. Let your customers, investors, and the general public know about your corporate giving program. This will help to improve your company's reputation and attract new business.

By following these tips, you can make sure that your corporate giving program is both effective and beneficial for your company.

6 mins read

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The Case for Corporations to Leverage Donor-Advised Funds

Year over year, companies are increasing their focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the impact they have on communities. Corporate charitable giving is perhaps the most visible effort that companies undertake, and the amount being donated has increased steadily, topping $21 billion in 2020.

Alongside this rise in corporate giving has been an increase in the number of companies offering to match employee donations to charity - up from 53% in 2014 to 71% in 2020.

These employee donation programs are often archaic and burdensome, and it’s estimated that $5 to $7 billion in eligible donations go unmatched by employers each year.

Donor-advised funds (DAFs), tax-advantaged giving vehicles that have been around for decades, offer a compelling solution for both companies and their employees. As will be outlined below, DAFs have historically only been available to high-net-worth individuals, but Groundswell has built a platform that turns donor-advised funds into an affordable and easy-to-administer solution for corporate and employee giving.

Groundswell believes that in the near future, companies providing donor-advised funds as a component of their total compensation approach will be as commonplace as 401(k)s, which were introduced in the United States in 1978.

Initially only utilized by the highest earners within companies who understood the intricacies of the tax benefits, 401(k)s have now become the ubiquitous tax-savings vehicle in the United States, with over 100 million accounts.

In much the same way, Groundswell drives the adoption and utilization of donor-advised funds as America’s preferred charitable giving vehicle.

What is a donor-advised fund?

Donor-advised funds are charitable giving vehicles that allow individuals, families, and businesses to make a tax-deductible contribution to a fund, which can then be distributed to qualified charities over time. DAFs were first introduced in the United States in the 1930s, but their popularity has grown significantly in recent years.

Historically, DAFs have been primarily used by wealthy individuals and families. This is because DAFs often require a significant minimum donation to establish and maintain the fund, which can be a barrier to entry for many individuals with less disposable income.

For example, according to a report by the National Philanthropic Trust, the average size of a donor-advised fund in 2019 was $413,000, and the average initial contribution was $166,000.

Overall, the growth of donor-advised funds over the past decade reflects a shift in how affluent individuals and families approach charitable giving. DAFs offer a flexible, efficient, and tax-effective way to support a variety of causes over time, and their popularity is likely to continue to grow in the coming years.

Groundswell was created to ensure that average-income Americans are not left behind in this trend.

What is the difference between a DAF and a private foundation?

There are several key differences between a donor-advised fund (DAF) and a foundation:

Legal structure: A foundation is a separate legal entity, typically established as a nonprofit organization under state law, while a DAF is a fund held and managed by a sponsoring organization, such as a community foundation or financial institution.
Establishment: Establishing a foundation requires significant time, effort, and expense, including legal and accounting fees, filing paperwork with the IRS, and ongoing compliance and reporting requirements. In contrast, establishing a DAF is typically quicker and easier, with lower establishment costs.
Tax benefits: Both foundations and DAFs offer tax benefits for donors, including income tax deductions for contributions to the fund or foundation, as well as tax-free growth of assets held within the fund or foundation.
Costs: Foundations generally have higher establishment and ongoing administrative costs, including legal and accounting fees, staff salaries, and overhead expenses, compared to DAFs, which are typically less expensive to establish and manage.

Overall, both DAFs and foundations offer donors the ability to support charitable causes and receive tax benefits for their contributions.

Historically, establishing a foundation has only made sense for the most wealthy individuals, families, and corporations due to the increased cost and compliance associated with their operation. Comparatively, donor-advised funds have offered high-income individuals and families, as well as profitable corporations, with a moderately cost-effective solution with nearly all of the same advantages as a foundation.

Groundswell ensures DAFs are no longer the enclave of the wealthy

According to a survey by U.S. Trust, 72% of high-net-worth individuals use DAFs as a key component of their overall charitable giving strategy. (Source: U.S. Trust Insights on Wealth and Worth 2018)

Over the past decade, DAFs have exploded in popularity. According to the National Philanthropic Trust's 2020 Donor-Advised Fund Report, the total number of donor-advised funds in the United States grew by 55% between 2010 and 2019, from 204,704 to 318,000. The total amount in donor-advised funds increased by 237% over the same period, from $38.8 billion to $131.1 billion.

But here’s the rub: DAFs are primarily used by wealthy individuals and families. According to the National Philanthropic Trust's 2020 Donor-Advised Fund Report, 60% of DAF assets are held in funds with balances of $1 million or more. Historically, the average donor in the United States is as likely to have a DAF as they are a member of their town’s exclusive country club.

Donor-advised funds have been reserved for the ultra-rich primarily because they’ve only been offered by the gated community of wealth advisors and financial institutions - average people need not apply.

Groundswell’s mission to democratize philanthropy has led it to create the world’s most modern and accessible donor-advised fund. Whereas a donor today needs $20,000 to open a DAF at Morgan Stanley, the minimum contribution on Groundswell is $1.

Groundswell makes DAFs an employee benefit

To further Groundswell’s mission to democratize philanthropy, the company has built a Software-as-a-Service platform that enables companies to provide their employees with individual donor-advised funds.

Groundswell’s easy-to-administer platform invites eligible employees to download the Groundswell app from the iOS or Android store. Subsequent account creation takes less than sixty seconds. At that point, the employee is the owner of their own tax-advantaged donor-advised fund.

Additionally, the Groundswell administrator platform allows companies to effortlessly create custom corporate gifting and matching programs. These programs deposit charitable dollars into employee accounts according to the program rules established by administrators. The funds are not taxable income to the employee, and once put into the employee’s account, the employee can send the funds to charity however they wish.

Advantages of providing employees with donor-advised funds

Financial wellbeing

As inflation and wage stagnation have eaten away at household incomes, many companies and HR teams have focused on the concept of financial well-being.

Financial well-being is a trend in HR that focuses on promoting the financial health and security of employees. This trend recognizes that financial stress can have a negative impact on employees' job performance, physical health, and mental well-being and that employers have a role to play in helping employees manage their finances and reduce financial stress.

Financial wellbeing programs typically include a range of resources and tools to help employees improve their financial literacy, such as educational seminars, online resources, and one-on-one financial counseling. Some employers may also offer financial incentives, such as matching contributions to retirement accounts or bonuses for achieving certain financial goals.

The trend toward financial well-being in HR has been driven in part by the growing recognition that financial stress is a major source of employee anxiety and distraction. Studies have shown that financial stress can lead to absenteeism, lower productivity, and higher healthcare costs for employers. By investing in financial well-being programs, employers can help reduce financial stress among their employees, improve job satisfaction and retention, and enhance overall business performance.

Considering that in 2020 70% of American households gave to charity, it’s safe to assume that charitable giving is an important part of the financial wellness of employees’ lives. This holds true across the wage spectrum. Low-income households give a higher percentage of their income to charity than high-income households. According to a 2018 study by the Urban Institute, households with incomes below $25,000 gave an average of 7.6% of their income to charity, while households with incomes of $200,000 or more gave an average of 4.2% of their income to charity. Perhaps obviously, despite giving a higher percentage of their income, low-income households donate smaller dollar amounts to charity. In 2020, households with incomes below $50,000 gave an average of $1,336 to charity, compared to an average of $6,082 for households with incomes of $200,000 or more (Source: Giving USA 2021).

Knowing that your employees are giving to charity creates a compelling argument to provide for them a donor-advised fund along with charitable gifts and matches that effectively subsidize their annual giving.

Tax advantages

There are three primary tax advantages that donor-advised funds can provide to your employees: minimizing taxable income in the current year while maintaining the ability to distribute funds in future years, the ability to donate appreciated stock assets, and the simplicity of a single year-end charitable giving receipt for tax reporting.

First, because the DAF is a qualifying tax-exempt vehicle, contributions to them are immediately tax deductible. This means that an employee - for instance, a high-earning sales executive receiving a large commission check - can work with a tax planner to make a large contribution to her donor-advised fund, minimize her current year tax liability, and then work strategically to distribute those funds over a longer time horizon.

Second, donor-advised funds like Groundswell unlocks the ability for employees to donate appreciated stock assets - a significant philanthropy hack utilized by wealth donors for decades.

When you donate appreciated stock to a charity, you can claim a deduction for the full market value of the stock at the time of the donation. Moreover, by donating the stock instead of selling it and then donating the proceeds, you can avoid paying capital gains taxes on the appreciation.

Here's an example: Let's say you purchased 100 shares of XYZ stock for $5,000 several years ago, and the stock is now worth $10,000. If you were to sell the stock, you would realize a capital gain of $5,000, and you would owe taxes on that gain. Assuming a capital gains tax rate of 20%, you would owe $1,000 in taxes. At the conclusion of this sale, you would only have $9,000 to donate to charity.

Instead of selling the stock, you could donate the shares to a donor-advised fund. If you do that, you can claim a charitable deduction for the full market value of the stock, which is $10,000. You can then use the funds in the donor-advised fund to make grants to charities over time. Because you donated the stock instead of selling it, you can avoid paying the $1,000 in capital gains taxes that you would have owed if you had sold the shares.

Lastly, because an employee’s donor-advised fund is a tax-exempt vehicle that centralizes all of its users' philanthropy, the employee receives only a single tax receipt for reporting purposes at the end of the year, regardless of how many contributions were made or charities were supported.

Lower fees

Online and recurring monthly giving to charity have been growing trends in recent years. Here are some statistics to illustrate the trend:

Online giving continues to grow year over year, with a 10.6% increase in online donations in 2020 compared to the previous year. (Source: Giving USA 2021)
Recurring giving has become increasingly popular, with a 20.4% increase in the number of recurring donors in 2020. (Source: Blackbaud Institute)
Donors who give online tend to give more than those who give through other channels. According to a 2019 report by Classy, the average online donation amount was $93, compared to $65 for offline donations.

Younger donors are more likely to give online and to prefer recurring giving. A 2019 report by the Nonprofit Tech for Good found that 60% of Millennials prefer to give online, and 54% prefer to give monthly.

These are all positive trends. However, with the ease of online giving comes a cost: credit card transaction fees. Typical online donation fees are 3% plus $0.30. Oftentimes, online giving platforms ask the donor to cover these fees in order to provide the full donation amount to the charity. That means that an employee donating $100 online is paying $3.30 to do so. If that employee has his gift set up to occur monthly, he is going to pay nearly $40 in fees.

Groundswell’s revolutionary platform has reduced the cost of these transactions and has passed those cost savings to users. Groundswell’s distribution fees are 1% - offering significant annual savings to employees.

Privacy leads to inclusion

Employee donor-advised funds also offer something essential to an inclusive and equitable employee giving program: privacy.

In traditional corporate donation matching programs, employees must submit evidence of their donation to an administrator, often in human resources. For decades this arrangement was never questioned. How else would a company know where to send the match? However, in an increasingly polarized world and workplace, employees are increasingly hesitant to disclose what charitable organizations they support for fear of ridicule, or worse, retribution.

For the first time ever, donor-advised funds offer an alternative. Because the DAF is a charitable account, with the funds contributed to it only eligible to be sent to charity, employees can contribute to their DAF and request that their match be made directly into their account. Since the employee has received their match prior to sending the money to the causes they care about, they can distribute the funds how, where, and when they like with complete privacy.

In this manner, Groundswell’s platform has completely reimagined what corporate matching looks like. The result is a more private, inclusive, and equitable program - all made possible by donor-advised funds.

A true benefit that stays with the employee

Because the DAF is an individual account registered in the employee's name - like a 401k plan or health savings account (HSA) - the employee is able to take their account with them if they were to leave the company.

This makes leveraging a DAF for employee giving the first step toward truly making philanthropy an employee benefit. Previous models of employee matching were nothing more than process automation tools. But providing a portable DAF is giving an employee something of lifetime financial value.

What do companies gain by leveraging donor-advised funds

Reduced risk

Within traditional matching programs, a company receives a request from an employee to send a donation match to a charity they’ve supported. The company, upon confirming the details of the charity, sends payment directly to the charity from the company’s account. This action thereby directly associates the company with the charity - a potentially risky association in a hyper-polarized world.

However, leveraging employee DAFs provides companies with an alternative. By structuring a corporate matching program through employee DAFs, companies can eliminate their association with recipient charities. Because the company’s funds are only ever going to the DAF’s fiscal sponsor - in Groundswell’s case this would be the Groundswell Charitable Foundation - there is no financial link between the company and the charity. The charity receives disbursements from the Groundswell Charitable Foundation, at the recommendation of the employee (whose employment status or employer is not disclosed).

The result is a matching program that is optimized for inclusion, not exclusion.

Reduced risk leads to increased inclusion

Not surprisingly, many companies have been fearful of directly associating with specific charities and have thus resorted to various forms of restricting the range of nonprofits eligible for corporate matches. This restriction has basically taken two forms.

The first form happens when a company creates a list of charities it has proactively screened and approved. These lists tend to have between five and 25 charities listed, with most of them national in scope. The problem with this list is that for most people, philanthropy is deeply personal and often local, and it's unlikely that a large, national organization fulfills its philanthropic aims.

The second form happens when companies attempt to place specific charities or issue areas on a “deny list” that excludes them from eligibility. Not surprisingly, this approach is a slippery slope. Each nonprofit or issue area that is restricted effectively amounts to a statement by the company that the issue at hand is not worthy of support - a statement that can be marginalizing for employees who want to support that nonprofit.

One segment of eligible charities that are often excluded is religion. This is unfortunate for employees because giving to houses of worship accounted for $131 billion of the $324 billion in individual giving in 2020. According to a 2016 study by the Nonprofit Research Collaborative, 70% of low-income households gave to religious organizations, compared to 48% of high-income households. While choosing not to directly support a religion may seem like a logical thing for a corporation to do, it fails to acknowledge that for many employees their house of worship is also their source of other social support, such as counseling, food security, or education.

Groundswell believes that inclusion begins with inclusion - specifically, companies should strive to match contributions to any eligible 501c3 that is not a documented hate group. Our matching solution - which uses donor-advised funds as an intermediary - provides companies with the opportunity to do so.

Reduced administrative burden

Like individuals, companies can also utilize donor-advised funds for their philanthropic giving. Due to their minimal legal, compliance, and administrative requirements, DAFs are often the most logical and cost-effective solution for companies looking to create a charitable vehicle for their corporate social responsibility.

As part of its platform, Groundswell offers companies a corporate DAF at no extra cost. This corporate giving account is fully tax-advantaged and has the ability to create corporate grants that are sent directly to charity.

6 mins read

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Everything You Need to Know About Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace

Having a workplace that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion is essential for creating a work environment that is respectful, supportive, and equitable for all employees.

Diversity in the workplace can bring about a variety of viewpoints, experiences, and skills that can help an organization become more productive and successful.

Equity in the workplace means ensuring that everyone has the same access to resources and opportunities regardless of their background or identity.

Inclusion in the workplace means valuing each person’s unique perspectives and creating an environment where everyone feels welcome and respected.

By creating such an environment, organizations can attract and retain top talent, increase employee engagement, create a positive working environment, and drive innovation and growth.

Moreover, promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion is important for creating a workplace free of discrimination and bias and fostering a sense of belonging and acceptance for all employees. Ultimately, a diverse and inclusive workplace can help organizations achieve their goals and objectives in an ethical and successful manner.

What is DEI?

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are three interconnected concepts that are important for creating and maintaining a fair and just society. This idea is also important for business.

Diversity refers to the range of differences among people, including but not limited to: race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, ability, and socioeconomic status. It is important to recognize and value these differences, as they bring a variety of perspectives, experiences, and ideas to the table.

Equity refers to the fair and just treatment of all individuals, regardless of their differences. This means providing the necessary resources and opportunities for everyone to succeed and thrive. This can involve things like addressing structural inequalities, such as systemic racism and discrimination and implementing policies and practices that promote fairness and equal access.

Inclusion refers to the active involvement and engagement of all individuals in a given community or organization. This involves creating a welcoming and inclusive culture where everyone feels valued, respected, and heard.

Why DEI is good for business?

DEI is important for business for a number of reasons. First and foremost, a diverse and inclusive workplace can lead to improved decision-making, creativity, and innovation. When there is a range of perspectives and experiences represented in the workplace, it can lead to a broader range of ideas and solutions to problems. In addition, a diverse and inclusive workplace can also improve the company's reputation and attract top talent.

DEI is also important for business because it is the right thing to do. Discrimination and inequality are wrong and have negative impacts on individuals and society as a whole. By promoting DEI, businesses can play a role in creating a fair and just society.

Finally, DEI is important for business because it can improve the bottom line. Studies have shown that diverse and inclusive organizations tend to have better financial performance and higher levels of customer satisfaction. Customers are increasingly seeking out companies that reflect their values and prioritize DEI.

Overall, DEI is important for business because it leads to a more positive and productive work environment, helps to attract top talent, is the right thing to do, and can improve financial performance.

DEI for Small Businesses

Businesses of all sizes benefit from DEI.

In the case of small businesses, DEI is crucial to the success and growth of the company. That’s because the focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion has a greater impact on the company’s employees. Because each employee has a greater influence on the company’s outcome, it’s even more important that each individual feel they’re being properly represented in the company.

Though the size of the company is much smaller than mid-market and enterprise-sized businesses, the magnitude of its impact can be felt to a much higher degree.

This opportunity gives company leaders of small businesses the opportunity to start building the company culture that supports DEI in the workplace.

Challenges with DEI

DEI can be a challenging and ongoing process, as it requires acknowledging and addressing issues of power, privilege, and bias. It also involves ongoing education, self-reflection, and communication. It is important for individuals and organizations to be open to learning and growth in order to create and maintain a truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive society.

A major hurdle for companies who want to align themselves with DEI best practices is building a program that lends itself to fostering inclusion without making others feel left out.

How to practice diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.

Organizational leaders want to build a company culture that reflects the principles of its workforce and the society it operates in. Practicing DEI ensures companies stay aligned with their workforce, their customers, and all stakeholders involved.

Here are some suggestions:

Offer a diverse range of job opportunities
Create a welcoming and inclusive environment for all employees
Have a diverse representation in management and leadership roles
Listen to and address employee feedback
Educate staff members on bias and inclusion
Promote an equitable work environment
Implement policies that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are essential to a successful workplace. Companies need to ensure that they are actively supporting these values by taking steps such as: providing equal access to resources, ensuring fair treatment of all employees regardless of background, and recognizing and valuing different perspectives.

By doing this, they can foster a culture of acceptance, respect, and belonging that will ensure everyone in the workplace feels included and appreciated.

6 mins read

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Tax Benefits of Corporate Donation Matching Gifts: All You Need To Know

Corporate donation matching gifts programs are rising in popularity, and for good reason.

As more companies shift to better business practices and align with corporate social responsibility values, business leaders are looking for more ways to provide employee benefits that also make a social impact. Enter corporate matching gifts programs.

Along with making the world a better place, an added benefit corporate matching gifts programs offer are tax deductions.

In this article, you'll find information on what a corporate matching gifts program is, what tax deductions you can expect from corporate matching gifts as an employer and an employee, and a financial-wellness hack on how to maximize your benefits using donor-advised funds.

What is a corporate donation matching gift program?

A corporate donation matching gift program is a type of charitable giving program in which companies match the donations made by their employees to eligible non-profit organizations.

Corporate donation matching gifts program providers offer experiences that differ in how they streamline the donation experience, consolidate and catalog donation receipts, or give donors access to different features. Those differences include access to a mobile app or access to different tax-advantaged accounts.

Are corporate donation-matching gifts tax deductible?

Yes. Corporate matching gift donations, like independent donations, are tax deductible and follow the same tax deduction rules for donations to eligible organizations.

Tax basics of corporate donation-matching gifts

Corporate matching gift programs offer several tax benefits for both the company and the employees who participate in them.

Matching gifts are tax-deductible expenses and can be deducted from the company's taxable income. This can help reduce the amount of taxes the company has to pay to the government.

For employees, the tax benefits of corporate matching gifts depend on how they make their donations.

Pre-tax donations

The donation is considered pre-tax if an employee donates to an eligible non-profit organization directly from their paycheck through a payroll deduction program. This means the employee's taxable income is reduced by the amount of the donation, and they pay less in federal income taxes and FICA (Social Security and Medicare) taxes.

Additionally, because the matching gift is made by the company, the employee may be able to deduct the entire amount of their donation, including the matching amount, on their federal income tax return.

Post-tax donations

If an employee makes a donation to an eligible non-profit organization outside of a payroll deduction program, the donation is considered post-tax. In this case, the employee can still claim a tax deduction for their donation, but they may not be able to deduct the matching amount made by the company.

It's important to note that the tax benefits of corporate matching gifts may vary depending on the specific laws and regulations in your country and state. It's always a good idea to consult with a tax professional or financial advisor to understand how matching gifts may impact your tax situation.

Using a donor-advised fund as part of your corporate matching gifts program

A donor-advised fund (DAF) is a charitable giving vehicle that allows donors to make a tax-deductible contribution to a fund, which is then used to make donations to eligible non-profit organizations over time.

Many corporate leaders and high-wealth donors channel their donations through their DAF to receive financial advantages.

DAFs offer several tax advantages for donors, including:

Immediate tax deduction: When a donor contributes to a DAF, they can immediately claim a tax deduction for the full amount of the contribution on their federal income tax return, even if the funds are not immediately disbursed to non-profit organizations.
Capital gains tax savings: Donors can contribute appreciated assets, such as stocks or real estate, to a DAF and receive a tax deduction for the full fair market value of the assets. This allows donors to avoid paying capital gains taxes on the appreciation of the assets, which can be significant tax savings.
Simplified record-keeping: When donors contribute to a DAF, they no longer need to keep track of individual donations made to non-profit organizations throughout the year. Instead, the DAF sponsor handles all record-keeping and tax reporting, which can simplify the donor's tax preparation process.
Flexibility in giving: Donors can recommend grants from their DAF to eligible non-profit organizations at any time, allowing them to support charitable causes as their interests and priorities change.
Legacy giving: Donors can name their DAF as a beneficiary of their estate, ensuring that their charitable giving continues after their death.

It's important to note that once funds are contributed to a DAF, the donor no longer has control over the assets and cannot take them back for personal use.

Additionally, DAFs are subject to annual administrative fees, which can vary depending on the sponsor and the size of the fund. As with any tax-related matter, it's always a good idea to consult with a tax professional or financial advisor to understand the full range of tax implications and benefits of corporate matching gift programs and a DAF.

Read more relevant articles:

6 mins read

Blog Post

46 companies practicing CSR and how they’re doing it.

Companies have a responsibility to their customers, shareholders, and the communities in which they operate.

Social responsibility is important for businesses because it helps to create a positive company image, build trust with customers, and create a positive impact in the community. It can also help to foster employee engagement and loyalty, as well as create a more sustainable business model. Companies that exhibit social responsibility can also benefit from a competitive advantage, as customers are more likely to purchase from businesses that are socially conscious.

Additionally, socially responsible companies are better positioned to attract and retain top talent, as employees are increasingly looking to work for organizations that are committed to making a positive impact.

Want to modernize your company’s philanthropy? Visit Groundswell.io and learn how.

Here is a list of 46 companies with what many consider the best CSR practices and how they’re doing it:

Patagonia - This outdoor clothing company is known for its commitment to environmental sustainability and ethical labor practices.

Seventh Generation - This company produces eco-friendly household products and is committed to transparency, social justice, and environmental sustainability.

TOMS Shoes - This company is known for its "one for one" model, in which it donates a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair purchased.

Warby Parker - This eyewear company is committed to social and environmental responsibility, and has a program in place to provide eyeglasses to people in need.

Eileen Fisher - This fashion company is committed to sustainability, ethical labor practices, and environmental responsibility.

The Body Shop - This cosmetics company is committed to ethical sourcing and environmental sustainability.

Ben & Jerry's - This ice cream company is known for its commitment to social and environmental causes and has a history of supporting progressive social and political issues.

REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.) - This outdoor retailer is committed to sustainability and has a program in place to support outdoor recreation and conservation efforts.

The Honest Company - This company produces household and personal care products and is committed to using safe, non-toxic ingredients and environmentally sustainable practices.

Method - This company produces eco-friendly cleaning and personal care products and is committed to sustainability and social responsibility.

Tesla - This electric vehicle company is known for its commitment to sustainability and reducing the environmental impact of transportation.

Unilever - This consumer goods company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact and promote social responsibility.

Google - This technology company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including a goal to be powered by 100% renewable energy.

Apple - This technology company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including a goal to be powered by 100% renewable energy.

General Motors - This automotive company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the development of electric and hybrid vehicles.

Nike - This athletic wear company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact and promote ethical labor practices.

The North Face - This outdoor clothing company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of recycled materials in its products.

Intel - This technology company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including a goal to be powered by 100% renewable energy.

HP - This technology company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of recycled materials in its products and a goal to be powered by 100% renewable energy.

Johnson & Johnson - This healthcare company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of eco-friendly materials in its products.

Microsoft - This technology company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including a goal to be powered by 100% renewable energy.

The Coca-Cola Company - This beverage company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of recycled materials in its packaging.

IBM - This technology company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including a goal to be powered by 100% renewable energy.

Amazon - This e-commerce company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of renewable energy in its operations.

The Home Depot - This home improvement retailer is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the sale of energy-efficient products.

Wal-Mart - This retail company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of renewable energy in its operations.

Target - This retail company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of renewable energy in its operations.

Best Buy - This electronics retailer is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the sale of energy-efficient products.

Goldman Sachs - This investment bank is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the financing of renewable energy projects.

JPMorgan Chase - This financial services company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the financing of renewable energy projects.

Wells Fargo - This financial services company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the financing of renewable energy projects.

Verizon - This telecommunications company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of renewable energy in its operations.

AT&T - This telecommunications company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of renewable energy in its operations.

The Hartford - This insurance company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of renewable energy in its operations.

Procter & Gamble - This consumer goods company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of eco-friendly materials in its products.

The Hershey Company - This food and beverage company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of renewable energy in its operations.

The Dannon Company - This food and beverage company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of eco-friendly materials in its packaging.

Nespresso - This coffee company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of eco-friendly materials in its packaging and the financing of renewable energy projects.

Campbell Soup Company - This food and beverage company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of renewable energy in its operations.

Nestle - This food and beverage company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of renewable energy in its operations.

L'Oreal - This cosmetics company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of eco-friendly materials in its packaging.

Johnson Controls - This technology and engineering company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of renewable energy in its operations.

General Electric - This technology and engineering company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of renewable energy in its operations.

PepsiCo - This food and beverage company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of renewable energy in its operations.

Kraft Heinz - This food and beverage company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of renewable energy in its operations.

Levi Strauss & Co. - This clothing company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of eco-friendly materials in its products.

eBay - This e-commerce company is committed to sustainability and has a number of initiatives in place to reduce its environmental impact, including the use of renewable energy in its operations.

6 mins read

Blog Post

8 Powerful Ways To Elevate Your Corporate Philanthropy Efforts

In today's business world, corporate philanthropy is more than a buzzword. Engaged consumers want to do business with brands that give back — and they're not the only ones. An effective, modern employee giving program is fast becoming a key benefit to attract and maintain top talent. Corporate giving isn't a new concept, but it is one that's evolved — and continues to evolve — over time.

The Evolution of Corporate Philanthropy

In the early days, the owners of companies did good things out of a combination of noblesse oblige and enlightened self-interest. In most cases, they gave to charities that aligned with their interests and pet projects, which may or may not have had anything to do with the purpose of their business. Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, for example, famously championed public libraries because he believed that the key to betterment was education. Henry Ford founded the Edison Institute (now the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village) to share his enthusiasm for American inventions and industry. And Lane Bryant, who founded the first company to sell maternity clothing for women to wear in public, offered free clothing to any woman who lost her wardrobe in a disaster, and donated generously to Jewish charities.

It wasn't until the middle of the 20th century, in the post-World War II era, that philanthropy became institutionalized. Large corporations, such as Ford, AT&T, Phillip Morris and Chase Manhattan Bank established foundations and corporate giving programs that were an integral part of their business. They were motivated by a sense of social responsibility, similar to the business magnates that came before them. The giving programs were often focused on the communities where they did business, and they often made grants with little consideration of publicity or benefit to the business.

In the 1980s, corporate philanthropy underwent a seismic shift with the rise of strategic philanthropy, which ties corporate giving to the strategic marketing and business goals of a company. It's the genesis of the popular phrase "doing well by doing good," which suggests that businesses can benefit their bottom line by giving back to the community in public ways. Corporate philanthropy, done "right" could boost brand recognition, generate goodwill and assure customer loyalty. Many companies aligned themselves with well-known public charities, such as the United Way, and created giving programs for employees within their companies.

Strategic Philanthropy

Strategic philanthropy also took on another meaning with the rise of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Rather than thinking solely of how a corporate giving strategy could benefit the company, corporate boards began thinking strategically about how to tackle big societal problems, like climate change, poverty and social inequalities. While the goals are commendable, the approach had significant shortcomings. As Katherine Fulton notes in an article on the Center for Effective Philanthropy’s website, making strategy is not the same as making change.

One of the major shortcomings of the typical top-down giving program lies in the question: Who decides what we fund and based on what knowledge? Fulton suggests that the people making those decisions are often those furthest removed from the problem, and thus, least aware of what's actually needed to effect change in a community. It also often means that a company is funding charities that are not aligned with the charities and causes that are important to its employees.

A second shortcoming — often directly related to the first — is friction. While Fulton focuses on the meticulous record-keeping and inflexibility that grantmakers often require, the same need for documentation and paperwork can also hamper much simpler corporate giving programs, such as programs that match employee donations. Not surprisingly, the harder you make it for employees to access a donation matching program, the fewer employees will take advantage of it.

Modernizing Corporate Philanthropy

Technology has brought some significant changes to the workplace, to society and to philanthropy. Social media, for example, makes it much easier to publicize initiatives, crowdsource solutions and connect with consumers and other stakeholders.

On the employee side, modern HR technology takes much of the record-keeping burden off the HR department while providing employees with more transparency in managing their own benefits. This extends to businesses who want a better way to provide an employee corporate giving benefit. A modern workplace giving portal makes it easier for employees to engage in charitable giving by removing friction while providing the company with the ability to track trends in corporate giving and evaluate the effectiveness of their corporate philanthropy. By empowering employees to make donations when they want and to whom they want while providing them with particular tax benefits, a corporation can increase employee engagement and retention, improve company morale and attract top talent.

8 Ways To Take Your Corporate Philanthropy to the Next Level

Deciding to engage in charitable giving as a business is always the right move. Whether you're trying to upgrade an existing program or start fresh with a new community giving policy, these tips go beyond common "best practices" to help you create an effective, engaging program that's truly next level.

1. Make It Personal

Include all of your employees in the decision-making process when choosing charities to support. Better yet, let each of them decide which charities and causes are most important to them. Employees will be more engaged in your philanthropic efforts when they're giving to causes that mean a lot to them personally.

2. Support Volunteerism

Giving money is only one way to give back to the community. Volunteering with community organizations offers far-reaching benefits for your employees and your company. Companies that have volunteer days build deeper connections with the community and foster a team spirit among employees. You can support volunteerism in different ways:

Give paid time off for volunteering in the community.
Donate a specific dollar amount to a donation matching fund for each volunteer hour worked.
Have team-building volunteer opportunities, like building a playground or painting classrooms in a school.

3. Make It Easier for Employees To Give

If you already use a donation matching program, upgrade it to make it easier for your employees to access it. If you don't, consider starting one. According to Double the Donation, 84% of employees say they're more likely to give to charity if their company offers a donation matching program.

4. Give Them More Reason To Give

Donor-advised funds (DAFs) offer key tax benefits for donors but have traditionally been reserved for those who have tax accountants. The Groundswell platform allows you to extend those tax benefits to your employees, giving them even more incentive to participate.

5. Shine a Light on Giving

The best programs will fail if no one knows about them. Make updates on corporate giving goals and strategies part of your regular internal communications. Highlight volunteers who give back. Be transparent about corporate giving goals and report back to employees on your progress to them. Create a giving corner in your employee newsletter and highlight all the ways that employees can engage in giving back.

6. Put Your Employees in Charge

In addition to making it easier for your employees to make individual donations to the causes they support, get them on the team for decisions about company-wide efforts. No one knows the community better than they do. Not only will you be giving them a bigger role in your company, you'll also know that your business is doing work that's truly needed in the community.

7. Celebrate Your Team Publicly

Use those social media accounts to highlight team members who are giving back to the community. Share photos of volunteer days or host fundraising appeals. The publicity will burnish your business reputation in the community and the public recognition will make your employees feel valued and appreciated.

8. Take Advantage of Analytics

A key benefit of the Groundswell app is the ability to set funding goals and track progress toward them. Track key metrics to analyze and adjust your corporate giving strategy, and communicate your progress to help employees recognize their role in the bigger corporate picture.

Elevate Your Corporate Philanthropy

Corporate philanthropy is an essential part of any business strategy today. By investing in modern technology and innovative giving strategies, you can increase employee engagement, improve community relations and improve your bottom line. For more information on how Groundswell can work with you to create a customized corporate philanthropy program, get in touch with us today.

6 mins read

Blog Post

The 5 Best Donor-Advised Fund Software in 2023

There are many options if you’re looking for the best donor-advised fund software.

You can undoubtedly look at every single one of them, but it’s not necessary. The top donor-advised funds offer the same basic functionality. The choice comes down to which provider is really in service to the nonprofits donors want to support, offering the service, convenience, and flexibility the company and its donors require.

DAFs are no longer just a tool for the uber-wealthy. Individuals can use them as well. One of the easiest ways to do this is through a corporate giving platform.

Donor-advised funds (DAFs) provide a simple solution to support tax-deductible contributions. They are similar to a charitable foundation without the fuss. In fact, one of the best things about DAFs is how much of the money goes to work for nonprofits.

Although foundations beat DAFs hands-down with 900% more in assets, DAFs comprise 42% of the giving. In addition to being more cost-efficient, DAFs don’t require public disclosures like foundations.

How to compare donor-advised fund software

As mentioned, many of the features and benefits are the same when you’re comparing the top contenders. Most donors will be concerned with fees and minimums that allow them to maximize their charitable contributions. In this article, we’ll compare Groundswell, Greater Horizons, Schwab Charitable and Vanguard Charitable.

The five best DAF software compared

1. Groundswell

Fees: Donors pay no annual fee.

Minimums

Account minimum: $0
Contribution minimum: $1, the lowest in the industry
Grant minimum: N/A

Value Proposition

Groundswell is the cost-effective option with no fees and a $1 minimum contribution amount. It offers a superior user experience in a mobile technology platform.

2. Fidelity donor-advised fund

Fees: Annual administration fee 0.60% or $100

Minimums

Account minimum: $0
Contribution minimum: $0
Grant minimum: $50

Value Proposition

Fidelity offers a set of tools that helps donors find places to donate to and keep track of their donations. However, the annual cost of administration turns people away to other options.

3. Greater Horizons

Fees: Greater Horizons has a $500 minimum annual fee and is tiered according to the balance but pricing is not available online.

Minimums

Account minimum: $0
Contribution minimum: $0
Grant minimum: $0

Value Proposition

Greater Horizons is a good option for those who don’t want the constraints of minimums. However, the signup process is largely manual.

4. Schwab donor-advised fund

Fees: Schwab has a $100 minimum annual fee and is tiered according to the balance. Fees are the second cheapest for accounts under $25,000.

Minimums

Account minimum: $0
Contribution minimum: $0
Grant minimum: $50

Value Proposition

Schwab offers an easy signup process but you’ll need a Schwab brokerage account and the DAF has limited customer service hours.

5. Vanguard donor-advised fund

Fees: Vanguard has a $250 minimum annual fee and is tiered according to the balance. Fees are the second cheapest for large accounts.

Minimums

Account minimum: $0
Contribution minimum: $5000
Grant minimum: $500

Value Proposition

Although Vanguard has lower fees than some, the minimum contribution amount is one of the highest.

Why Groundswell is the Obvious Choice

As mentioned, the main reason DAFs are so popular is that they offer tax advantages. Much like a retirement account, DAF account funds can be invested in appreciable assets and these investments grow tax-free. Donors, themselves, can donate non-cash assets, both privately and publicly held, for the full cash value without having to pay capital gains taxes. So, the donor gets a tax break and once they decide to disburse the funds to a non-profit, there may be more money to give. DAFs used to be available only to the wealthy and were sometimes exploited to pass wealth on to future generations without tax implications.

The biggest advantage of the Groundswell option is its affordability and accessibility. Groundswell democratizes DAFs for all. With Groundswell, every employee can have a donor-advised fund. In addition to boasting the lowest operating costs, Groundswell is doing a few other things differently. The Groundswell philanthropy-as-a-service platform decentralized the process, making it easy for employees to

Donate whenever and wherever they choose
Make affordable contributions
Allocate a portion of their payroll into their donor-advised fund
Take advantage of corporate matching opportunities

Groundswell puts it all in a mobile-first app available on iOS and Android. It’s even easier for companies. They can include DAF contributions as a component of their overall compensation packages. Employee donations are safe, secure, and confidential.

With Groundswell, your employees can be assured that what’s important to them is important to you. Like to know more? Contact Groundswell today.

6 mins read

Blog Post

The Workplace Giving Handbook: Everything You Need to Know

Workplace giving programs offer employees an important benefit.

It gives employees a way to support the causes they care about and trust that their support is actually doing good in the world.

It's not news that people are skeptical of corporate charity — it's why words like pink-washing and greenwashing have entered the public vocabulary. Workplace giving programs offer a way to combat that skepticism and give employees a reason to feel good about the places where they work.

But what exactly is workplace giving, and how do you set up an employee-powered giving program at your company?

What is Workplace Giving?

Workplace giving is any organized program that collects employee donations for charitable causes through payroll deductions and/or one-time donations. The company then disburses those donations to nonprofits.

Over the years, the term has evolved to include volunteer giving programs, and other forms of employee giving programs. These giving programs take many forms today, including payroll deductions, donation match programs, and volunteer giving programs.

Matching Gift Programs

Donation match programs are among the most popular types of workplace giving programs, offered at nearly 65% of Fortune 500 companies, and accounting for $2 billion to $3 billion in donations annually.

The concept is simple in theory: an employee donates to a qualified nonprofit, and the company then makes a matching donation to the same nonprofit.

In practice, matching gift programs can be cumbersome and difficult to manage. In fact, for every dollar donated through matching gift programs, more than $2 goes unclaimed.

Volunteer Programs

In addition to typical volunteer programs — serving dinners at a local shelter or reading to school kids, for example — many companies create or participate in volunteer fundraising events, such as walk-a-thons or charity 5k runs.

Employees participate as a team, and the money raised is donated to the specific non-profit named. These campaigns can be great for team building and bonding, not to mention providing high-profile PR opportunities for the company.

Volunteer Grants

Many companies offer grants to organizations where their employees volunteer. This kind of program ensures that the company is helping to support genuine community organizations that their employees care about. They help deepen the ties between the company and the community and send the message to your employees that you care about the things that are important to them.

Volunteer Hours Matching

The third iteration of volunteer donation programs rewards your employees with the extra cash they can donate to others based on hours that they spend volunteering with community organizations.

Giving employees paid time off for volunteering can make it difficult for workers to keep up with their workload and make more work for nonprofits. Some companies have found ways to reimburse employees for their time working in their communities.

One way is to deposit the equivalent of their salary for hours spent into a Groundswell Personal Giving Account. From there, the employee can direct the donation to their chosen cause, effectively doubling their impact on the ground.

Donations Through Payroll Deduction

Many companies offer employees the opportunity to make giving easy by enrolling in an automatic payroll deduction for a chosen charity. Payroll deductions allow employees to essentially budget their charitable contributions over the course of the year.

However, the choice of charities to support is usually very narrow — often only one or two charities are chosen by the board.

A growing number of CEOs are moving away from the top-down approach to corporate giving, and moving to a model that puts the choice in the hands of their employees.

What Is a Workplace Giving Campaign?

Workplace giving campaigns are typically annual events companies hold to encourage employee donations to a cause.

They're often held in the fall, to coordinate with the holiday season — and of course, the end of the tax year. They can, however, take place at any time. Their purpose is to publicize and raise awareness of any company-sponsored employee giving programs, and get more people involved in them.

Campaigns may also revolve around a specific need or event. These campaigns include disaster relief campaigns, or campaigns to support specific needs in the local community — supporting the unhoused, or providing funds for meals during a pandemic, for example.

How Does Workplace Giving Work?

The nuts and bolts of employee giving programs are rapidly evolving. Legacy workplace giving programs collected donations from employees then combined them and funneled them to one or two charities chosen by the board of directors or the CEO. Historically, there are two major models for doing this.

Payroll Deduction

Programs that collect charitable donations through payroll deductions are the most common workplace giving programs, accounting for nearly 75% of all employee giving annually. Payroll deductions make charitable giving easy on employees — they fill out a payroll deduction form once, and HR/Payroll does the rest. It's so easy, in fact, that when Google implemented a pilot payroll giving program, it increased the likelihood of donations to a promoted charity by 50% without reducing the average amount donated.

In addition, each participating employee has a running record of their deductions on their pay stub, with the current and year-to-date donations recorded. That's a big boon at tax time — their pay stub serves as proof of their donation, so they don't have to scrounge around looking for acknowledgment letters from the nonprofits they donate to.

Nonprofits also benefit from this type of workplace giving program in several ways: they get predictable, sustainable donations, and often get more donations. Just as important, a payroll deduction model reduces the amount of work that falls on their shoulders by transferring much of it to the company's payroll department. Managing a workplace giving campaign is a complex undertaking involving multiple steps and responsibilities.

The company creates a campaign to engage and encourage employees to sign up for the giving program. This is no small undertaking — entire toolkits are devoted to teaching employees and volunteers to run successful campaigns.
The employee fills out a pledge card, designating the amount of the donation and/or the amount to be deducted each pay period. If the company allows it, they may also choose one of several pre-approved nonprofits to receive their donation.
The payroll department — or the company's payroll provider — sets up the recurring deduction for each employee.
If the company also operates a matching donation program, HR processes all donations to set up the matching donation.
Each pay period, the payroll department deducts and deposits the funds from each employee into a central account, then sends the final donation amount to the paying agent, such as the United Way.
The paying agent distributes the funds to the designated organizations.

Donation Matching Programs

Donation match programs can also be time-consuming and difficult to navigate — so much so, that billions of dollars in matching funds go unclaimed every year. A typical donation match program works like this:

The company determines which organizations will qualify for a matching gift and makes the list of qualifying organizations available to employees, and creates rules to determine the amount of the match. There may be differing amounts depending on the employee's position or other criteria. For example, all full-time employees may qualify for 100% matching, while managers qualify for 200% matching.
The employee makes a donation to the charity of their choice.
After determining that their chosen organization qualifies for a match, the employee fills out and submits a request to HR for their employer to match their donation.
HR processes the request and determines the match amount based on the rules.
The company sends a check for the matching amount to the qualifying organization.

Emerging Trends in Workplace Giving

Since the early 2000s, there's been a growing movement to allow employees more choices of donors. Many donation match programs, for example, will match employee donations to any 501(c)3 charity. New platforms are streamlining corporate and employee giving, reducing the amount of work and time that goes into managing workplace giving campaigns and employee giving programs in general.

The newest trends in corporate giving include making charitable giving part of the employee's benefits package and providing granular control and choice on when and where to donate their funds.

Advances in technology provided new tools — yes, there's an app for that — to help companies manage and deploy their corporate giving programs in ways that make sense for their workforces. As the workplace and trends in giving continue to evolve, employee giving programs will also evolve to keep pace and provide the most seamless, empowering giving experience.

Benefits of Workplace Giving Programs

Employee giving programs are not just good for the causes that get the donations. They provide important positives for employees, the company, and the community. These are a few of the most important.

Improved Employee Recruitment: 55% of employees — including 75% of Millennials — would choose to work for a socially responsible company, even if they got paid less.
Increased Employee Engagement: Employees are more engaged at work when they feel their employer aligns with their values.
Increased Profitability: Companies with the most engaged workers are 21% more profitable.
Better Public Image: People think more positively about businesses that give back to the community.
Deeper Community Connections: A well-planned employee giving program helps the business connect and cement relationships with organizations in the community.
Increased Employee Loyalty: Employees are more likely to recommend businesses that support them and their interests.
Higher Retention Rates: Employees who take advantage of employee giving programs stay with the company 75% longer.

What Employees Care About

According to a recent Deloitte Workplace Giving survey, 37% of workers donated to charity through a workplace giving program, but — and this is a big but — when they looked at Millennial and Gen Z employees, that percentage skyrocketed to 58%.

Younger workers, those destined for leadership positions in future companies, care deeply about doing good in the world, and they reflect it in their behavior. They donate because they are connected to a cause or charity, because they want to support their community, and because giving makes them feel good.

When you make it easy for them to plant a tree, buy a kid a desk, or adopt sheltered puppies, your company is showing them that they respect and support the people that they are, not just the work that they do for your business.

Why Is Employee Giving Important?

In addition to the benefits to your employees and your business bottom line, employee giving also brings an immense benefit to the community.

In 2021, workplace giving programs raised more than $5 billion, with about 50% of that coming from matching gift programs. Those donations went to

Education-related causes: 29%
Health and wellness causes: 25%
Community and economic development causes: 15%

Employees who donated through workplace giving programs reported that they donated to

Hunger and homelessness relief: 47%
Education: 23%
Social and racial equity causes: 20%

The right workplace giving program empowers your employees to support the causes closest to their hearts, without judgment and with the confidence that their employer trusts them to put their money where it will matter the most.

How to Set Up a Workplace Giving Program

If this is your first time setting up a workplace giving program, there are some important steps to consider. You want a program that reflects your company's mission and core philosophy, one that your employees will embrace and be proud to use. These are some key principles to keep in mind and some action steps to get you started.

Evaluate Your Company's Corporate Social Responsibility Policy. If You Don't Have One, This Is A Good Time To Brainstorm.

Create a vision for your CSR that balances your responsibilities to your shareholders/owners, your employees, the community, the planet, and any other stakeholders.
Evaluate your current activities in light of community service. Do you partner with local organizations? Host volunteer activities? Make donations to local charities? Any of these would fit under the umbrella of CSR.
Establish a corporate code of ethics detailing how your company will treat employees, customers, the environment, and competitors in all your dealings.
Get strategic with your giving program to ensure that it aligns with your company's values and ethics.

Set a Budget for Your Giving Program.

The amount you budget for corporate giving should be no more than you can afford to give without affecting the cash flow you need to operate your business.
Many large companies earmark 1% - 5% of their pre-tax earnings for charitable giving. Small companies often donate 6% or more to charity.
Consider designating profits from one particular product for giving.
Use the Sabsevitz Ante-Up Formula — multiply last year's pre-tax net income by 1.2% to come up with a donation budget.
Check out more suggestions for setting your budget in this blog post.

Set Up Guidelines for Your Program

Employees: will all employees be included in your benefits program? Will they all be level-funded, or will some positions qualify for a higher workplace giving benefit?
Moments That Matter: Can you make donations more meaningful by tying deposit amounts to specific events in the lives for your employees?
Decide which charities/causes your company will support. Will you restrict employee giving to designated nonprofits? How expansive will your list of eligible organizations be?

Establish A Process For Collecting, Matching, And Donating Contributions.

See the section on How Does Workplace Giving Work?
(Hint: Groundswell takes the stress out of this step.)

Publicize The Program.

The key to a successful workplace giving program is awareness. Your employees can't use a benefit they don't know about, and your company won't reap the benefits if your customers and employees don't know what you're doing. These are a few suggestions for raising awareness of your new employee giving program.

List it as a benefit in your recruitment materials.
Provide an easy — and very visible — way to access your program's front end on your employee website, Discord, or other communication software.
Highlight your program in the company newsletter.
Create and distribute flyers explaining the program, its benefits, and how to use it to your employees.
If you offer donation matches, make sure that local nonprofits are aware of it.
Partner with local nonprofits and community organizations when it makes sense.

Is Workplace Giving Tax Deductible?

The simple answer is yes, in most cases, workplace giving is tax deductible, and has been since 1935 when Congress passed a law allowing corporations to deduct up to 10% of their pretax income on their tax returns. That limit was raised to 25% to encourage more giving during the pandemic.

Maximizing Tax Benefits for Workplace Giving

It's important to understand how tax-deductible donations work in order to maximize the benefits of a workplace giving program.

Some types of corporate giving offer more benefits than others.

DAFs offer unique tax benefits, but until recently, they've been reserved for high-dollar donors. Briefly, a DAF allows your company to make a donation at the most advantageous time — before the end of the tax year, for example — and take the deduction immediately, and decide when and where that money should be donated to nonprofits. In addition, DAFs make it more efficient to donate non-cash assets, such as stock and real estate, to charity, without incurring an additional tax burden.

Workplace Giving with Groundswell

Groundswell's innovative Philanthropy as a Service model democratizes workplace giving by setting up a Personal Giving Account — an individual DAF — for each employee, effectively putting the power of a DAF in the palm of their hand.

The company can make donations into each Personal Giving Account as part of an overall corporate giving strategy, timing the donations to provide the most benefit. The employee then decides when and where to make donations to the causes that are most important to them.

If you're ready to increase the impact of your workplace giving programs, contact us to learn more about how Groundswell can empower you and your employees to do more good and make the changes they want to see in the world.

6 mins read

Blog Post

6 Strategies on How to Engage Remote Employees

A mere 6% of Americans worked mostly from home in 2019. By 2021, that number had tripled according to the American Community Survey. Depending on who’s talking, that’s good news, right?

On the one hand, employees reported higher productivity, increased morale, and better communication.

But then there is the reality. Once the honeymoon period is over, how do you engage remote employees to keep them happily employed in your company? Beyond that, how can your company continue to reap the benefits that accrue from a productive remote workforce?

Pew Research reported in 2022 that when the pandemic was over 60% of workers in jobs that can be done remotely say that they would prefer to work from home all or most of the time. On the plus side, they are enjoying a greater work-life balance and feel more capable of getting the job done. Then there’s the 40% who don’t want to work from home, and even for those who do, there are downsides.

The Inherent Risk in the Remote Model

Harvard Business Review reports that while businesses have seized the opportunity to broaden their talent pool and increase their flexibility, there are social risks that companies can’t afford to ignore.

Among them are increased levels of loneliness, and isolation. Burnout is no small issue, either. Yes, work-from-home employees have greater control over when they work. However, this can be a double-edged sword with today’s always-on technologies.

In fact, remote employees find themselves working longer and harder without the rewards that come from office camaraderie and over-the-cubicle chats with co-workers. They don’t even have a decompression time afforded by a commute.

When workers feel overworked, this can lead to disengagement. It’s the last thing you want for any employee, but it’s even more detrimental for remote workers since, without that face-to-face contact, it can go undetected. There are fewer opportunities to pick up on the visual cues that employees offer when you ask “how’s it going?” Indeed, remote workers may not feel the same sense of loyalty as they would if they worked in the office.

Yet, remote work isn’t going to go away. Today, the challenge is how to engage remote employees and keep them productive for the long haul.

Strategies on How to Engage Remote Employees

All employees, whether they are office-based, hybrid, or remote, can benefit from well-designed retention strategies.

Check out our top 10 here. In addition, your remote workforce may need additional strategies to address issues that, although perhaps not unique to them, impact them more.

Here are six strategies to ensure that your remote employees stick around.

1. Enforce Sustainable Work Habits

The highly touted increase in productivity was a hallmark of remote work during the pandemic. But this could actually be a warning sign that employees are on the fast track toward burnout.

A Microsoft survey indicates that in the year following the start of Covid-19, meeting times have increased by 148%, emails by 40.6 billion, and the number of people working on collaborative documents by 66%.

Sure, some of this frenetic activity has to do with remote work, but “doing stuff” does not always equal greater output. In fact, it could be a sign of inefficiency. At the very least, it’s what happens as workers try to do more to prove their worth by being always on and always available. It may take some creativity, but companies can and should respect and enforce breaks and sensible work habits. GitLab, for example, uses virtual coffee breaks which allow employees to chat together on a video call.

2. Provide Opportunities to Network

When workers are remote, they may miss out on opportunities to network across the company. Those chance meetings and hallway encounters no longer happen. Consequently, networks are getting smaller and the move toward dismantling silos that we saw in the previous decade is all but disappearing.

Some employees will seek networking opportunities beyond the workplace by joining LinkedIn or alma mater groups, pursuing community and volunteer activities, or even spending time in co-working spaces. Still, it’s important for companies to provide remote teams with more opportunities within the organization to keep them engaged. The company can do this through virtual affinity groups, classes, cross-functional teams, and coordinated volunteer activities in the community.

3. Make the Physical Office Space More Enticing

Most remote workers need to come into the office from time to time, particularly if they work a hybrid schedule. The office should be an inviting space with plenty of areas for collaboration.

It’s good to include comfortable rest areas and accommodate nursing moms, exercise, power naps, and more. Every office is different, of course, and not every company has expansive facilities, but a facilities planner can help optimize the space and make it a welcoming place.

4. Supercharge Your Onboarding Processes

A lackluster onboarding experience gets remote employees off to a shaky start. In addition to equipment and software, onboarding employees need support using the technology effectively, finding the right resourcing, accessing documents, and understanding the quirks of the culture.

Don’t assume that just because you have a Gen Z employee, you can plug them into the platform and walk away. While they may fully understand the technology and be fully functional when it comes to performing the job, they may also need the human connection that is missing from a Zoom meeting.

Find ways to facilitate the establishment of personal relationships in person.

5. Keep the Virtual Doors Wide Open

There are plenty of creative ways to collaborate and work together via technology. Every encounter shouldn’t necessarily be about work. Plan virtual coffee breaks, happy hours, games, birthday celebrations, or even non-work-related classes.

It’s not just about peer-to-peer contact. Remote employees need to feel included by their managers. This is particularly important when their managers aren’t physically available.

In-office employees can always talk to their manager even if it’s just a five-minute chat in the hallway. These chance encounters are important because they afford employees and managers an opportunity to connect and air concerns. Make an open-door policy a deliberate and demonstrated part of your communication strategy.

6. Get Interested in Your Employees

It takes very little time and energy to get to know more about other employees. What are their passions? What do they do in their time off? What do they value? What causes do they support?

When employees know that you’re interested in who they are as people, they feel more engaged and committed to you and to the mission of the company.

One way to open up a value-based dialogue with employees is by providing a corporate giving platform like Groundswell.

Groundswell makes it easy for your company to embrace the causes that are important to them. The platform provides a tax-advantaged personal giving account to employees. Your company can contribute matching funds or even sponsor employee volunteers. It establishes charitable giving as an employee benefit, attracting and retaining values-driven talent with a perk that matters.

To learn more, contact Groundswell.

6 mins read

Blog Post

Israel-Palestinian Victims: Where to Support

Israel has declared war against Hamas after the terrorist group launched a surprise attack from Gaza into Israeli territory on the morning of Saturday October 7, the Jewish Sabbath and a major holiday.
In total, more than 1,400 Israelis were killed by Hamas militants, and over 100 civilians and soldiers were taken to Gaza as hostages.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas and retaliated with airstrikes that have killed at least 2,800 Palestinians, and another 9,700 wounded, per Palestinian health officials.
Escalation in the conflict will further endanger civilians on both sides, and humanitarian groups are working to provide support to those in need.
Please consider donating today in support of organizations aiding those impacted.

Organizations providing humanitarian aid:

Groundswell has put together a list of organizations on the frontlines you can directly support:

American Friends of Magen David Adom: Magen David Adom ensures 33,000 paramedics, EMTS, first responders, and first-aid providers -- volunteers and staff -- have the training, equipment, and medical supplies they need to treat all injured and ill people in Israel.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF): As medical centers are overwhelmed, MSF is donating critical medical supplies to hospitals and health facilities in Gaza to respond to medical needs.
IsraAID: IsraAID is partnering with local and civil society organizations to coordinate humanitarian efforts, providing psychosocial support, urgent aid to vulnerable communities, evacuees, and their families.
Save the Children: Save the Children has been working with Palestinian children since 1953, with a permanent presence in the occupied Palestinian territory since 1973. Their main aims are to ensure children survive, learn, and are protected from all types of abuse.
Palestinian Childrens Relief Fund: As a humanitarian organization, its teams are on the ground delivering crucial and life-saving medical relief and humanitarian aid where it is needed most.

The best way to support is to provide funding to one of the many nonprofits that are working to provide assistance to those impacted. You can support them directly today.

Donate on Groundswell

6 mins read

Blog Post

Celebrating the Rich Cultural Heritage: International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples

The International Day of the World’s Indigenous People on August 9 pays tribute to the world's indigenous communities.

About 370 to 500 million indigenous people are estimated to live in 90 countries worldwide. This year, the United Nations is highlighting indigenous youth as agents of change in recognition of the role that indigenous youth must occupy in decision-making around climate action, the search for justice for their people, and the creation of an intergenerational connection that keeps their culture, traditions, and contributions alive. Indigenous communities are threatened worldwide due to challenges ranging from discrimination to climate change.

Indigenous peoples makeup 15% of the world's extremely poor and suffer higher rates of landlessness, malnutrition, and internal displacement than other groups.

Numerous nonprofits are working to protect and preserve indigenous communities in the United States and worldwide – please consider supporting them today.

Cultural Survival

Cultural Survival is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating for the rights of indigenous peoples worldwide.

The organization was founded in 1972 with the primary mission to defend and promote indigenous communities' cultural, political, economic, and social rights and empower them to determine their futures.

What the Cultural Survival organization does:

Advocates for Indigenous Rights: Cultural Survival works to raise awareness about the challenges faced by indigenous peoples, including issues like land rights, cultural preservation, and self-determination.
Supports Grassroots Initiatives: The organization provides support and resources to grassroots projects and initiatives led by indigenous communities. This support helps strengthen their cultural practices, language preservation, and sustainable development efforts.
Publishes Indigenous Media: Cultural Survival publishes various media platforms, such as a magazine, radio programs, and online content, to amplify the voices of Indigenous peoples and share their stories, struggles, and achievements with a global audience.
Promotes Fair Trade: Cultural Survival supports fair trade practices by assisting indigenous artisans and producers market their traditional crafts and products. This initiative helps preserve cultural heritage while generating sustainable income for the communities.
Conducts Research and Education: The organization researches indigenous issues, producing reports and educational materials to raise awareness among the public and policymakers about the challenges faced by indigenous peoples and the importance of protecting their rights.
Fosters Capacity Building: Cultural Survival empowers indigenous leaders and communities through capacity-building programs, offering training in community organizing, legal rights, and sustainable resource management.
Builds Networks and Alliances: The organization fosters alliances and collaborations with other NGOs, indigenous organizations, and human rights groups to strengthen collective efforts in promoting indigenous rights and welfare.

Red Eagle Soaring

Red Eagle Soaring is a nonprofit organization in Seattle, Washington, dedicated to empowering Native American and Indigenous youth through theater arts and storytelling.

Founded in 1992, the organization aims to provide a safe and culturally enriching space for young people to express themselves, explore their identities, and build confidence through creative expression.

What the Red Eagle Soaring organization does:

Native Youth Theater Program: Red Eagle Soaring offers a comprehensive theater arts program tailored to Native American and Indigenous youth. Through workshops, rehearsals, and performances, participants learn various aspects of theater, including acting, stagecraft, playwriting, and directing.
Cultural Empowerment: The organization emphasizes cultural empowerment by incorporating traditional Native storytelling, dance, and music into theatrical productions. This approach preserves cultural heritage and provides a unique and authentic platform for youth to share their stories and experiences.
Youth Leadership Development: Red Eagle Soaring focuses on nurturing leadership skills among its participants. The organization encourages youth to take on responsibilities both on and off the stage, fostering a sense of ownership and agency in their artistic endeavors.
Performances and Workshops: Red Eagle Soaring stages theatrical performances in various venues, including community centers, schools, and theaters, allowing the participants to showcase their talent and creativity to broader audiences. Additionally, the organization conducts workshops and outreach programs to reach more young people and expand its impact.
Life Skills and Mentorship: Alongside theater training, Red Eagle Soaring provides participants with life skills development and mentorship. These programs focus on building self-esteem, communication skills, teamwork, and problem-solving abilities, essential for personal growth and success in any field.
Healing and Well-being: Red Eagle Soaring recognizes the healing potential of creative expression and storytelling. The organization helps youth process trauma and emotional challenges by providing a supportive and compassionate environment, contributing to their overall well-being and resilience.

Huairou Commission

The Huairou Commission is a nonprofit organization that empowers grassroots women and community-based organizations (CBOs) worldwide. Founded in 1995, the organization is named after Huairou, a rural town in China where the Fourth World Conference on Women occurred in 1995.

The Huairou Commission emerged from this conference to address the specific challenges women living in poverty and marginalized communities face.

What the Huairou Commission organization does:

Women's Leadership and Capacity Building: The organization strengthens women's leadership capacities in grassroots and community-based organizations. They provide training, mentorship, and resources to enhance the skills of women leaders and enable them to become effective agents of change in their communities.
Networking and Partnerships: The organization facilitates networking and collaboration among grassroots women's organizations, CBOs, and other civil society groups. By fostering partnerships, they create a global network of support for women's empowerment initiatives and share best practices for community development.
Knowledge Sharing and Research: The Huairou Commission researches and documents women's issues, community-led development, and gender-based challenges marginalized communities face. They share this knowledge through publications, conferences, and online platforms to inform policymakers and practitioners.
Community-Led Development: The organization promotes community-led development approaches, emphasizing the importance of local knowledge, culture, and traditional practices. They support initiatives designed and implemented within the communities, ensuring sustainable development that meets the specific needs of women and their families.
Disaster Resilience and Climate Justice: The Huairou Commission addresses the unique vulnerabilities of women in disaster-prone regions and advocates for climate justice. They work to incorporate gender-responsive strategies in disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation efforts, recognizing that women often play a critical role in disaster preparedness and recovery.
Urban Development and Land Rights: The organization advocates for secure land tenure and housing rights for women in urban and peri-urban areas. They support community-driven initiatives for affordable housing, access to land, and basic services to improve the living conditions of women and their families in cities.
Economic Empowerment: The Huairou Commission promotes economic empowerment among women by supporting income-generating activities and entrepreneurship opportunities. They facilitate access to financial services, skills training, and market linkages to enhance women's economic independence.

Nia Tero

Nia Tero is a nonprofit organization committed to partnering with and supporting Indigenous peoples and communities worldwide. The organization's name, "Nia Tero," is derived from two words from different indigenous languages: "Nia" means "purpose" in Swahili, and "Tero" means "life" in Hmong.

This reflects the organization's mission to work harmoniously with Indigenous peoples to protect their lands, cultures, and rights, recognizing the intrinsic connection between Indigenous communities and the planet's health.

What the Nia Tero organization does:

Indigenous-Led Conservation: Nia Tero collaborates with Indigenous communities to advance conservation efforts that are led and guided by the communities. The organization recognizes Indigenous peoples' profound knowledge of their lands and ecosystems and empowers them to be the primary stewards of their territories.
Land Rights and Tenure Security: The organization works to secure and defend the land rights of Indigenous communities. They advocate for legal recognition of customary land tenure systems and support efforts to protect Indigenous lands from illegal encroachments and land grabs.
Cultural Heritage Preservation: Nia Tero is dedicated to preserving and revitalizing Indigenous cultures, languages, and traditional practices. The organization recognizes the importance of cultural heritage in maintaining the resilience and identity of Indigenous communities.
Climate Change and Biodiversity Conservation: Nia Tero addresses the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss on Indigenous communities and territories. They support community-led climate adaptation and mitigation strategies that integrate traditional knowledge with modern science.
Sustainable Livelihoods and Economic Empowerment: The organization promotes sustainable livelihoods for Indigenous communities, supporting economic activities that align with their cultural values and ecological knowledge. This includes promoting sustainable agriculture, artisanal crafts, and eco-friendly enterprises.
Collaborative Partnerships: Nia Tero actively builds partnerships with other conservation organizations, governments, and corporations to leverage resources and amplify the voices of Indigenous communities in decision-making processes that affect their lands and resources.
Indigenous Leadership Development: The organization invests in the leadership development of Indigenous youth and women, recognizing their crucial role in shaping the future of their communities and advocating for their rights on local and global platforms.

Amazon Watch

Amazon Watch is a nonprofit organization that focuses on protecting the Amazon rainforest and advancing the rights of Indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin.

Founded in 1996, the organization operates at the intersection of environmental and human rights advocacy, working with Indigenous communities to defend their lands, cultures, and livelihoods from threats like deforestation, oil and gas extraction, and other destructive activities.

What the Amazon Watch organization does:

Environmental Advocacy: The organization campaigns against deforestation, illegal logging, and environmental degradation in the Amazon rainforest. They work to raise awareness about the importance of the Amazon ecosystem in mitigating climate change and conserving biodiversity.
Indigenous Rights and Land Defense: Amazon Watch partners with Indigenous communities to protect their ancestral territories from land grabs and encroachments by mining, oil drilling, and agriculture industries. They support Indigenous land titling initiatives and advocate for recognizing Indigenous land rights.
Corporate Accountability: The organization monitors and challenges the actions of corporations operating in the Amazon region. They hold companies accountable for environmental and social impacts, aiming to promote responsible business practices that respect the rights of Indigenous communities.
Campaigns against Oil and Gas Extraction: Amazon Watch opposes destructive oil and gas extraction projects in the Amazon. They work with local communities to resist harmful extractive activities threatening the environment and Indigenous peoples' livelihoods.
Support for Community-led Initiatives: Amazon Watch provides support and resources to strengthen the capacity of Indigenous communities to defend their rights and territories. This includes legal assistance, training, and funding for sustainable development projects.
Indigenous Rights Documentation: Amazon Watch conducts research and documentation to expose human rights violations and environmental abuses faced by Indigenous communities in the Amazon. They share these findings with the international community to promote accountability and justice.
Climate Justice: The organization advocates for climate justice, emphasizing the role of the Amazon rainforest as a critical carbon sink and the impact of climate change on vulnerable Indigenous communities. They highlight the importance of Indigenous knowledge and traditional practices in climate resilience.

Native American Youth & Family Center

The Native American Youth & Family Center (NAYA) is a nonprofit organization based in Portland, Oregon, dedicated to serving the Native American community, focusing on youth and families.

Founded in 1974, NAYA aims to provide culturally relevant services, support, and opportunities to empower Native American individuals and families to achieve self-sufficiency and overall well-being.

What the Native American Youth & Family Center organization does:

Youth Programs: NAYA offers programs specifically designed for Native American youth, including academic support, leadership development, cultural enrichment, and mentorship opportunities. These programs aim to build confidence and foster a sense of identity and cultural pride among young Native Americans.
Education and Academic Support: The organization provides educational support services, such as tutoring, homework help, and college preparation assistance. NAYA strives to improve educational outcomes for Native American students and increase their access to post-secondary education.
Cultural Preservation and Revitalization: NAYA is committed to preserving and revitalizing Native American cultures, languages, and traditional practices. The organization hosts cultural events, workshops, and classes to pass down traditional knowledge and strengthen cultural connections within the community.
Family Services: NAYA offers comprehensive family services, including parenting support, counseling, and access to resources for Native American families. The organization focuses on creating a supportive and nurturing environment for families to thrive.
Housing Assistance: NAYA provides housing support services to help Native American individuals and families find safe and affordable housing. This includes rental assistance, housing counseling, and information on homeownership opportunities.
Wellness and Healthcare Services: NAYA provides wellness programs and healthcare access to support the physical and mental well-being of Native American community members. This includes health screenings, counseling services, and wellness workshops.
Youth and Family Empowerment: Overall, NAYA's mission is to empower Native American youth and families by providing them with the tools, resources, and support they need to thrive. The organization strives to create a strong and resilient community that celebrates and preserves Native American cultures and traditions.

First Nations Development Institute

First Nations Development Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening Native American and Indigenous communities through community-driven solutions and economic development initiatives.

Founded in 1980, the organization supports sustainable economic and social progress for Native American tribes and organizations across the United States.

What the First Nations Development Institute organization does:

Grantmaking and Capacity Building: The organization provides grants and capacity-building support to Native American tribes and organizations. These grants fund community-led projects, including economic development, food sovereignty, cultural preservation, education, and youth programs.
Indigenous Food Systems: First Nations Development Institute promotes food sovereignty and revitalizes Indigenous food systems. They support initiatives encouraging traditional agricultural practices, local food production, and access to healthy, traditional foods.
Economic Development and Entrepreneurship: The organization supports economic development efforts within Native American communities. This includes developing small businesses, providing entrepreneurial training, and supporting community-based enterprises.
Native Youth and Education: First Nations Development Institute invests in the educational and leadership development of Native American youth. They provide scholarships, mentorship programs, and support for cultural education to empower the next generation of Indigenous leaders.
Financial and Technical Assistance: The organization offers financial and technical assistance to Native American organizations and individuals seeking to improve their financial literacy, financial management, and asset-building skills.
Data and Research: The organization researches and collects data on Native American economic and social issues. This information helps inform their grantmaking and advocacy efforts and contributes to a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing Native American communities.
Philanthropic Engagement: First Nations Development Institute collaborates with other philanthropic organizations to increase support for Native American-led initiatives and community development projects. They work to increase awareness and investment in Native American causes.

Native American Heritage Association

The Native American Heritage Association (NAHA) is a nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid and support to Native American communities in need.

Founded in 1993, NAHA focuses on improving the living conditions, health, and overall well-being of Native American families, particularly those living in poverty on reservations.

What the Native American Heritage Association does:

Emergency Assistance: NAHA provides emergency assistance to Native American families facing immediate hardships, such as food shortages, housing crises, and natural disasters. They offer critical support to help families overcome these challenges.
Food and Nutrition: The organization runs food distribution programs that provide nutritious meals to Native American families, especially those who struggle with food insecurity on reservations where access to fresh and healthy food is limited.
Elder Care: NAHA supports Native American elders by providing essential resources, medical supplies, and home repairs. The organization recognizes the importance of honoring and caring for Native American elders in the community.
Medical and Dental Care: The organization offers medical and dental clinics on reservations, providing access to healthcare services often lacking in remote and underserved areas. These clinics help address health disparities and improve the overall well-being of community members.
Warmth for Winter: NAHA runs the Warmth for Winter program, providing winter clothing, blankets, and heating assistance to families who face cold temperatures and lack the resources to stay warm during the winter months.
Housing Improvements: The organization undertakes housing improvement projects, such as repairing roofs, installing insulation, and addressing critical home repairs to ensure safe and livable conditions for Native American families.
Partnership and Collaboration: NAHA collaborates with Native American tribes, organizations, and other nonprofit groups to maximize their impact and ensure that their programs align with the needs and priorities of their communities.

Other causes to support:

6 mins read

Blog Post

Help victims of Morocco's deadly earthquake

A powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Morocco on Friday, and with the death toll already surpassing 2,800 it is the deadliest and most powerful earthquake to hit the North African country in decades.
The epicenter was in the High Atlas Mountains, located about 50 miles southwest of the popular tourist city of Marrakech.
Rescue teams are struggling to reach those in affected areas due to roads blocked by the rubble left in the quake’s wake.

Organizations helping victims of Morocco's earthquake:

Disaster response organizations are mobilizing quickly to support the immediate, life-saving relief efforts as well as longer-term recovery. The best way to support is to provide funding to one of the many nonprofits that are working to provide assistance to those impacted.

Groundswell has put together a list of organizations you can directly support:

International Committee of the Red Cross
Team Rubicon
CARE
International Medical Corps
Doctors without borders
GlobalGiving
UNICEF

The best way to support is to provide funding to one of the many nonprofits that are working to provide assistance to those impacted - please consider donating today.

Donate on Groundswell

6 mins read

Blog Post

October: Causes to Support

October recognizes Breast Cancer, Mental Illness, Poverty Eradication, Animals, and Arts & Humanities.

Nonprofit organizations are working on the frontlines to support causes and the communities most impacted - through direct programming, research, advocacy and much more. They rely on the support from donors to sustain their important work.

Join the Groundswell movement to learn about and support these nonprofits and countless others found on the Groundswell app.

Breast Cancer Awareness

Breast Cancer Awareness Month, observed every October, is an annual international health campaign to raise awareness about breast cancer, the most common cancer in women worldwide, and the most common cancer diagnosed in American women.

With one in eight women at risk of developing breast cancer in their lifetime, it is likely that many employees or their loved ones will be affected. But it is estimated that 50% of all people with cancer are afraid to tell their employers, whether because of sigma or insecurity that exists for people with cancer in the workplace.

There are many amazing nonprofit organizations that are working day in and day out to not only research breast cancer, but also to support preventative measures, as well as those undergoing treatment or on the road to recovery. Consider donating today.

National Breast Cancer Foundation

Delivers help and hope when those affected by breast cancer need it most—now. We provide help and inspire hope to those affected by breast cancer through early detection, education, and support services.

Cancer & Careers

Empowers and educates people with cancer to thrive in their workplace, by providing expert advice, interactive tools and educational events.

Breast Cancer Research Foundation

Provides critical funding for cancer research worldwide to fuel advances in tumor biology, genetics, prevention, treatment, metastasis and survivorship.

Mental Illness

Mental Illness Awareness Week was established in 1990 to raise awareness about the mental illness crisis and provide resources for those impacted. Nearly 50 million American adults live with a mental illness condition, and many do not receive treatment or other support. The pandemic further exacerbated these challenges, especially for young adults - with those impacts continuing to persist in troubling ways.

Nonprofit organizations provide essential resources, therapies, and interventions, advocating for the rights and dignity of those affected by mental health conditions. They bridge gaps in the healthcare system, ensuring accessible and quality care, and fostering a society where mental wellness is prioritized. Consider supporting one of the charities that are working to advocate for and support those impacted by mental illness.

Anxiety & Depression Association of America

Dedicated to the prevention, treatment, and cure of anxiety, depression, OCD, PTSD, and co-occurring disorders through the alignment of science, treatment, and education.

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)

The nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness.

The Jed Foundation

Protects emotional health and prevents suicide for our nation’s teens and young adults, giving them the skills and support they need to thrive today…and tomorrow.

World Animal Day

October 4th commemorates World Animal Day, in dedication to animal rights and welfare. Rooted in a 1925 event in Berlin, and aligned with Saint Francis of Assisi's feast day, this occasion champions the invaluable roles animals play in our ecosystems and daily lives. Yey, despite their significance, many face threats from habitat loss, pollution, and exploitation.

Nonprofits focused on animals are at the forefront of tackling these challenges. They rescue, advocate, educate, and innovate, ensuring animals receive the respect and care they deserve. Supporting these organizations allows them to advance their work, ranging from rescuing animals to advocating for legislative and policy changes.

World Wildlife Fund

Works in nearly 100 countries. At every level, we collaborate with people around the world to develop and deliver innovative solutions that protect communities, wildlife, and the places in which they live.

RE:WILD

Protects and restores the diversity of life on Earth through innovative collaborations among individuals, communities, Indigenous peoples, governments, scientists, and businesses to drive the most pressing nature-based solutions to our planet’s urgent crises. Radical change requires radical collaboration.

Wildlife Conservation Society

Saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature.

Poverty Eradication

The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty - also known as World Poverty Day - is observed every October 17 to bring attention to the struggle of people living in poverty and make their concerns heard. Since its inception in 1987, people from different countries, backgrounds, and beliefs gather every year on this day to show their renewed commitment and solidarity with the poor.

Poverty transcends geography, race and ethnicity - impacting people all over the world. There are numerous charities focused on alleviating and eradicating poverty through their programs, sustained in large part from donations large and small. Please explore and consider supporting their important work to reduce poverty rates all around the world.

Innovations for Poverty Action

Creates and shares evidence, while equipping decision-makers to use evidence to reduce poverty. With a long-term presence in 22 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, IPA leads the field of development in cutting-edge research quality, innovation, and impact.

Concern Worldwide

A global community of humanitarians, partners, and supporters who share a common vision of a world where no one lives in poverty, fear, or oppression, and all can exercise their rights to a decent standard of living.

Against Malaria Foundation

Helps protect people from malaria by funding anti-malaria nets, specifically long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs), and works with distribution partners to ensure they are used.

Supporting Arts & Humanities

National Arts & Humanities Month is a collective celebration and recognition of culture in the United States. It is a time to celebrate the diversity of artistic expression in this country - amplifying a wide range of important voices and stories about the fabric of this country.

There are many ways to support National Arts & Humanities Month - including visiting a local museum, attending a concert, or visiting a local gallery. You can also support one of the many charities found within Groundswell's Arts & Culture cause area, including those in this month’s featured causes.

Americans for the Arts

Builds recognition and support for the extraordinary and dynamic value of the arts and to lead, serve, and advance the diverse networks of organizations and individuals who cultivate the arts in America.

Sesame Workshop

A global impact nonprofit organization with a mission to help children everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder.

Art Start

Uses the creative process to nurture the voices, hearts, and minds of historically marginalized youth, offering a space for them to imagine, believe, and represent their creative vision for their lives and communities.

6 mins read

Blog Post

September: Causes to Support

September recognizes Hispanic Heritage, Childhood Cancer Awareness, Suicide Prevention, Hunger Action, and World Alzheimer’s Awareness.

Nonprofit organizations of all sizes and across geographies are working on the frontlines to support causes and the communities most impacted - through direct programming, research, advocacy and much more. They rely on the support from donors to sustain their important work.

Join the Groundswell movement to learn about and support these nonprofits and countless others found on the Groundswell app.

Hispanic Heritage Month

Hispanic Heritage Month is observed annually from September 15 - October 15 to celebrate the contributions that generations of Hispanic and Latino Americans have made to American history, society, and culture.

The 2023 theme for Hispanic Heritage Month is ‘Prosperity, Power, and Progress’, recognizing the significant strides of Hispanics in the economic, political, and social growth of the U.S. Across the country, communities come together during this time in paying tribute to the generations of Hispanic and Latino Americans who have positively impacted and enriched our nation and society. Many local and national nonprofits are working to empower, protect and support Hispanic and Latino communities across the country - and consider supporting their important work.

Canal Alliance exists to break the generational cycle of poverty for Latino immigrants and their families by lifting barriers to their success - by educating, empowering, supporting and partnering with immigrants and their families to meet their needs.
La Casa De Las Madres responds to calls for help from domestic violence victims, of all ages, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and gives survivors the tools to transform their lives.
Hispanic Federation empowers and advances the Hispanic community, supports Hispanic families, and strengthens Latino institutions through work in the areas of education, health, immigration, civic engagement, & economic empowerment.

Childhood Cancer Awareness

National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month helps bring awareness to pediatric cancer, which remains the leading cause of death by disease for children under the age of 14. According to estimates from the American Cancer Society, approximately 9,910 children and 5,280 adolescents are expected to be diagnosed with some form of cancer in 2023. And more heartbreaking, approximately 1,040 children and 550 adolescents will die from these diseases in 2023.

Researchers around the world continue to pioneer new therapies and explore the root causes of the disease, driving progress that could reveal cures or improved outcomes for patients. Consider supporting this cause by donating to these charities.

St. Jude is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
National Pediatric Cancer Foundation is dedicated to funding and developing novel research and clinical trials to find less toxic, more effective treatments for childhood cancer.
Alex’s Lemonade Stand is changing the lives of children with cancer through funding impactful research, raising awareness, supporting families, and empowering everyone to help cure childhood cancer.

National Suicide Prevention Week

National Suicide Prevention Week raises awareness about suicide, educating the public about its prevention, and reducing the stigma associated with mental health issues. The CDC's provisional data for 2022 show a record high of 49,369 suicide deaths, the highest number on record and about 3% above the toll in 2021.

Donating to nonprofits dedicated to suicide prevention is crucial because these organizations often rely on donations to fund programs that provide immediate help to those in crisis, such as hotlines and emergency interventions. Nonprofits also engage in long-term prevention efforts, including educational programs in schools and workplaces to teach people about the warning signs and how to help.

The Jed Foundation protects emotional health and prevents suicide for our nation’s teens and young adults, giving them the skills and support they need to thrive today…and tomorrow.
Crisis Text Line provides free, 24/7, high-quality text-based mental health support and crisis intervention by empowering a community of trained volunteers to support people in their moments of need.
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention gives those affected by suicide a nationwide community empowered by research, education and advocacy to take action against this leading cause of death.

Hunger Action Month

Hunger Action Month is a time to stand together to build awareness of and take action to fight hunger, which is a very real issue for over 34 million Americans each and every day, including 1 in 8 children. Hunger is the distress that comes from not having enough food which leads to a multitude of other problems, including health decline, developmental delays, behavioral issues, and decreased productivity.

Food banks, pantries, and other food-serving nonprofits all across the country are working tirelessly to ensure those in need of food can get it. Please consider supporting them today - even a few dollars can go a long way towards providing food for those who need it most.

Feed the Children is dedicated to helping families and communities achieve stable lives and to reducing the need for help tomorrow—all while providing food and assistance to help them today.
Global Foodbanking Network advances and unites food banks to nourish the world’s hungry.
Feeding America partners with a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks that feed more than 46 million people through food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and other community-based agencies.

World Alzheimer’s Awareness Month

In September, people and organizations from all around the world work to raise awareness and challenge the stigma that persists around Alzheimer's disease and all types of dementia. And although progress has been made in advancing research around causes and treatments, there is still so much to be discovered about these complex disorders.

Please consider supporting these or other organizations that exist to fund cutting-edge research, and support patients as well as their families and loved ones.

Alzheimer’s Association leads the way to end Alzheimer's and all other dementia — by accelerating global research, driving risk reduction and early detection, and maximizing quality care and support.
Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation works to rapidly accelerate the discovery of drugs to prevent, treat and cure Alzheimer's disease.
Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation provides millions of dollars for novel Alzheimer’s research primarily conducted by the late Nobel Laureate Dr. Paul Greengard.

6 mins read

Blog Post

World Humanitarian Day: Nonprofits Empowering Humanity, Together

On World Humanitarian Day, we unite to honor the indomitable spirit of aid workers and volunteers, whose unwavering commitment saves lives and uplifts communities in crisis.

Join us as we promote the organizations showing compassion and solidarity, working tirelessly to alleviate suffering, and champion the cause of the most vulnerable. With your support, they’ll make a lasting impact on issues like food insecurity, healthcare access, education, and sustainable development.

On this World Humanitarian Day, we can create a place where humanity knows no borders and where the power of collective action propels us toward a brighter future for all.

Be a part of the change this World Humanitarian Day – donate, volunteer, and stand with us as we empower humanity.

Team Rubicon

Team Rubicon is a non-profit organization that deploys teams of skilled volunteers to provide disaster response and humanitarian aid in the aftermath of natural disasters and other crises. The organization was founded in the United States but has since expanded its operations to several countries worldwide.

Critical aspects of Team Rubicon include:

Disaster Response: Team Rubicon deploys highly trained and experienced military veterans, first responders, and civilian volunteers to disaster-affected areas. These volunteers provide immediate assistance in search and rescue operations, medical support, debris removal, and other essential tasks to help affected communities.
Humanitarian Aid: Besides disaster response, Team Rubicon also engages in humanitarian aid missions to support communities facing ongoing challenges. This can include projects related to infrastructure, healthcare, education, and other long-term initiatives to promote community resilience and well-being.
Veterans' Empowerment: Team Rubicon's mission is focused on providing disaster relief and empowering military veterans by providing them with a sense of purpose and the opportunity to continue serving others in meaningful ways after their military service.
Global Reach: While founded in the United States, Team Rubicon has expanded its operations to other countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and others. This global presence allows the organization to respond internationally to disasters and humanitarian crises.
Collaborative Approach: Team Rubicon often collaborates with other non-governmental organizations, governments, and local partners to ensure a coordinated and effective response to disasters and emergencies.
Training and Development: The organization offers training and development programs to its volunteers, ensuring they are well-prepared to handle the challenges they may encounter during disaster response missions.

International Committee of the Red Cross

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is an independent humanitarian organization that protects and assists victims of armed conflicts and other violent situations. Established in 1863, the ICRC is one of the world's oldest and most respected humanitarian organizations. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.

Critical aspects of the International Committee of the Red Cross include:

Humanitarian Mission: The primary mission of the ICRC is to alleviate human suffering in times of armed conflict and other emergencies. It provides impartial, neutral, and independent humanitarian assistance to those affected by conflict, including civilians, prisoners of war, and wounded or sick combatants.
Protection of Civilians: The ICRC protects civilians from the effects of armed conflict and other violent situations. This includes advocating for respect of international humanitarian law, which governs parties' conduct during armed conflicts.
Visiting Detainees: The ICRC visits detainees held in connection with conflicts to monitor their treatment and detention conditions. They aim to ensure that detainees are treated humanely, and their rights are respected.
Humanitarian Aid and Services: The ICRC provides essential humanitarian aid such as food, water, medical care, and shelter to those affected by conflicts and natural disasters. They also help in the reunification of families separated during disputes.
Promoting International Humanitarian Law: The ICRC encourages and strengthens international humanitarian law (the laws of war) to protect civilians and combatants during armed conflicts.
Neutrality and Impartiality: The ICRC maintains a strict policy of neutrality and impartiality, ensuring that political, religious, or national interests do not influence its humanitarian work.
International Presence: The ICRC operates worldwide, with offices and delegations in various countries and conflict zones, ensuring a rapid and effective response to humanitarian needs.

Direct Relief

Direct Relief is a nonprofit humanitarian organization based in the United States that provides medical assistance and disaster relief to people worldwide. The organization was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California.

Critical aspects of Direct Relief include:

Medical Aid and Supplies: Direct Relief focuses on delivering essential medical aid, supplies, and equipment to communities affected by poverty, emergencies, and natural disasters. They support healthcare facilities and clinics, ensuring they have access to the resources needed to care for patients.
Disaster Response: Direct Relief is actively involved in disaster response efforts. When natural disasters strike, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, or floods, the organization works to provide emergency medical supplies and support to affected areas and healthcare providers.
Health Initiatives: In addition to emergency response efforts, Direct Relief works on long-term health initiatives, including disease prevention and control programs. They collaborate with partners and local healthcare providers to address health issues such as maternal and child health, infectious diseases, and chronic conditions.
Global Reach: Direct Relief operates in all 50 U.S. states and partners with healthcare facilities and nonprofit organizations in over 100 countries worldwide. This global reach allows them to respond rapidly to emergencies and health crises wherever they occur.
Transparency and Accountability: Direct Relief is committed to transparency and efficiency in its operations. The organization has received high ratings from independent charity evaluators, such as Charity Navigator and GuideStar, for its responsible use of donor funds.
Medical Supply Chain: Direct Relief has established a robust and efficient medical supply chain to procure, store, and distribute medical resources effectively. They work closely with pharmaceutical and healthcare companies to secure donated products and ensure they reach those in need.
Partnerships: The organization collaborates with a wide range of partners, including corporations, foundations, governments, and local health organizations, to extend its impact and enhance its response to emergencies and health challenges.

Doctors without Borders

Doctors Without Borders, known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in French, is an independent, international medical humanitarian organization. It was founded in 1971 in France and is known for its critical and lifesaving work in providing medical assistance to people in need worldwide, particularly in areas affected by armed conflicts, epidemics, natural disasters, and other crises.

Critical aspects of Doctors Without Borders include:

Emergency Medical Response: Doctors Without Borders provides emergency medical care and assistance in regions facing humanitarian crises. Their medical teams, often doctors, nurses, midwives, and other healthcare professionals respond rapidly to provide medical services and treatment to those in need.
Neutral and Impartial: Doctors Without Borders is committed to maintaining strict neutrality and impartiality. The organization delivers medical aid based solely on needs, irrespective of race, religion, ethnicity, or political affiliation.
Focus on Vulnerable Populations: Doctors Without Borders prioritizes the needs of vulnerable populations, including refugees, internally displaced people, and those affected by conflict and violence. They provide medical care, nutritional support, and mental health services to address the specific needs of these communities.
Mobile and Flexible Operations: The organization's ability to rapidly deploy medical teams to remote or hard-to-reach areas is crucial in providing timely medical assistance during emergencies.
Disease Outbreak Response: Doctors Without Borders has been at the forefront of responding to significant disease outbreaks, such as Ebola, HIV/AIDS, cholera, and malaria. Their experience in treating infectious diseases helps contain outbreaks and save lives.
Advocacy and Raising Awareness: In addition to their medical work, Doctors Without Borders engages in advocacy efforts to raise awareness about humanitarian crises and the need for increased access to medical care in underserved regions.
Funding and Donations: Doctors Without Borders relies on private donations and funding to carry out its medical missions. Their independence from government and political interests allows them to respond rapidly to emergencies and maintain their humanitarian principles.

International Medical Corps

International Medical Corps is a global humanitarian organization that provides lifesaving medical care, training, and support to communities affected by disasters, conflicts, and other crises. The organization was founded in 1984 by Dr. Robert Simon, and its headquarters are in Los Angeles, California.

Critical aspects of the International Medical Corps include:

Emergency Response: International Medical Corps specializes in rapid response to emergencies, including natural disasters, armed conflicts, disease outbreaks, and other humanitarian crises. Their teams of medical professionals and support staff deploy quickly to affected areas to provide immediate medical assistance and relief.
Health Services: The organization delivers various health services, including medical care, nutrition support, mental health services, and disease prevention and treatment. They prioritize the health needs of vulnerable populations, including women, children, and refugees.
Capacity Building and Training: In addition to emergency response, International Medical Corps emphasizes building the capacity of local healthcare workers and communities. They provide training and support to local health professionals, helping to strengthen healthcare systems and improve long-term health outcomes.
Nutrition Programs: International Medical Corps implements nutrition programs to address malnutrition in crisis-affected areas. They work to prevent and treat malnutrition among children and pregnant or breastfeeding women.
Mental Health and Psychosocial Support: Recognizing the impact of emergencies on mental health, the organization provides psychosocial support to survivors and those affected by trauma and stress.
Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH): International Medical Corps integrates WASH programs into their emergency response efforts to ensure access to clean water, proper sanitation, and hygiene facilities in affected communities.
Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Prevention and Response: The organization also addresses gender-based violence in crisis settings, providing support and services to survivors while advocating for prevention measures.
Resilience and Recovery: International Medical Corps emphasizes building strength in communities to better prepare them for future disasters and crises. Their approach aims to assist communities in recovering and rebuilding after emergencies.

Save the Children

Save the Children is a global nonprofit organization focused on improving the lives of children in need worldwide. Founded 1919 in the United Kingdom, the organization has since expanded its reach and operates in over 120 countries, including the United States.

Critical aspects of Save the Children include:

Child-focused Programs: Save the Children's mission centers on the well-being and rights of children. The organization runs programs to improve child health, education, protection, and overall quality of life.
Emergency Response: Save the Children is known for its rapid and effective response to humanitarian emergencies, including natural disasters, conflicts, and disease outbreaks. Their teams provide immediate assistance to children and families in crisis, including food, clean water, medical care, and shelter.
Child Protection: Save the Children advocates for protecting children's rights and well-being. They work to prevent and respond to issues such as child labor, child trafficking, violence against children, and other forms of exploitation.
Health and Nutrition: The organization's health programs focus on improving child and maternal health, providing vaccinations, nutrition support, and access to healthcare services in underserved communities.
Education: Save the Children strongly emphasizes education, working to ensure that all children have access to quality education and learning opportunities. They build schools, train teachers, and support programs that promote learning and literacy.
Child Rights Advocacy: Save the Children advocates at national and international levels for policies and laws that support children's rights and protect them from harm. They work with governments and partners to create a more child-friendly and supportive environment.
Long-term Development: Besides emergency response efforts, Save the Children focuses on long-term development projects that address the root causes of poverty and inequality, ensuring sustainable improvements in children's lives.
Collaboration and Partnerships: Save the Children collaborates with governments, other NGOs, communities, and corporations to leverage resources and expertise and maximize their impact on children's lives.

CARE

CARE is a global nonprofit organization that fights poverty and provides humanitarian aid to vulnerable communities worldwide. The organization was founded in 1945 and has since grown to become one of the world's largest and most well-known humanitarian organizations.

Critical aspects of CARE include:

Poverty Alleviation: CARE addresses the root causes of poverty and inequality in communities, focusing on empowering women and girls. They implement programs and initiatives that support economic development, education, healthcare, and nutrition.
Women's Empowerment: CARE strongly emphasizes women's empowerment and gender equality. They believe empowering women and girls positively changes their communities and society.
Humanitarian Aid: CARE provides emergency assistance and humanitarian aid in response to natural disasters, conflicts, and other crises. Their rapid response teams deliver life-saving support to affected communities, including food, water, shelter, and medical care.
Education and Health: The organization implements programs to improve access to education and healthcare services in underserved communities. They work to ensure that children have access to quality education and that communities have access to essential healthcare services.
Food Security and Nutrition: CARE addresses food insecurity and malnutrition in vulnerable populations. They implement programs to improve agricultural practices, provide food assistance, and promote nutrition education.
Advocacy: CARE advocates for policies and legislation that address the underlying causes of poverty and promote sustainable development. They work with governments, policymakers, and other stakeholders to create lasting change.
Disaster Risk Reduction: Besides emergency response efforts, CARE emphasizes disaster risk reduction programs to help communities build resilience and preparedness for future disasters.

Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is a global humanitarian organization that operates in some of the world's most challenging and crisis-affected regions. Founded in 1979, Mercy Corps is committed to helping people build better, stronger, and more resilient communities by providing emergency aid and sustainable development programs.

Critical aspects of Mercy Corps include:

Emergency Response: Mercy Corps responds to natural disasters, conflicts, and other emergencies to immediately assist affected communities. Their emergency response efforts include providing food, water, shelter, healthcare, and other essential services.
Sustainable Development: The organization focuses on long-term, sustainable development programs that address the root causes of poverty and build the resilience of vulnerable communities. These programs cover agriculture, economic development, education, and climate change adaptation.
Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding: Mercy Corps works to resolve conflicts and promote peace in conflict-affected regions. They engage with local communities and stakeholders to foster dialogue, reconciliation, and cooperation.
Gender Equality: Mercy Corps is committed to advancing gender equality and empowering women and girls. They work to ensure that women have equal access to resources, education, and economic opportunities.
Youth Empowerment: The organization recognizes the potential of young people as agents of change. Mercy Corps invests in youth empowerment programs, providing young individuals with education, skills training, and leadership opportunities.
Technology and Innovation: Mercy Corps leverages technology and innovation to enhance its humanitarian and development efforts. They use digital tools, data analysis, and mobile technology to improve program delivery and impact.
Research and Learning: Mercy Corps conducts research and learning initiatives to understand the complexities of crises and inform evidence-based programming. They continuously evaluate their programs to ensure effectiveness and adaptability.
Collaboration and Partnerships: Mercy Corps collaborates with governments, local organizations, corporations, and other humanitarian agencies to maximize their impact and reach more needy people.

6 mins read

Blog Post

Maui Fires: Disaster Relief Organizations to Support

Help is desperately needed in Hawaii in the wake of devastating, fast-moving wildfires that were burning out of control across the Big Island and Maui for the past week. As of Tuesday, the death toll had climbed to 99, making this the deadliest US wildfire in more than 100 years. Strong winds associated with Hurricane Dora fanned the flames, knocking out local communication and destroying thousands of homes and historic buildings. Maui hospitals are overwhelmed with patients suffering burns and smoke inhalation. Crews in west Maui are doing the devastating work of sifting through the ashes of incinerated homes and beloved landmarks - including the popular Maui tourist destination Lahaina town. While these search and rescue efforts are still ongoing, local officials warn that the death toll may continue to rise.

The best way to support is to provide funding to one of the many nonprofits that are working to provide assistance to those impacted - please consider donating today.

Donate to the following organizations on Groundswell:

American Red Cross
Hawaii Community Foundation
Team Rubicon
Maui Food Bank Inc Maui United Way
Maui Humane Society
Salvation Army - Hawaii
Kailua Alert & Prepared
Oahu Search And Rescue

Donate on Groundswell

6 mins read

Blog Post

Prepare for the Back-to-School Season with These Nonprofit Organizations Focused on Education.

Education is the key to progress and a better future for individuals and communities. As we prepare for the upcoming "back to school" season, we must recognize the incredible work of nonprofit organizations that tirelessly champion education and promote a more equitable and inclusive society.

Around the world, many children and young adults face challenges in accessing quality education due to financial constraints, geographic isolation, and other societal issues. Nonprofits that support education are a beacon of hope, bridging gaps and providing a lifeline for those in need. Their dedication to fostering learning opportunities, cultivating creativity, and nurturing curiosity demonstrate the transformative power of education.

These organizations offer scholarship programs that provide access to higher education and initiatives that provide essential classroom supplies. They demonstrate an unwavering commitment to empowering the next generation.

As we celebrate the "back to school" season, let's acknowledge and appreciate these nonprofits' tireless efforts in uplifting communities, breaking down barriers, and planting the seeds of knowledge that will shape a brighter tomorrow. Together, we can reaffirm our collective responsibility to support education and ensure every child's right to learn is fulfilled.

DonorsChoose

DonorsChoose is a nonprofit crowdfunding platform that connects teachers needing classroom resources with donors who want to support public education. The organization was founded in 2000 by Charles Best, a former public school teacher in the United States based in New York City.

Critical aspects of DonorsChoose include:

Teacher Funding Requests: Teachers from public schools across the United States can create project proposals on the DonorsChoose platform. These proposals outline the specific resources they need for their classrooms, such as books, art supplies, technology, science equipment, and more.
Crowdfunding: DonorsChoose operates on a crowdfunding model, allowing individuals, corporations, and foundations to browse the teacher proposals and choose the projects they want to support. Donors can contribute any amount they wish to the tasks of their choice.
Direct Delivery of Resources: DonorsChoose purchases the requested materials and delivers them directly to the teacher's school once a project is fully funded. Donors receive photos and thank-you notes from the students and teachers they supported, providing a tangible connection between the donors and the impact of their contribution.
Transparency and Accountability: DonorsChoose maintains a high level of transparency and accountability. Donors can see the specific items being funded and the cost breakdown of each project. The organization also follows up with donors to confirm that the materials were received and utilized as intended.
Focus on Public Education: DonorsChoose is dedicated to supporting public education in the United States. The organization aims to enhance students' learning experiences and opportunities in underserved communities by providing much-needed classroom resources.
Corporate and Matching Partnerships: DonorsChoose partners with corporations and foundations to offer matching grants and exceptional funding opportunities. These partnerships amplify the impact of donations and encourage more individuals to get involved in supporting public education.

Since its inception, DonorsChoose has funded thousands of projects and impacted millions of students across the United States. The platform has gained widespread recognition and support from educators, donors, and the public for its innovative approach to addressing classroom resource gaps and promoting equity in education.

Pencils of Promise

Pencils of Promise (PoP) is a nonprofit organization that focuses on improving access to quality education for children in underserved communities worldwide. The organization was founded in 2008 by Adam Braun to ensure that every child can receive a quality education.

Critical aspects of Pencils of Promise include:

Building Schools and Learning Spaces: Pencils of Promise constructs schools and learning spaces in rural and remote areas with limited access to education. They work closely with local communities to identify the most suitable locations for these educational facilities.
Teacher Support and Training: The organization provides training and support to teachers to enhance the quality of education their schools offer. They focus on improving teaching methods and ensuring teachers have the necessary resources to create effective learning environments.
Community Engagement: Pencils of Promise actively engages with local communities to ensure their participation and ownership in developing educational projects. This approach fosters sustainability and long-term impact.
WASH Programs: Pencils of Promise integrates Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) programs in schools to address health and hygiene issues, which can significantly impact children's attendance and overall well-being.
Girls' Education: The organization strongly emphasizes girls' education and empowerment. They work to break down barriers that prevent girls from accessing education and provide support to keep them in school.
Data-Driven Approach: Pencils of Promise uses a data-driven approach to measure the impact of their programs and ensure that resources are utilized effectively to achieve the best outcomes for students and communities.
Donor Engagement: The organization encourages donor engagement by providing donors with updates on the progress of the projects they support. Donors can see the direct impact of their contributions on the lives of the children and communities they are helping.

Pencils of Promise operates in several countries, including Ghana, Guatemala, Laos, and Nicaragua, to expand its impact to other regions in need. The organization is committed to transparency; a significant portion of the funds raised go directly to program expenses.

Since its inception, Pencils of Promise has built hundreds of schools, impacted thousands of students, and worked towards its vision of creating a world where all children have access to quality education and the opportunity to fulfill their potential.

Kids in Need Foundation

The Kids in Need Foundation (KINF) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that aims to ensure every child has access to the tools and supplies they need to succeed in school. The organization was founded in 1995 and is based in Dayton, Ohio.

Critical aspects of the Kids in Need Foundation include:

School Supply Support: KINF operates several programs that provide free school supplies to students and teachers in under-resourced schools. These supplies can include backpacks, notebooks, pencils, art materials, and other essential items needed for learning.
Teacher Grants: The organization offers grants to teachers to support innovative and creative classroom projects. These grants allow teachers to enhance their teaching methods and provide enriching experiences for their students.
Mobile Distribution: KINF operates mobile distribution programs that directly bring school supplies to students and teachers in communities with limited educational resources.
National Network: The Kids in Need Foundation partners with a network of Teacher Resource Centers (TRCs) in various regions across the United States. These centers serve as distribution hubs for school supplies and support teachers in providing quality education to students.
Corporate Partnerships: KINF collaborates with corporations, foundations, and individuals to secure funding and in-kind donations for their programs. These partnerships enable the organization to reach more students and schools in need.
Impact on Education Equity: The Kids in Need Foundation's work is focused on promoting educational equity and leveling the playing field for students in low-income communities. By providing necessary supplies and resources, KINF helps ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to learn and succeed.
Disaster Relief: Besides their ongoing programs, KINF provides emergency assistance and school supplies to students and teachers in areas affected by natural disasters or other emergencies.

Through its initiatives, the Kids in Need Foundation has significantly impacted students and teachers, supporting their learning and teaching experiences and fostering a positive educational environment.

Action for Healthy Kids

Action for Healthy Kids is a nonprofit organization in the United States dedicated to improving children’s health and well-being by promoting healthy eating, physical activity, and overall wellness in schools and communities. The organization was founded in 2002 and is based in Chicago, Illinois.

Key aspects of Action for Healthy Kids include:

School-Based Programs: Action for Healthy Kids works directly with schools to implement programs that promote healthy eating and physical activity among students. These programs aim to create a healthy school environment supporting students’ well-being and academic success.
Parent and Community Engagement: The organization involves parents, caregivers, and community members to promote healthy behaviors among children. They provide resources and support to help parents and communities foster a culture of wellness.
Physical Activity Initiatives: Action for Healthy Kids encourages schools to incorporate physical activity into the daily routines of students. They support implementing physical education programs, recess activities, and opportunities for active transportation to and from school.
Nutrition Education: The organization promotes nutrition education to help students make healthier food choices. They work to improve school meal programs, increase access to nutritious foods, and provide education on the importance of a balanced diet.
Professional Development for Educators: Action for Healthy Kids offers professional development and training opportunities for educators and school staff to build their capacity to support students' health and wellness.
Data and Evaluation: The organization uses data and evaluation to assess the impact of its programs and initiatives. This helps them continuously improve their approaches and strategies to create a healthier environment for children.
Advocacy and Policy Change: Action for Healthy Kids advocates for policies and initiatives that support child health and wellness at the local, state, and national levels. They work to create systemic changes that promote healthier lifestyles for all children.

By partnering with schools, parents, and communities, Action for Healthy Kids aims to create a nationwide movement that fosters healthier habits and positive attitudes toward health and wellness among children.

AdoptAClassroom.org

AdoptAClassroom.org is a nonprofit organization in the United States that connects donors with teachers to provide much-needed funds and resources for classroom supplies. The organization was founded in 1998 and is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Critical aspects of AdoptAClassroom.org include:

Classroom Funding: AdoptAClassroom.org allows donors, individuals, and corporate partners to support classrooms and teachers directly. Teachers create profiles on the platform, outlining their specific needs and the required classroom supplies.
Donor Engagement: Donors can browse teacher profiles and select the classrooms they want to support. They can contribute any amount they wish, and their donations go directly to the chosen teachers to purchase the requested supplies.
Flexibility and Autonomy: AdoptAClassroom.org allows teachers to use the funds they receive to purchase the most relevant and necessary supplies for their classrooms. This autonomy enables teachers to address the unique needs of their students and teaching environment.
Schoolwide Initiatives: In addition to individual classroom adoptions, AdoptAClassroom.org also supports schoolwide initiatives and fundraising campaigns. This allows donors to support an entire school or specific programs within the school.
Support for High-Needs Schools: The organization strongly emphasizes supporting teachers and schools in low-income or high-needs communities where access to essential classroom resources may be limited.
Corporate Partnerships: AdoptAClassroom.org collaborates with corporations and businesses that share their mission to support education. Corporate partners often provide matching grants or other incentives to amplify the impact of individual donations.
Transparency and Accountability: The organization maintains transparency in its operations and ensures that donor funds are used responsibly to fulfill the needs of teachers and classrooms.

AdoptAClassroom.org has become a valuable resource for educators, providing them with the means to obtain the supplies and materials necessary to create a conducive learning environment for their students. Through this platform, teachers receive support from individuals and organizations that recognize the importance of quality education and the role of teachers in shaping young minds.

First Book

First Book is a nonprofit organization in the United States dedicated to promoting equal access to quality education for children in need. The organization was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

Critical aspects of the First Book include:

Providing Books and Educational Resources: The First Book addresses educational inequity by providing new books, educational materials, and resources to children from low-income families and under-resourced communities. They work to ensure that all children have access to high-quality reading materials that can foster a love for learning.
Access to Diverse Books: The organization is committed to offering a wide variety of books that reflect children's diverse backgrounds and experiences. They strive to provide books that feature characters and stories from different cultures and perspectives.
Market-Driven Approach: First Book employs a market-driven model to source books and educational resources at affordable prices. They can offer books and materials to schools and programs at significantly reduced costs by purchasing in bulk and negotiating with publishers.
Distribution Network: First Book partners with schools, community programs, and educators serving children in need. Through these partners, they distribute books and resources to reach children in underserved communities nationwide.
Educator Engagement: The organization actively engages educators and program leaders to understand their needs and preferences. They offer support and resources to help educators create engaging learning environments for their students.
Social Impact: First Book focuses on making a measurable social impact. They track and evaluate the outcomes of their programs to ensure that their efforts lead to positive educational outcomes for the children they serve.
Global Reach: Besides its work in the United States, First Book extends its impact globally, partnering with organizations and schools worldwide to provide access to quality books and educational resources.

First Book's work is supported by a network of corporate partners, foundations, and individual donors who share their commitment to promoting educational equity. The organization's efforts have reached millions of children and educators, significantly impacting educational opportunities for underserved communities.

Blessings in a Backpack

"Blessings in a Backpack" is a nonprofit organization in the United States that addresses childhood hunger by providing food to needy children on weekends. The organization was founded in 2005 by Stan Curtis and Karen Korp and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.

Critical aspects of Blessings in a Backpack include:

Weekend Food Program: Blessings in a Backpack's primary program involves providing backpacks filled with food to children from low-income families on weekends. These backpacks are discreetly distributed to eligible children at schools, ensuring they have access to nutritious meals even when not in school.
Nutritious Food Choices: The organization prioritizes providing healthy food items to children, including non-perishable items such as granola bars, canned fruits, pasta, oatmeal, and more. The goal is to support children's health and well-being while away from school.
Community Engagement: Blessings in a Backpack operates through a network of volunteers and community partners. Local volunteers help pack the backpacks, and community support, including donations and fundraising events, allows the organization to expand its reach.
Public-Private Partnerships: The organization collaborates with schools, corporations, foundations, and individuals to address childhood hunger. Schools identify eligible children, and corporate and community partners fund and support the program.
Impact on Education: By ensuring that children have access to adequate food on weekends, Blessings in a Backpack aims to remove hunger as a barrier to learning. Proper nutrition can positively impact a child's ability to focus, participate, and thrive in the classroom.
Expanding Reach: Since its founding, Blessings in a Backpack has grown significantly and operates in hundreds of schools across the United States. Their reach continues to expand as they address the ongoing issue of childhood hunger in various communities.

The organization's focus on providing food support to children during weekends is essential because many children who rely on school meals may go hungry over the weekend when those meals are unavailable. Blessings in a Backpack's efforts aim to bridge this gap and ensure children have access to consistent and nutritious meals throughout the week.

Food for Thought Denver

Food for Thought Denver is a 100% volunteer organization that strives to eliminate weekend hunger in the Denver area. They provide weekend food bags (aka PowerSacks) to children in need who qualify for free and reduced breakfast and lunch programs during the school week.

The organization was founded in 2012 by Bob Bell, who became aware that many of Denver's school kids were not getting enough to eat — especially over the weekends. With the help of volunteers and their local Arvada Rotary Club, they raised sufficient donated funds to start providing PowerSacks to two Denver public schools.

Today, Food for Thought Denver serves 76 schools in Denver, providing PowerSacks to over 10,000 children weekly. Each bag contains enough non-perishable food items to feed a family of four for the weekend.

Food for Thought Denver is a great way to help your community and make a difference in the lives of needy children. There are many ways to get involved, including volunteering to pack PowerSacks, donating food or money, or spreading the word about the organization.

Here are some additional details about Food for Thought Denver:

They have a team of over 1,000 volunteers.
They pack PowerSacks every Friday at two locations in Denver.
They distribute PowerSacks to schools on the following Monday.

Boys & Girls Clubs of America

Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) is a national nonprofit organization in the United States that provides after-school programs and support to young people, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The organization was founded in 1860 and has become one of the nation's leading youth development organizations.

Key aspects of Boys & Girls Clubs of America include:

Youth Development Programs: BGCA offers a variety of programs that focus on academic success, character and leadership development, and healthy lifestyles. These programs are designed to help young people build essential skills, develop positive behaviors, and reach their full potential.
After-School and Summer Programs: Boys & Girls Clubs provide a safe and supportive environment for children and teens during out-of-school hours. They offer after-school programs and summer activities, including educational support, recreational opportunities, and enrichment activities.
Academic Support: BGCA emphasizes academic success and provides resources and support to help young people excel in school. They offer tutoring, homework help, and programs encouraging learning and academic achievement.
Character and Leadership Development: The organization focuses on instilling values such as integrity, responsibility, and leadership in young people. They provide opportunities for youth to take on leadership roles and contribute positively to their communities.
Healthy Lifestyles: BGCA promotes physical fitness and healthy habits among young people. They offer sports and recreation programs and nutrition education to encourage a balanced and active lifestyle.
Inclusivity and Diversity: Boys & Girls Clubs of America is committed to inclusivity and serving young people from all backgrounds. They welcome children and teens of every race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status.
Community-Based Model: BGCA operates through a nationwide network of local clubs in communities. Each club is independently governed and operated, allowing them to tailor their programs to the specific needs of the young people they serve.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of America has a long history of positively impacting the lives of millions of young people. Through their comprehensive youth development programs, they provide a supportive and nurturing environment where children and teens can thrive and develop essential life skills.

6 mins read

Blog Post

Sharing the Spotlight: Nonprofits for American Theaters

American Theaters that offer live performances have been facing difficult times recently.

Despite the decline in the pandemic, several local theaters and independent art groups are still struggling to secure funding. Unfortunately, this has resulted in a drop in attendance, with numbers still below pre-pandemic levels.

Consequently, many theaters nationwide have had to cancel festivals, reducing performances and staff. This pandemic has only worsened already struggling theater groups. Although some theaters have managed to raise funds, many others still struggle to keep their shows running. While some are advocating for government intervention, donor support is crucial.

Consider supporting one of these organizations to help the arts.

Control Group Productions

Control Group Productions (CGP) is a Denver-based nonprofit organization dedicated to experimental and interdisciplinary performance and art. They focus on creating immersive experiences and exploring the boundaries of traditional performance forms.

CGP was founded by Patrick Mueller and Bailey Harper in 2008. Since then, it has become known for its innovative approach to live performance, combining dance, theater, music, and visual arts elements. The group often collaborates with artists from various disciplines to produce unique and thought-provoking works.

One of the key aspects of Control Group Productions is its site-specific performance. Instead of traditional theater spaces, CGP stages its productions in non-traditional venues like parks, abandoned buildings, warehouses, or other public areas. This approach adds an extra layer of engagement for the audience and challenges artists to work with the specific characteristics of each location.

The themes explored in CGP's performances often revolve around contemporary social issues, personal introspection, and the relationship between individuals and their environment. They use movement, storytelling, multimedia, and technology to create immersive experiences that stimulate the senses and provoke deep reflections.

Control Group Productions has also been involved in community outreach and education initiatives. They offer workshops, classes, and other educational programs to promote the arts and creativity within the local community.

Center Theater Group

Center Theatre Group (CTG) is a prominent non-profit theater organization in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1967, it has become one of the most influential and respected theater companies in the United States. CTG's mission is to enrich, entertain, and transform the cultural landscape of Los Angeles through the power of live theater.

Here are some key points about Center Theatre Group:

Venues: CTG operates three significant venues in the Los Angeles area: the Ahmanson Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum, and the Kirk Douglas Theatre. These theaters host various productions, from classic plays and musicals to new and experimental works.
Diverse Programming: Center Theatre Group offers a varied and eclectic mix of productions, representing a variety of genres, styles, and cultural perspectives. They present classic and contemporary plays, world premieres, and shows from renowned playwrights and emerging artists.
Educational Programs: CTG is committed to theater education and community engagement. They offer educational programs that aim to introduce young people to the theater, inspire creativity, and provide opportunities for students to participate in the performing arts.
New Play Development: The organization is dedicated to supporting new works and fostering the development of emerging playwrights. Center Theatre Group has developed numerous world premiere productions over the years.
Collaborations: CTG collaborates with various local and national theater companies, artists, and institutions to bring diverse voices and perspectives to the stage.
Awards and Recognition: Center Theatre Group has received numerous awards and accolades for its contributions to the arts and the cultural life of Los Angeles. They have been recognized for their artistic excellence, innovative productions, and commitment to community engagement.

Broadway Advocacy Coalition

The Broadway Advocacy Coalition (BAC) is a non-profit organization established in 2016. Its primary goal is to bring about social change by merging arts, advocacy, and activism. BAC is based in New York City and is well-known in the Broadway community.

This coalition was formed due to lacking diversity and representation in the theater industry and the broader performing arts community. It strives to address racial justice, social justice, and inclusion within the theater world.

BAC works with artists, activists, and legal experts to support initiatives that promote racial equity and social justice on and off the stage. The organization utilizes its platform to raise awareness of important causes, create spaces for dialogue, and engage in community organizing efforts.

One of BAC's most notable initiatives is the "Town Halls" they organize. These gatherings provide open discussions and collective problem-solving on various social issues such as racial discrimination, inequality, and systemic injustices.

The coalition also provides resources, training, and support for artists and creative professionals, empowering them to use their art as a tool for advocacy and positive change. By leveraging the power of storytelling and performance, BAC seeks to address pressing social issues and create a more inclusive and equitable future for the performing arts community.

Here are the campaigns BAC is responsible for:

Creating social change through the intersection of arts, advocacy, and activism.
Addressing racial justice, social justice, and inclusion issues within the theater industry and the performing arts community.
Collaborating with artists, activists, and legal experts to support initiatives that advance racial equity and social justice.
Organizing "Town Halls" to provide spaces for open discussions and collective problem-solving on various social issues.
Engaging in community organizing efforts to promote positive change.
Providing resources, training, and support for artists and creative professionals to use their art as a tool for advocacy and social impact.

Black Ensemble Theater

The Black Ensemble Theater promotes diversity and inclusion in the performing arts. Here are some essential facts about this organization:

Mission: BET aims to utilize theater arts to eradicate racism and its adverse effects. They strive to provide positive, high-quality, and transformative theatrical experiences that reflect African Americans' rich history, heritage, and contributions to society.
Productions: BET produces a variety of original and classic theatrical works, including musicals, dramas, comedies, and biographical productions that highlight influential African-American figures.
Founder and Leadership: Jackie Taylor, the founder of BET, has been instrumental in the theater's success. Her artistic vision and commitment to telling diverse stories have helped shape the company's identity.
Community Engagement: BET actively engages with the local community, particularly youth and aspiring artists, through educational and outreach programs. They offer workshops, classes, and opportunities for young people to explore the performing arts and develop their talents.
Awards and Recognition: BET has received numerous awards and honors for its contributions to African-American theater and its impact on the Chicago arts scene.
New Works: BET is a platform for developing and premiering new works by African-American playwrights and composers, contributing to the growth and diversification of American theater.
Diversity and Inclusion: BET is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in the performing arts.

Northern Stage

Northern Stage is a non-profit regional theater company based in White River Junction, Vermont. It was founded in 1997 to produce high-quality professional theater and foster a local community’s love for the performing arts.

Here are some key points about Northern Stage:

Work: Northern Stage produces a diverse range of theatrical productions, including classic plays, contemporary pieces, musicals, and world premieres. They aim to present compelling stories that entertain, inspire, and provoke thought.
Community: The theater is deeply committed to community engagement and educational outreach. They offer educational programs, workshops, and opportunities for students and community members to get involved in the performing arts.
New Works Development: Northern Stage has been actively developing new works, collaborating with playwrights and composers to bring fresh and original stories to the stage.
Venue: The main stage of Northern Stage is located at the Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction, Vermont. The center houses a 240-seat theater and other performance spaces.
Collaborations: Northern Stage often collaborates with other arts organizations, educational institutions, and local community groups to enrich the region's cultural life.
Artistic Leadership: Northern Stage has had various artistic directors and leadership teams, each contributing to the theater's creative vision and programming.
Recognition: Northern Stage has received critical acclaim and awards for its productions and contributions to the arts in Vermont and the surrounding areas.

Entertainment Community Fund

The Entertainment Community Fund (ECF) is a human services organization that caters to the specific needs of individuals working in performing arts and entertainment across the nation.

Established in 1882 as the Actors Fund of America, it underwent a name change in 2020 to reflect its extended scope and objective. Throughout the years, the ECF has assisted countless individuals in the entertainment industry and remains a crucial support system for those working in the arts.

The ECF provides a wide range of services, including:

Emergency financial assistance: The ECF provides financial aid to people struggling to pay for necessities, such as rent, food, and medical care.
Affordable housing: The ECF helps people find and maintain affordable housing. It also provides supportive services, such as case management and counseling, to help people stay housed.
Health care and insurance counseling: The ECF provides health care and insurance counseling to people in the entertainment industry. It also helps people access affordable health care.
Career development and management: The ECF provides career development and management services to people in the entertainment industry. These services can help people find jobs, develop their skills, and manage their careers.
Senior care: The ECF provides senior care services to people in the entertainment industry. These services can help people find and maintain quality care and connect with other seniors in the industry.
And more: The ECF also provides various other services, such as counseling, legal assistance, and substance abuse treatment.

Pablo Center

the Pablo Center at the Confluence is a non-profit arts center in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, USA. The center promotes and fosters the region's arts, culture, and creativity by providing a venue for various artistic and cultural events.

Here are some key points about the Pablo Center:

Origin: The Pablo Center was a collaborative effort between the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, the Eau Claire Regional Arts Council, and other community partners. It was established to meet the growing demand for a modern and versatile arts space in the Chippewa Valley region.
Facilities: The Pablo Center features state-of-the-art facilities, including a 1,200-seat theatre, a flexible 400-seat theatre, galleries, rehearsal spaces, classrooms, and event spaces. These spaces accommodate various performances, events, and artistic activities.
Programming: The center hosts a diverse array of performances and events, including theater productions, musical concerts, dance performances, visual arts exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and community gatherings. The programming aims to showcase local, regional, and national talent.
Community Engagement: The Pablo Center actively engages with the local community by offering educational and outreach programs, workshops, and opportunities for artists and performers to interact with audiences and share their work.
Non-Profit Status: As a non-profit organization, the Pablo Center relies on community support, sponsorships, grants, and donations to sustain its operations and fulfill its mission of enriching the cultural life of the Chippewa Valley region.
Impact: Since opening in 2018, the Pablo Center has become a vibrant cultural hub, attracting residents and visitors to experience and participate in the arts.

IndieSpace

IndieSpace is a non-profit organization promoting independent theater-making in New York City. It offers transparent, responsive, and equitable funding, real estate programs, professional development opportunities, and advocacy for individual artists, theater companies, and indie venues.

IndieSpace was established in 2015 by independent theater artists concerned about the lack of resources and support available for independent theater in New York City. The organization strives to strengthen the indie theater community by challenging ongoing displacement, promoting democratic power, advocating for social and financial equity, and speaking up for the authentic indie voice.

IndieSpace offers a variety of programs and services to support independent theater-makers, including:

Funding: IndieSpace provides grants to individual artists, theater companies, and indie venues. These grants can be used for various purposes, such as production costs, artist fees, and marketing.
Real estate programs: IndieSpace helps independent theater makers find affordable rehearsal and performance space. It also advocates for policies that will protect the spaces that independent theater-makers rely on.
Professional development: IndieSpace offers workshops, training, and other professional development opportunities to independent theater-makers. These opportunities help artists develop their skills and knowledge and build relationships with other theater-makers.
Advocacy: IndieSpace advocates for policies that support independent theater-making. It works with government officials, community organizations, and other stakeholders to ensure that independent theater has a seat at the table.

6 mins read

Blog Post

The Guide to Being a Modern Philanthropist: Elevate Your Impact With Groundswell

This guide is intended to provide resources and inspiration for Groundswell users on how to donate to causes they care about. It provides tips to best identify and donate to charities that have a proven track record of impact. It also discusses how to think about geography and size when deciding where to donate, and explains the ways in which even small, recurring donations can have be powerful for charities working on the frontlines every day.

Groundswell can be your partner in your journey as a modern philanthropist. Your donations are a critical part of addressing society's myriad issues, such as poverty, education, healthcare, and environmental concerns. And giving to others is also good for you. It has been shown that people who donate to charity experience increased happiness and well-being compared to those who do not give. This sense of satisfaction comes from the knowledge that your actions are making a positive impact on the world and helping those in need.

Through Groundswell, you can easily add funds to your account, browse or search for charities, and donate in a matter of minutes. In this guide, we help demystify some of the questions you might have as you consider where, when and how to donate.

Six Tips to Becoming a Modern Philanthropist

Summary

Pick causes and charities that align with your values: When deciding what you want to support, start by taking into consideration the people, places, or problems that you care about most.
Understand impact through the lens of size & geography: The geographic reach of different charities' programs, and how large or small they are, can help as you determine what to support.
Evaluate best in class charities: Learn how to assess not only the financial health of an organization, but also what questions to ask when looking at other impact metrics.
Set a giving goal: Decide how much you want to give annually through Groundswell, and follow the simple steps to set up contributions to achieve that goal.
Maximize impact through recurring donations: Simplify your giving and provide nonprofits with a steady stream of revenue through monthly, recurring donations.
Optimize your giving through tax-efficient strategies: Leverage the versatility of Groundswell to reduce your tax burden through payroll giving, stocks contributions, and bunching.

1. Pick Causes & Charities that Align with Your Values

Your giving journey often is deeply personal, rooted in your own values and lived experiences. When deciding what causes you want to support, it’s important to start by taking into consideration the people, places, or problems that you care about most. Who or what do you want to impact? What cause is most aligned with that? Use that as a starting point to then find the charities best positioned to have an impact on what you care most about. Focusing on specific cause areas allows you to be more intentional about how you donate.

There are thousands of causes and more than a million nonprofits on the Groundswell platform that tackle challenges from all angles, from improving K-12 education or finding a cure for Alzheimer’s to reducing plastics in the ocean or protecting women’s rights.

After determining what causes matter most to you, it’s also helpful to identify the type of impact you are seeking to make. Are you interested in supporting organizations that are “on the ground” providing direct services or those doing longer-term, important policy and research work? That can help guide you in picking the charities that you want to donate to.

2. Understand Impact: Size & Geography

Where to donate

When deciding where to donate, it’s also important to determine where you want that impact to happen. For many people, where they give is closely linked to where they live – their local food pantry, homeless shelter, house of worship, or neighborhood school.

Others may want to focus their giving beyond where they live and donate to organizations that operate in certain regions or even other countries. There’s no ‘right’ answer - and many people choose to donate both locally and globally to a cause they care about. For example, you may want to support an organization that is both on the frontlines supporting refugees fleeing the conflict in Ukraine, as well as helping resettle refugee families near your town in the U.S.

Does size matter?

Similarly, there is no right answer for what size organization is best to donate to. Whether they are large or small, if they have a strong track record of impact and do not have a pattern of mismanagement of funds, they are worthy recipients of donations.

Many people want to donate to organizations that have a proven track record of implementing large-scale programs, or are on a strong growth trajectory, year over year. Larger organizations generally have shown their ability to receive larger amounts of funding, and in turn design and implement programs at a scale that have a greater impact towards the causes you care about most. But small organizations can also be extremely impactful - even if the radius or scope of impact is smaller. Although many of today’s social and environmental problems are massive in scale, the vast majority of nonprofits are tiny; indeed, most nonprofits in the United States are small, grassroots organizations - and 20% have annual budgets of less than $50,000. For smaller nonprofits, even the smallest donation on an annual or monthly, recurring basis can have a huge impact on their ability to sustain programs or even expand.

3. Evaluate "Best in Class" Charities

There are multiple ways to assess the quality of a charity; many ratings sites focus primarily on financial metrics, but it is equally important to assess not only how an organization is managing its funds, but also the quality of its work. And while a rating system like Charity Navigator can be helpful, it is important to know that no rating system is comprehensive. Groundswell offers an important starting point - we only feature organizations that are in good standing with the IRS and eligible to receive tax-deductible donations.

Programmatic Impact: Understanding a nonprofit’s impact - through its programs and the populations that it serves - is an important way to evaluate its effectiveness in tackling the causes you care about. Many nonprofits provide details about programming approaches on their websites, including testimonials, photos, and reports detailing specific results. Keep in mind that understanding and assessing impact is highly qualitative - there is no clear ‘score’ - especially because what or who is being impacted varies across the thousands of nonprofits.

Financial Management: Nonprofits, especially larger ones, are required to disclose details related to their financial performance annually – to include assets, revenue and breakdown of expenses in forms submitted to the IRS. Many nonprofits are proactively transparent about their finances and post audited financial statements and other reports on their websites. But financial data does not always tell a complete story. There may be important investments in fundraising staff, which two years later yield a windfall in donations that can be put towards programs.

Advisories: Sometimes there are advisories based on pending or ongoing legal action. Groundswell works to monitor these advisories and remove any charities that it believes are acting improperly or mismanaging donor funds. We also remove any charities that have had their nonprofit status revoked by the IRS.

Groundswell-curated Featured Causes: While many donors might want to do their own research, sometimes it’s far easier (and efficient) to put your trust in others. Groundswell’s impact team provides donors with additional inspiration, and has done the vetting work to determine cause-specific organizations that are well run and most importantly having a strong impact.

4. Aim High with a Giving Goal

You can use Groundswell’s calculator found under your Profile to set or edit your annual giving goal. This can be a flat amount, or a percentage of your annual salary. While estimates vary, a common range for giving as a percentage of annual salary is between 2-6%.

The good news is that with your Groundswell Personal Giving Account, you can easily set up recurring contributions to stay on track to meet your goals. It’s also important to maximize the matching offered by your company’s giving program, where applicable.

Your giving goal can help fund recurring donations, as well as account for unexpected events that you may want to donate to.

5. Level Up with Recurring Donations

Recurring donations can be a great component of your philanthropic strategy. As a bonus, there are benefits for both donors as well as nonprofits.

For donors, setting recurring donations to autopilot every month or quarter means you don’t have to think about it or go through the steps to do it on a regular basis.

Put simply, it’s a smart use of your time. It is also a symbol of a donor’s commitment to a cause, and a belief in the nonprofit’s ability to have a positive impact - not just in a moment of crisis, but on a continuous basis. Groundswell’s recurring contributions and donations features help facilitate recurring giving.

For charities, recurring donations provide a steady, predictable stream of revenue that helps with budget planning. For many organizations, large or small, recurring donations can have a huge impact. Similar to the trends in grassroots political fundraising, having many small-dollar donors is good for nonprofits.

It helps them build awareness and shows to the larger-dollar donors that there is a community that believes in the nonprofit’s mission. It also helps de-risk; nonprofits with one or two large donors and very few small-dollar donors can run into major problems if any of those large donors stop supporting their work.

6. Optimize Your Tax-Efficient Giving

You can leverage the versatility of your Groundswell Personal Giving Account, which is underpinned by a Donor-Advised Fund, to be strategic and reduce your tax burden.

Donate appreciated stock

If you have appreciated stocks that you've held for more than a year and you donate them through your Groundswell account, you won't have to pay capital gains tax on the appreciation when those shares are exchanged for their market value.

Plus, you'll be eligible for a tax deduction for the full fair market value of the stock at the time of contribution into your Groundswell account.

Give with payroll

You can leverage Groundswell’s Payroll feature to make giving more tax efficient. Contributions to Groundswell through payroll deductions are eligible for an immediate tax deduction for the amount contributed. This means that your taxable income for the year is reduced by the amount of your contribution. Contributing on a recurring basis via payroll also makes it easier to “set and forget” and achieve your giving goals more efficiently.

Bundle contributions

You can also take advantage of the Donor-Advised Fund structure of Groundswell to make a larger contribution in a single tax year and maximize tax benefits by itemizing deductions in the year that the larger contribution is being made - commonly known as “bunching.”

For example, if you typically give $5,000 to charity each year but decide to give $25,000 to your Groundswell account in one year, you can itemize your deductions that year and take the standard deduction in the following years. By doing so, you may be able to minimize your tax burden over time while still supporting the charities you care about.

Want access to other toolkits like this?

Corporate giving programs aim to empower employees and help companies facilitate and support philanthropic efforts. As global access grows and corporations become more diverse, employee representation becomes an increasingly important subject.

Groundswell enables companies to lay the foundation for their employees to adopt a generous giving attitude towards charities and world-shaping efforts.

6 mins read

Blog Post

The Science of Giving: Why Do People Donate to Charity?

It’s easy enough to give away that old sofa stashed in the corner of your garage. But why do people donate to charity? What causes you, or anyone else, to send a $100 check to a foundation or spend an evening tutoring underserved youth? We have dozens of sayings about giving. Do good and good things will happen to you. To whom much is given, much is expected. I can’t do everything, but I can do something. There’s more, but the point is that giving is a part of the human experience. Without a doubt, for many people, it seems the right thing to do. People give because it feels good to do so. Americans are a particularly generous lot. In fact, 60% of us give money, 72% help strangers and 42% volunteer, often just because we are asked. And during the pandemic? Americans became even more generous. In 2020 and 2021, donations were higher than they were in 2019. The average donation per person was $574 in 2021.What’s more, there are undeniable psychological and scientific benefits that make donating important to the human spirit and will keep people giving generously into the foreseeable future.

The Science of Giving: What Happens in the Brain

For Americans, there are plenty of opportunities to spend money which, researchers admit, provide a dopamine hit. So it can be tempting to think that we’re just a purchase away from nirvana. But the accumulation of things is not the type of spending that makes a difference in our lives or the lives of others. We get more bang for the buck, so to speak, when we give to others. That’s because giving has a positive impact on the brain. It makes sense that our brains would reward us for helping to preserve society, releasing the same types of feel-good chemicals as during exercise. It is one of the evolutionary traits that has helped us build prosperous civilizations. In fact, in 2006, Jorge Moll and Jordan Grafman, neuroscientists at the National Institutes of Health, were able to measure the neural activity of giving, thus proving what we intuitively knew already. Subjects were allocated money that they could either keep for themselves or donate to selected charities. By tracking the impact on the pleasure centers of the brain, researchers discovered that the midbrain ventral tegmental area (VTA) and the subgenual area lit up when subjects donated the money. These are the same parts of the brain that light up when presented with a delicious meal or when talking about a romantic partner.

Why Do People Donate to Charity?

For years, there has been a philosophical discussion about whether or not charitable giving is altruistic. Do people give their money and donate their time just for the purpose of doing good, expecting nothing in return? Psychologists and philosophers argue that because charitable acts lead to feelings of happiness and satisfaction, true altruism does not exist.But many people consider this argument flawed. When it comes to human behavior, there are many shades of gray. If a benefactor feels happier following an act of kindness, that doesn’t mean that the motivation is self-serving.

Altruism

Altruism is a hallmark of cooperation. Cooperation underpins our society and is, in part, what separates humans from animals. Why do people donate? Because it feels good. Our society is built on the values of empathy, compassion and solidarity, among others. People give because doing so fosters a sense of belonging and generates meaning and purpose in their lives. There are other good outcomes, as well.

Giving May Help Depression

It’s pretty obvious that giving makes people happier. Michael Norton, professor of psychology at Harvard and co-author of the book, “Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending,” agrees. “When we tell people ‘Hey, did you know that giving to other people can make you happy?’ Most people are not blown away. They’ve had experiences that make them happy. They understand the concept, but it doesn’t occur to us that often to give instead of getting stuff for ourselves.”If you’re assuming that depression is not a major factor in your company, don’t be so sure. According to a July 2021 survey by SilverCloud Health, approximately two-thirds of U.S. workers suffer from clinical levels of depression or anxiety. Depression may mean that employees exhibit a high rate of absenteeism and fall short in key areas of performance, including decision-making, focus and communications. When an employee is depressed, it can have a devastating effect on the workplace. Depression is generally accompanied by a decline in how an individual views themselves. It may seem intuitive for those suffering from depression to attempt to bolster their self-image by focusing on, for example, getting others to notice their positive qualities. But researchers found that goals centered around self-image will likely make matters worse. Alternatively, they found that the pursuit of compassionate goals, that is, helping others, seems to alleviate the symptoms of depression and improve personal relationships. Perhaps that’s because helping others puts one’s own life into perspective and generates a more optimistic outlook.

Giving Increases Longevity

Charitable volunteering could even increase your lifespan. A classic study published in the Journal of Health Psychology concluded that elderly volunteers had a 44% lower mortality rate within the next five years after controlling for health habits, social support and other factors. According to researchers, prosocial spending or spending money on other people (which includes charitable donations) can even lower blood pressure and reduce inflammation, both risk factors for a number of health conditions.

The Charitable Brain and Your Corporate Giving Programs

According to Michael Norton, automatic withdrawals may not be enough to engage your employees. “(Automatic withdrawals are) not going to have as big an impact on my life as if I’m thinking about who I’m giving to and why I’m giving to them and the impact that I’m having.” When you understand how and why charitable giving makes people happy, you can leverage this information to make your corporate giving program one that will not only engage and delight your employees but accrue benefits to the company and to the broader society as well. The best programs align with corporate values and help employees establish habits that facilitate giving in a memorable and meaningful way. Certainly, it makes sense for companies to implement programs that are easy to administer. But they must also ensure that employees are involved in selecting charities, auditing themselves, managing their giving targeting, tracking the good deeds of the non-profits and maybe even volunteering. With a properly executed corporate giving program, companies can realize the many benefits that such a plan has to offer to its employees and to the communities it serves. At Groundswell, we can help you give your corporate giving program a whole new look and feel and make it a pillar of your compensation system. Contact us for more information.

6 mins read

Blog Post

From Dock to Dish: A Deep Dive Into Seafood Sustainability

This week we dive into an interview with Wendy Norden, Director of Science and Global Strategies at Seafood Watch Program at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, discussing the interconnected depths of consumer buying, aquaculture, climate change, and economics of seafood.Celebrating seafood sustainability is a cause bigger than itself affecting human populations around the world as much as the species we fish and farm, and a cause that Meg Vandervort of Groundswell is particularly passionate about. Meg sat down with Wendy Norden from the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Program with questions to help all of us non-marine biologists understand the challenges and successes surrounding sustainable seafood. Wendy spent years working underwater as a marine biologist and researcher, before moving to New Zealand and working in a government role overseeing their seafood industry. For the past twelve years, Wendy has been with the Monterey Bay Aquarium and is currently the Director of Science and Global Strategies for their Seafood Watch Program, responsible for the overall scientific integrity, vision, innovation, and direction of the program. She’s also in charge of maintaining global strategic direction and partnerships that support global fisheries and aquaculture improvement.

Welcome! In celebration of World Oceans Day this year, I’m excited to dive into a topic near and dear to me—seafood sustainability. I’m a huge fan of Monterey Bay Aquarium and have been following the Seafood Watch program for some years now. For those who aren’t as familiar, can you give a brief overview of what Seafood Watch is doing to advance healthier oceans?

Wendy: Sure, and of course. Seafood Watch provides the information needed to make better choices at the supermarket, and we'll work with business partners to really source seafood and see that it’s more responsibly done. And it really boils down to very difficult subject matter into a guide, like red, yellow, and green, knowing what to source and also knowing that you know, consumer choices really do matter quite a bit. You know, that also has very broad reaching applications as well. So when consumers make choices in the United States, our business partners kind of come to the table—they want to source those seafood products that the consumers are looking for and also to make a better planet as well. But on top of that, it also gives producers around the world an idea of where their product is in terms of sustainability. And it is a big landscape, right, from really great production to really poor and everything kind of in between. So, we provide that information that helps guide purchasing but also helps industry understand about sustainability in order to make change and make things better, because our goal really is about celebrating seafood, making the right choices, and hopefully improving the rest.

That’s wonderful! I’m actually curious to learn a little bit more about you. We always love to highlight the people behind some of these amazing movements that are happening, but can you give us a brief history or your journey to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Seafood Watch program, and have you always had a passion for the ocean growing up?

Wendy: It’s a very winding path. Growing up I got into scuba diving. Before college, I worked several jobs and saved a lot of money because I wanted to travel, so then I went to New Zealand, Australia, and Fiji as a young person. When I went scuba diving in most of these places for the first time, I did not realize at that point that it could be a job, like you could actually do this kind of work. The minute I came back home, I officially got advanced certified and I enrolled in college to really be a marine biologist. Everyone told me at that point, “that's nice, you'll never get a job”, but I was determined to do it anyway because I knew I’d figure it out. Throughout college, I had a lot of great internships, and I did a lot of work underwater. I got more experience doing research, but I wanted to do more. I ended up moving to New Zealand for several years, and I got a really great job working for the government working on a program to reduce bycatch, and I actually worked on the observer program for the whole country. That really helped me understand how to work better with the industry, how to set goals that maybe people didn't agree with, but learned how to actually work together. That and science, plus understanding what to actually call it, really helped me. With that experience, I ended up working in academics for a while. When I got to Seafood Watch, all that experience helped me understand how to apply science in an understandable way—how to work with the industry, knowing that you might be at odds at some point, but you actually all want the same end goal as well. It really helped me set up my career, and I’ve been with Seafood Watch for almost twelve years now. It’s been a very exciting journey. I learn every day—something different, something new—and I have amazing partners.

That’s exciting! Sounds like a dream job.

Wendy: Yeah, I feel really lucky. I never get bored. I find I'm amazed at the people that I meet all the time because I travel—or I used to before COVID— all over the place, talking to people about seafood, working with producers, understanding where everyones’ values are. At the end of the day, everyone wants to do a good job for seafood sustainability.

You touched on something that leads me to my next question about seafood sustainability in general, which is that it's actually an extremely complex thing, and it's not so cut and dry, like just buying from the local fisherman, or don’t eat fish.

But between sustainable fishing practices, aquaculture and the seafood supply chain – it's a lot to wrap your head around. What would you say for someone who's just getting into understanding this topic? What is the most pressing thing we can focus on?

Wendy: I feel like at any level, if you want to get involved, there's a place for you. I think if you really just want to, say, I want to understand the source of a particular seafood and I'm going to purchase responsibly, use our information. We boil it all down into very simple red, yellow and green. All of our reports and assessments are online, so if you want to dig a little deeper, you can read those assessments and understand the issues. There really is a place for any level of information you want, essentially, because we put it all out there. It's all out there publicly available. I think it really is important to know that the choices we make do matter at the grocery store. They do mean something. And they help us do our work and improve, because we want to celebrate seafood. We think eating seafood is a great thing. We want to have all seafood produced in a way that's sustainable and when I say sustainable, I mean the environment. I mean food security. I also mean things like better equity and supply chains. So, it really has to be good for people and the ocean.

Oh, that's so interesting. I'm also curious, from the general consumers’ perspective, a question that might come up is “should I potentially avoid buying a particular type of seafood?” For example, if I'm buying shrimp, is it more likely that it's unsustainably caught or has human trafficking attached to it?

Wendy: I go back to using our recommendations. The red is really what things you should avoid. Our hope is that red doesn't stay red. Our hope is not like you just abandon it and say, I'm not buying this again. But it does matter because when consumers don't buy something because it's red, that gives us a lot of incentives to go to the industry and say look, this is really what people are wanting. They want more sustainable products. That does go a long way. What we do in our reports is dig into those major issues. Why does it cause red? So we have standards that we develop from wild-capture and fisheries. We know scientifically why it's not sustainable, and it gives us the consumer demand. It really gives us that extra incentive for the industry to make those changes, which are also good for them. Any seafood product generally can be the best choice, farmed from any country that has a species—it's just a matter of us getting the right data, and us being able to say it isn't being done the right way. So the ability is there, like our green listing isn’t completely aspirational. It is doable, but it's a high bar. Everyone can actually get there. And that is our goal: To push the entire industry and have a much more sustainable industry overall.

On a brighter note, what are some of the bigger recent accomplishments that the Seafood Watch program has had that maybe people don't know about?

Wendy: Well, I think a big one that we haven't talked about enough is our development of our improvement verification platform, which doesn't sound very exciting, but it really is. We have developed the technology with partners to collect data efficiently and quickly on a farm and then scale it up to a region to understand. We actually can assess thousands of farms and in little time spent, get them to that green level. That has not happened in the past. We've developed technology that basically works online or offline and collects data efficiently and quickly, and then we scale it up to a region so you can have more scalable change. It also identifies areas needing improvement. We already have 2,000 shrimp farms going through the system that are green. To me, that's a huge accomplishment that's taken us a long time to develop. Very exciting. We also have recently launched aquaculture governance indicators, which again doesn't sound exciting, but it is because we have developed these indicators. We don't really know what makes really good aquaculture governance structures. What do you need to have? What are the key elements? We worked on developing those key elements to help the governance structures, and it isn't just about legislation, it's about how the industry is formed, and how reactive it is to change and how adaptable it is that the system in place in a country or region that allows for good things to happen allowing for sustainability. Understanding those underlying conditions and what gets in the way of sustainability is super important, because it isn't as simple as saying, here's a checklist. There's a reason why that isn't happening. And it could be infrastructure, it could be poverty, it could be too many illegal things happening. It could be many different things. It helps us understand underlying conditions that exist. A third one I'll just briefly talk about, one issue, is why use antibiotics for aquaculture? And that’s spread across every production system from farm salmon, shrimp, tilapia, you name it. We convened a large working group of fifty people from over twenty-one countries in the last year with the World Bank and came up with the key areas of impact on antibiotics, because we still don't even know that necessarily. What are our key recommendations going forward about what we think we should do, and how do you actually make sure the antibiotic issue doesn’t get out of control? Because right now, with warming water temperatures, you're gonna have more disease, more need for antibiotics. And in poor countries, you often don't even have labels on bottles for these things. Some people don’t really know what they're putting in their ponds. We are going to be launching our key recommendations very soon on that government and industry and then we're also doing a series of workshops to talk to farmers directly and find out what their needs are.

Wonderful, thank you so much for your insight and time, Wendy!

For Seafood Watch’s consumer guides to buying sustainable seafood that Wendy mentions, you can find them at SeafoodWatch.org.Log into your Groundswell Personal Giving Account to support Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Seafood Watch Program.

6 mins read

Blog Post

How To Become a Philanthropist: 7 Steps To Change the World

If you’re wondering how to become a philanthropist, it’s easier than you think. Anyone can do it and, contrary to popular belief, it’s not just for the wealthy. Make no mistake about it: Humans are social creatures. We love to help one another. That’s why philanthropy is so popular. It’s a feel-good activity that improves our world. And the benefits far outweigh the costs. Before you start contributing to worthy causes, however, it helps to understand the options available to you. You’ll want to make good decisions so that you maximize the impact you want to make in the world. No worries, either, about how much — or how little — money you have. All you need is a vision and a plan.

What Is Philanthropy?

A philanthropist is an entity, either a person or a corporation, that provides time, money, or resources — and perhaps all three — to people or nonprofits in need of assistance. The overarching goal is to make lives better for others (or the world we inhabit). Philanthropy is often associated with large sums of money and wealthy people. But, as mentioned, philanthropists can be any person or entity. Even a tiny business can be philanthropic.Some philanthropists rise to rockstar status and are known for their generosity. For example, Warren Buffett, Melinda Gates and Oprah Winfrey are just a few among the mega-rich who have given large sums and had an impact on important social and environmental issues. But you don’t have to be a millionaire, and indeed - many nonprofits are supported by hundreds of thousands of people who give modestly. Even a relatively small donation - alongside hundreds of others who also are giving a small amount - can add up to hugely impactful levels of support for nonprofits working to support communities in need.

What Philanthropy Looks Like

Philanthropy can take a number of forms. These include, for example:Money: Donations may be one time only or on a regular basis. Philanthropists may also bequest money after death or establish a trust.Time: Those who don’t have money to donate or prefer to contribute in other ways can donate time and labor. Examples include volunteering at a homeless shelter or tutoring students after school. As with monetary donations, these can be one-time, yearly or more frequent contributions. Many small, community-based nonprofits are dependent upon the generosity of their volunteers’ time to extend the impact of their mission.Resources: These donations, known often as “in-kind,” include furniture, vehicles, food, clothing, toys, computers, etc.

Benefits of Changing the World With Philanthropy

It may seem to be a cliche, but the benefits of philanthropy are immeasurable for those donating time, money or other resources:

Lends perspective: Philanthropy heightens your sense of connectivity to the world and the things that really matter.
Better health: Your mental health and physical wellbeing both improve when you give back.
Lower stress levels: Volunteering has been proven to lower stress and enhance feelings of well-being by releasing dopamine.
Tax reductions: Donations may be written off on personal taxes.
Social interaction: Volunteering can offer opportunities to network and meet others who are committed to similar causes, and connections can be formed among a group of donors providing financial support.
Improved skill set: As a volunteer or a donor who has researched the causes that nonprofits are working on, you will learn new skills, both hard and soft, and improve your leadership acumen.

How To Become a Philanthropist

As with any good strategy, you’ll need a road map to get to your final destination. Follow these seven steps to become a philanthropist:

1. Clarify Your Goals

Before you decide where to put your time and effort, you’ll need to understand what’s most important to you. What do you value? Where can you make a difference? What would feel good to do? Include your personal or professional goals such as expanding your network. Whether it’s working for climate change or helping your community’s underserved population get the resources they lack, make sure that you feel passionate about the issue.

2. Determine Your Commitment

Before you decide what to do, you need to determine how to do it. Do you want to give money or time? If it’s money, what can you afford? If you plan to volunteer, how much time do you have? When can you volunteer?

3. Choose Your Organization

Once you know the type of commitment you can make, research and vet organizations. Do they align with your mission and values? Where do they work? If you know you want to focus on homelessness in your community, determine if the organization is serving the homeless population in your city. Most organizations share information about their programs, their leadership and how they use their charitable donations. If you have questions, ask. The organization should be transparent and credible.

4. Check With Your Company

Before you completely nail down a target nonprofit, check out the support your company may offer – whether that be a match or volunteer opportunities.

5. Establish a Plan

Based on the causes you care about, the resources you want to commit to and the organizations you want to support, determine your giving cadence. For many, setting up recurring, monthly donations means you can ‘set it and forget it.’ But you might also want to consider setting aside some funds for donating during an emergency - whether it's a hurricane on the Gulf Coast, the war in Ukraine, or a social justice issue.

6. Stay Engaged and Curious

Find your community, and learn about other organizations that are doing important work in support of the causes you care about. You might find that in order to tackle an issue that you’re passionate about, multiple organizations are needed to make change. You can create social connections in-person or online to discover more organizations.

7. Trumpet the Cause

Now that you’re a practicing philanthropist, tell others about the organizations you support and why. They may be inspired to help or to find a cause of their own.

Have Fun With It!

Philanthropy is something anyone can do. Whether you donate time or money, it offers great benefits and improves the lives of others. Find the organization or cause you want to support and go for it. It’s a fun and easy way to give back to the community and expand your horizons.If you would like to know more about a corporate giving program, contact Groundswell. We can help turn philanthropic giving into an essential employee benefit.

6 mins read

Blog Post

Donor-Advised Fund vs. Private Foundation: What's the Difference?

Donating directly to a charitable organization might be the simplest way to give, but there are also various philanthropic vehicles available for minimizing taxes and maximizing impact. Two of the better known structures are donor-advised funds (DAF) and private foundations.

Donor-Advised Fund vs. Private Foundation

While there are 1.4 million registered public charities in the United States, less than 1% are donor-advised funds. Likewise, private foundation numbers, at around 90,000, are relatively modest. The impact of these nonprofit organizations, on the other hand, can be considerable. Here are the key differences between donor-advised funds and private foundations.

What Is a Donor-Advised Fund?

The donor-advised fund (DAF) is a tax-advantaged personal giving account established at a public nonprofit sponsor organization. The account is opened in the donor’s name and contributions are made to the organization(s) chosen by the donor. That might be a charity, but it could also be a university, religious foundation or financial institution. DAFs are enjoying unprecedented popularity with donations jumping by 27% since 2019. Giving from DAFs topped $34.67 billion in 2020, with the five largest — Fidelity, National Philanthropic Trust, Schwab, Vanguard and Silicon Valley Community — accounting for $24.5 billion alone. That said, the size of the average fund is a lot less, at around $150,000. Donors can gift cash, stock, real estate or other assets to a donor-advised fund. Traditionally, DAFs have been viewed as a tax-efficient way to give over a longer period of time without any annual obligation to distribute funds (thus the nickname “zombie philanthropy”), but now Groundswell is empowering corporations to unlock the advantages through our Philanthropy-as-a-Service platform. Whereas DAFs have conventionally been the preserve of the ultra-rich and brokerages, we’re offering access starting at $1 million (the lowest minimum contribution in the industry) to help employees with meaningful giving that benefits communities.

What Is a Private Foundation?

A private foundation, on the other hand, is a legal entity established solely for charitable purposes. Usually launched as a family or organization’s legacy initiative, the private foundation is a long-term project whose influence can spread worldwide. That’s certainly true of three of the biggest three: the Bill and Melinda Gates, Ford and Getty foundations. Private foundations are administered by a board of directors and can receive funds via real estate, investment assets or charitable donations. Unlike public charities, however, they usually derive their financial support from a single source, whether it’s a person, family or organization.

Key Differences Between Donor-Advised Fund vs. Private Foundation

There are a few important distinctions to note between the two, particularly when it comes to the overarching mission and vision.

Longevity

Most donor-advised funds are intended to support charitable giving during the philanthropist’s lifetime, although some do extend to a further generation or two. One of the criticisms of DAFs is that rather than distributing donations to non-profit organizations in need, they are used by the rich to “park” private wealth in a tax deductible fund. That’s not the Groundswell approach. Our platform is designed to establish a minimum annual distribution for DAFs to bring communities to life, not mothball zombie philanthropy funds. Private foundations, by contrast, focus firmly on the future legacy, and most are established as permanent entities that will outlive the founder.

Control

The board of directors (which can include the founder) manages a private foundation. For a DAF, the sponsor organization has control, although the donor may give their recommendation or advice on how grants are distributed.

Profile

Private foundations often celebrate a particular goal or set of values, so concealing the founder’s identity is rarely a concern. DAFs do offer confidentiality, so they are a useful vehicle for benefactors who want to support a charitable organization anonymously.

Establishment

There is a lower barrier to entry for donor-advised funds, some of which can be set up with as little as $5,000, although upwards of $100,000 is more common. Because all legal formalities are covered by the parent organization, DAFs are relatively easy to set up. By contrast, private foundations take longer to establish, and the legal, administrative and tax affairs require professional support. Private foundations usually start with funds of $10 million or more.

Tax Matters

Arguably the biggest difference between the two is in terms of tax regulation. For private foundations, the IRS dictates that a 5% minimum of net investment assets must be distributed annually in the form of grants or administrative expenses. To set up a private foundation, the founder(s) must apply for recognition of exemption under Section 501(c)(3) with the IRS, and will subsequently need to file detailed tax returns on board members’ compensation, fees and grants. All are a matter of public record. Donor-advised funds, on the other hand, do not require any annual grants to be administered but do offer immediate tax advantages, particularly if the donor is receiving a windfall, inheritance or revenue from a business or property sale. Neither do DAF donors have to file tax returns to the IRS, not least because ultimate control of the DAF is with the sponsor nonprofit organization.

We’re Here To Support Your Giving Efforts

Despite the “zombie” tag, DAFs are by no means evil by nature. In fact, they can be an effective way to drive meaningful giving that brings communities to life. To find out how we’re raising zombie philanthropy from the dead with an employee benefit that benefits the world, get in touch with us today.

6 mins read

Blog Post

Anna Malaika Tubbs: On Celebrating Black Motherhood, and Creating a Social Justice-Driven Portfolio

At Groundswell, we are privileged to talk to a wide range of individuals about philanthropy in all its forms. That is why we are so grateful to have had the opportunity to speak with New York Times best-selling author of The Three Mothers, Anna Malaika Tubbs. The Three Mothers shines a light on mothers Alberta King, Louise Little, and Berdis Baldwin, who raised and shaped Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X., and James Baldwin. The book celebrates their legacy and Black motherhood which has shaped much of American history. Anna believes in supporting philanthropic organizations that recognize the importance of motherhood, particularly for black women in America.

Thanks for joining us, Anna. It’s an honor to speak with you. You begin your book by outlining your personal tie to three very incredible mothers — Alberta King, Louise Little, and Berdis Baldwin — and how their history spans over the past century. That’s incredible. What ultimately led you to exploring these three incredible women in particular?

It was done out of curiosity, and it was a sort of elimination process, in the sense that I knew I wanted to do a project like Hidden Figures, Margot Lee Shetterly's book. I wanted to be a person who discovered other hidden figures; other black women whose tales we should have known all along but had been lost, erased, or hidden.

I had an amazing mother who was always talking about the significance of celebrating mothers and paying more attention to the crucial role that moms play in our society.

So I've always had this idea in my head that I'm going to do something about black mothers who should have been known.I wanted to focus on the civil rights movement because it comes up so frequently in our policy debates and other discussions. I whittled it down to these three since they were born within six years of each other, and their famous kids were born within five years of each other. This brought them together over time without reducing their complexity and diversity, while celebrating their differences; each chapter covers ten years of their lives.

What I think is so great about your book is your approach to research, and how you were so honest about what information you could find and what you could not. The absence of history is equally as important. That said, you talk about the erasure of Black Women in history, especially through the eyes of Alberta, Louise, and Berdis. Even through your initial research it was hard to nail down exact details like birthdays, and you say Berdis’s name wasn’t even listed in the US. Census. For those who are unaware, can you outline why this Is so important to explore this history and how it better informs us today?

The research process was really difficult, and I'd like to point out that this was also the subject of my PhD dissertation, so this is completely original research.

I needed to dig for every single detail that I uncovered, and even if I found a small nugget of information, I needed to push further to understand the context behind it.

Also, I needed to remember that a lot of what I was finding had been filtered via men, typically white men, who recounted these stories quite differently from how I would. So it was highly complicated, requiring a variety of procedures such as contacting local historians, searching census data, locating land deed, birth certificates, death certificates, and interviewing family members. I'm doing my best to fill in the blanks with information from documents I discover. But it is a reminder to us, first and foremost, of how we value various lives in different ways.

I like to speak about each of our lives as if they are puzzles, and certain puzzles we put together, frame, and hang, either on a mantel or on a wall, to treasure, marvel at, celebrate, and honor.

Then there are the puzzles that we just leave on the ground; every time we move, we leave some pieces in one house, we may throw them away, or the dog may chew on them; no one is ensuring that we retain this information, notice it, or care about it. So I was there, putting the puzzle pieces together.

What I believe is important is that we do this for more people; each story does matter, especially when we see how black women have contributed everything they could to the progression of this nation.

Unfortunately, we continue to disregard their lives, saying, your history doesn't matter, your contributions don't matter. As a result, we've arrived at a point where we don't understand what's going on in our country. We believe that all of these instances of sexism and racism, the intersectionality of the two, as well as the many other isms with which it intersects, occur at random or independently of one another, rather than as a product of years and years of devaluing lives.It's done through systems, regulations, and extremely strategic tactics to eliminate people in order to keep those puzzle parts scattered and concealed. So I simply want more of us to take on that project. I don't want this to be the only book about the three of them. I was declaring that they are worthy of study, worthy of celebration, and worthy of being on the cover of a book. Because what they deserve, in my opinion, was to be seen, celebrated, and honored.

Speaking especially of Alberta, Louise, and Berdis' stories, what surprised you when writing your book, and what was left out of their history?

When I first came up with the idea, I merely wanted to recognize them as individuals with their own interesting lives. I knew they'd be not just intriguing, but also valuable to our society in the ways they were generating life beyond their children through activism and creativity. I wasn't trying to argue that since Alberta [King] did this, Martin [Luther King] did this—I wasn't trying to emphasize the sons in that way. But every piece of information madethe relationship and connections so evident, they’re undeniable.Even if I didn't tell you their names and only described the women based on their passions and approach to fighting for freedom, you'd be able to connect them with their sons. Even if you only know a little bit about the sons.Those are the instances where it's surprising we didn't already know their names.

Moms affect their children in a variety of ways, and you can't dispute it in these three cases.

Because you almost had to work at separating them, it made the erasure even more infuriating. You must purposefully leave out the fact that they are linked. During the course of writing this book, I discovered that the sons did give credit to their mothers. So it's not really their fault; rather, it's those of us who have researched them and determined that they don't fit our racist patriarchal view of who matters. Those who have said, we'll leave that as a footnote but we're not going to center it in the way you believe it should be centered in the record.

You talk about how the media played a role in the erasure of these women’s stories, which essentially shaped what the narratives would become. How does this affect those that are intentionally being erased?

This is a fantastic segue for me to speak about my TED talk, because it's all about storytelling and how we follow the stories that we’re told and how our policy reflects that. In the TED talk, I address the way we talk about moms in the stories we share, not only on an interpersonal level, but in media and in literature. We thank moms for being selfless and putting everyone else's needs ahead of their own.

Moms themselves then believe they should be individuals who don't have their own needs and don't have their own identities.

That can be excruciatingly painful, frustrating, and confusing. It also expands on the stories we're telling in the media that don't highlight the contributions of mothers. We as a society believe that mothers are exclusively important in the domestic sphere, or we take those contributions for granted, or employers will try to fire mothers because they believe they are distracted, even though there is no evidence to support this.Then we see that when it comes to voting for policies that could actually help moms and provide them the support and resources they need for their important job, we can't get them passed because people don't seem to believe they're required. So, if you don't believe the role is important, or that it is easy, you're not going to vote for things like parental leave.We live in a country that does not value motherhood; we do not have affordable childcare, universal preschool, or even universal health care, all of which overlap with the role of motherhood. During the pandemic, we saw many women, particularly moms of color, leave their work because they had no other option. I do believe that a lot of that stems from our cultural understanding of motherhood; if more of us understood the essential nature of the job, stay-at-home moms, for example, what they do for all of us, not just for their children, but for all of us day in and day out, it would be easy for us to say, "Yeah, let's vote for those things. We need that," so I want us to see more stories that represent mothers accurately and their role more appropriately.

Out of curiosity, are you aware of any other cultures outside of America that properly values motherhood?

We've seen these rankings in terms of maternal health and motherhood happiness in the United States, which is really low when compared to other countries. We have a maternal health problem that is disproportionately affecting black women and women of color, but it also affects all women; women are dying at higher rates in this country. That is something that we should all be very concerned about.

Mothers are reporting higher levels of postpartum depression, they're burning out, they're exhausted.

They feel like there's something wrong with them, because they've been told they're supposed to take care of all of this, and then not be thanked for it. As if it's okay to be invisible.Sweden and other Scandinavian countries, for example, have models and policies that we may replicate in the United States. Scandinavia has a more homogeneous culture than the United States; we have a lot more diversity here. However, this does not preclude the adoption of universal parental leave or the distribution of baby boxes in the United States. In Sweden, for example, parents receive a package including the fundamental necessities that they will require when raising a child. That is something we could do in the United States. We could create daycare centers in companies so that if parents do return to work outside the home, they may bring their children with them to the same location, which would increase production for the entire company.

There are many bits and pieces and policies from other countries that I believe we can still apply to the United States, despite the fact that our population is considerably more diverse than that of most other countries.

What organizations would you include now in your own giving portfolio for advocacy work, particularly around motherhood?

The first one I think of is Black Mama's Matter. In the United States, black women, particularly black moms, are still considered as less than human beings. Their effort to build this alliance of people with diverse knowledge, backgrounds, and experiences to address the core causes of black maternal health and the black mother’s experience in the United States is critical.

I wanted to write about black mothers because the dehumanization is evident when you look at the relationship between our country and black mothers in the United States – mothers being refused basic treatment, denied human respect, and being treated with a lack of basic decency.

I also really love the work of the Young Women's Freedom Center. It's in San Francisco, and it works with women who have been impacted by various systems, such as incarceration or juvie. All of these other things that have locked our young women of color away and then blamed them for their experiences, rather than the systems that have pushed them to the margins and forgotten about them and tried to ignore them. Through working with the center, they can reclaim their identity and use their voice.Essie Justice Group is another. It is led by a friend of mine. We see that the cost of having a loved one in prison is quite high, and black women are spending a lot of their money paying into this mass incarceration system in the United States. Instead of addressing the various issues that lead to them being taken away and locked up, we continue to place that burden on the shoulders of black women. So anything that relieves that weight, anything that reminds us that this isn't just a black woman's problem to fix, but that it will affect our entire nation is work that I support and a message that I try to elevate.

If we can come together and really focus on the experience of black women, it will be beneficial to us all.

All of those organizations sound incredible. What is your process of finding which organizations to support around a cause?

I like to begin by asking why we want to talk about black women, and by discussing the legislation that has existed from the beginning of slavery and states that black women are the producers of property rather than the producers of life. It is important to understand that from the start, the idea that a black person's life begins as property is key to understanding the ills of our nation.That is what we want to examine, as well as how this concept about the life of a black person has permeated so many different systems. Then we'd want to know who the organizations are that are dealing with those various systems. So whether that's through tackling mass incarceration – which continues to say that these people are objects and not people, and we can control their lives and their lives matter less than other people's lives – or through thinking about the American gynecological system, and how it's based on experimenting on the bodies of enslaved black women.I’d ask: How is all that still playing out today? Who are the organizations that recognize black women as having been viewed as less than human? What are they doing now to fight for humanity? That's how I'd organize a portfolio.

For our last question, what advice would you give to someone who wishes to be a true ally, especially after reading your book?

That's a great question. When the topic of allyship comes up, I remember my mother, a white woman with black children.

She would approach me and say, "In this world, I have no idea what it's like to be a black girl or a black woman. And I'm not going to pretend I know; I'm not going to claim to understand your experiences. But what I can say is that I believe you are worthy of the same respect and dignity that everyone else is, and I will walk with you, learn with you, and do my best to make this world a better place for you."

I'm paraphrasing; these are not exact words; they are a compilation of lessons learned throughout the last 29 years of my life. But this was her general approach to things, and that's exactly what we're looking for in allies.We're not expecting somebody to say, "I know what it's like to be a black woman," because that's not the correct thing to say. Don't say anything like that. It's fine to recognize that your and mine experiences will differ in this regard. You may say "I feel you are entitled to be regarded as a human being and to have access to the same resources as I do. And I will do my part to help with that. And I will walk beside you and learn alongside you. And it shouldn't be much more complicated than that as a result of that mindset, there will be sacrifices. And I'm not going to pretend that I understand what it's like to be you." I believe it is an accurate summary. And perhaps, more individuals will feel at ease embracing that charge.

6 mins read

Blog Post

Night of the Living DAF: How Groundswell is Raising Zombie Philanthropy From the Dead

No one likes zombies. They’re noisy. They’re disgusting. Worst of all, they try to eat your brain.But perhaps the spookiest thing about them? They’re mindless. Zombies are automatons who amble along without thinking. Left to their own devices, they would go on like that, mindlessly, forever. Never changing, never helping, never improving.It is this critique of the undead that gets levelled at a form of charity dubbed zombie philanthropy. In this critique, the drivers of zombie philanthropy are Donor-Advised Funds (DAF)s. To quote The Washington Post:This is problematic. We’re in a world where there is no time to waste. There are too many crises facing our country and global community and it serves no one to have money sitting on the sidelines. At Groundswell we’re going to change that by building a platform that will better facilitate these funds and empower donors to make an impact quickly.

WTF is a DAF and who contributes to them?!

A Donor Advised Fund allows donors to put all of their charitable dollars into one single fund, receive an immediate tax deduction, grow those assets over time, and distribute assets to nonprofits of their choice at any given time. It was established in the 1930’s to handle charitable donor-advised fund contributions on behalf of organizations, private individuals, and families. Since then, DAFs have been primarily utilized by the ultra-wealthy. According to the 2020 Donor-Advised Fund Report, grants to qualified organizations from DAF accounts totaled $27.37 billion in 2019, up 15.4% from $23.72 billion in 2018. But considering there are over $140 billion in total assets squirreled away in DAFs, $27 billion is merely a fraction of the impact potential they represent.

Why Do DAFs (Sometimes) Become Zombies?

Donor Advised Funds are popular due to their ease of use. Donors typically struggle with deciding where to direct their philanthropic contributions, especially when large sums of low-value assets are contributed. Managing several beneficiaries while meeting a deadline might be difficult. As a result, one-stop-shop giving simplifies the philanthropic process.Why have DAFs become the target of “zombie philanthropy” accusations? The critiques typically go like this:

Unlike with private foundations, there is no requirement for minimum distributions from Donor Advised Funds. As a result, investors routinely deposit significant amounts of equity or cash in those accounts with no need to distribute them right away. This means that a DAF’s capital can sit static for years or decades, and never actually reach a nonprofit.
This is particularly worrisome at a time when nonprofits need funds urgently, not in a distant future.
Some individuals use DAFs primarily for income tax reductions, balancing their tax bill with their giving, so that the upside, like capital gains, is neutralized. Others use DAFs to pass on money to their offspring, once again with minimal taxes.

With DAFs, people can sidestep learning about the best causes in place of simply dumping the money in a pot on the advice of someone else.We recognize these critiques. Any tax instrument can be manipulated depending on a user’s intentions (we’re looking at you, Peter Thiel). However, we don’t believe DAFs are inherently evil and are instead breathing new life into the zombie philanthropy model.Groundswell reaps the benefits of DAFs without the downsides. And we believe that this approach can be scaled to reach any prospective donor, not just the ultra-rich.

How Groundswell is Raising Zombie Philanthropy From the Dead

Groundswell is built differently.Legacy DAF providers also happen to be massive asset managers. No wonder their platforms are designed to keep money in the DAF, and not move it out to charity. In fact, it’s in their best interest for it to play out that way.However, Groundswell is built to move money as efficiently as possible out of the system and into the hands of charities.The objectives of our platform are aligned directly with the goals of charities – including the goal of disbursing as much money as possible into the community. That’s probably because we were founded by a former nonprofit executive, a key difference in Groundswell vs. the competition.We have no beef with DAFs and not every DAF fund is a zombie. The fact is, when funds are transferred to a DAF, they will eventually finance a program sponsored by the donor, though it may be slow and delayed funding means delayed impact.As we already mentioned, we believe that Donor Advised Funds are not inherently evil – even if they are exploited by a large number of ultra-wealthy individuals and fail to generate as much good as intended. In principle, DAFs can be powerful but, like everything else, they must evolve.That’s why Groundswell is supportive of recent talks aimed at reforming Donor Advised Funds to include, among other things, a minimum annual distribution. DAFs, built and leveraged appropriately, can bring massive efficiencies to the nonprofit sector and the giving of ordinary Americans.So instead of allowing these legacy Donor Advised Funds to shuffle around mindlessly like zombies, let's build an alternative like Groundswell that breathes life back into the Donor Advised Fund and democratizes philanthropy for the 99%.

6 mins read

Blog Post

12 Employee Benefits Survey Questions Modern Companies Should Ask

In today's business environment, having the right and highest performing talent is more critical than ever. With benefits packages playing a vital role in these decisions, how can companies truly gauge their effectiveness? By initiating regular employee benefits surveys.

Scroll down for a free survey template below.

Let's dive in to the importance of asking the following questions.

Is our workforce satisfied with the current employee benefits package?

Gaining insights from "how satisfied are you with our company’s benefits package?" can offer companies a quick pulse on the effectiveness of their benefits. A dip in satisfaction might signal a need for re-evaluation, especially if you're looking to maximize your budget.

How comprehensive are the employee benefits we offer?

Do employees feel that the organization covers a wide range of their needs? Asking, "do you feel our benefits package is comprehensive in its offering?" can shed light on any potential gaps in coverage.

Are we showing true commitment to Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion through our benefits?

Are the company's efforts in promoting DE&I resonating? This can be gauged by asking if the benefits genuinely support diversity and inclusion. If they aren't, here's an opportunity to collect ideas directly from your employees.

Do our benefits reflect our company culture and values?

The question, "do you feel our benefits package supports our cultural values?" will highlight any potential discrepancies in practicing what you're preaching.

Did you know? Two-thirds of employees say it’s important for a company to align to their values.

Are we catering to the needs of a remote or multi-location workforce?

With remote work on the rise, is the company adapting its benefits accordingly? It's essential to find out if employees feel supported, regardless of their work setting.

Would employees recommend the company based on our benefits?

This is an easy one to skip, but it's a great question to ask. See how influential your benefits package is for employee referrals. Determining if employees would advocate for the company based on its benefits can be a key metric for recruitment.

How do specific benefit categories fare?

By querying satisfaction levels across various benefits – physical health, social impact, mental health, financial health, and fringe benefits – can companies discern which areas are thriving and which need enhancement?

What additional benefits do employees desire?

Is there a particular benefit that could make a difference in employee satisfaction and retention? Discovering this can be as straightforward as asking, "if you could choose one benefit not currently offered, what would it be?"

If your workforce desires a more meaningful benefit, see why decentralizing your corporate philanthropy strategy can achieve greater impact at scale.

How often should I send an employee survey about our benefits?

While every business has their own set of unique needs, conducing a quarterly employee survey at minimum can help you get a pulse check.

There will be some natural and unplanned peaks in valleys throughout the year that can drastically affect employee morale and company culture. By proactively seeking feedback through surveys, companies can foster a culture of continuous improvement, ensuring they remain at the forefront of employee satisfaction.

What are some affordable benefit options we can provide employees?

Corporate matching or giving programs can be a low-cost addition to your benefit offering that supports your employees’ unique passions and perspectives through charitable giving and boosts your company’s commitment to social impact. Groundswell offers a comprehensive solution with a simple implementation and nearly zero administration burden.

Request a demo

[Free Template] Employee Benefits Survey Questions

How satisfied are you with our company’s benefits package?
Do you feel our benefits package is comprehensive in its offering?
Do you feel our benefits package supports our cultural values?
Do you feel our benefits package supports our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion?
Do you feel our benefits package supports our remote or multi-location workforce?
How likely are you to recommend applying based on our benefits package?
How satisfied are you with our physical health benefits (i.e. health care, sick leave, etc)?
How satisfied are you with our social impact benefits (i.e. corporate matching, volunteering, etc)?
How satisfied are you with our mental health benefits (i.e. vacation time, EAP, etc)?
How satisfied are you with our financial health benefits? (i.e. retirement, student loan assistance, etc)
How satisfied are you with our fringe benefits and perks? (i.e. fitness subsidies, stipends, etc)
If you could choose one benefit not currently offered, what would it be?

6 mins read

Blog Post

The Guide to Being a Modern Philanthropist: Elevate Your Impact With Groundswell

Six Tips to Becoming a Modern Philanthropist

Summary

Pick causes and charities that align with your values: When deciding what you want to support, start by taking into consideration the people, places, or problems that you care about most.
Understand impact through the lens of size & geography: The geographic reach of different charities' programs, and how large or small they are, can help as you determine what to support.
Evaluate best in class charities: Learn how to assess not only the financial health of an organization, but also what questions to ask when looking at other impact metrics.
Set a giving goal: Decide how much you want to give annually through Groundswell, and follow the simple steps to set up contributions to achieve that goal.
Maximize impact through recurring donations: Simplify your giving and provide nonprofits with a steady stream of revenue through monthly, recurring donations.
Optimize your giving through tax-efficient strategies: Leverage the versatility of Groundswell to reduce your tax burden through payroll giving, stocks contributions, and bunching.

1. Pick Causes & Charities that Align with Your Values

2. Understand Impact: Size & Geography

Where to donate

Does size matter?

3. Evaluate "Best in Class" Charities

Programmatic Impact: Understanding a nonprofit’s impact - through its programs and the populations that it serves - is an important way to evaluate its effectiveness in tackling the causes you care about. Many nonprofits provide details about programming approaches on their websites, including testimonials, photos, and reports detailing specific results. Keep in mind that understanding and assessing impact is highly qualitative - there is no clear ‘score’ - especially because what or who is being impacted varies across the thousands of nonprofits.

Financial Management: Nonprofits, especially larger ones, are required to disclose details related to their financial performance annually – to include assets, revenue and breakdown of expenses in forms submitted to the IRS. Many nonprofits are proactively transparent about their finances and post audited financial statements and other reports on their websites. But financial data does not always tell a complete story. There may be important investments in fundraising staff, which two years later yield a windfall in donations that can be put towards programs.

Advisories: Sometimes there are advisories based on pending or ongoing legal action. Groundswell works to monitor these advisories and remove any charities that it believes are acting improperly or mismanaging donor funds. We also remove any charities that have had their nonprofit status revoked by the IRS.

Groundswell-curated Featured Causes: While many donors might want to do their own research, sometimes it’s far easier (and efficient) to put your trust in others. Groundswell’s impact team provides donors with additional inspiration, and has done the vetting work to determine cause-specific organizations that are well run and most importantly having a strong impact.

4. Aim High with a Giving Goal

Your giving goal can help fund recurring donations, as well as account for unexpected events that you may want to donate to.

5. Level Up with Recurring Donations

Recurring donations can be a great component of your philanthropic strategy. As a bonus, there are benefits for both donors as well as nonprofits.

For donors, setting recurring donations to autopilot every month or quarter means you don’t have to think about it or go through the steps to do it on a regular basis.

6. Optimize Your Tax-Efficient Giving

You can leverage the versatility of your Groundswell Personal Giving Account, which is underpinned by a Donor-Advised Fund, to be strategic and reduce your tax burden.

Donate appreciated stock

Plus, you'll be eligible for a tax deduction for the full fair market value of the stock at the time of contribution into your Groundswell account.

Give with payroll

Bundle contributions

Want access to other toolkits like this?

Groundswell enables companies to lay the foundation for their employees to adopt a generous giving attitude towards charities and world-shaping efforts.

6 mins read

Blog Post

Unleash the Power of Your Employee Giving Program: Best Practices Guide

Your Best Practices Guide for Maximizing Your Employee Giving Participation

This guide provides you with tools and tips to maximize employee participation in your giving program, not just when the program launches but throughout the entire year.

Leveraging our expertise in the social impact and nonprofit sectors, Groundswell is here to support you and your employees on your impact journey.

Overview

Employee giving programs can be a great way for companies to demonstrate their commitment to social responsibility, engage employees, and make a positive impact on the community. But too often, employees don’t take full advantage of the opportunities provided through their giving programs, leaving billions of funds unmatched every year. For some, this is due to either a lack of awareness about their company's giving program, or for others because an unwieldy donation portal and match process that leaves employees frustrated. Groundswell's technology brings corporate giving into the 21st century and unleashes the modern philanthropist in all of your employees.

Whether your goal is to grow the percentage of employees participating in your giving program, increase the amount of funds going to nonprofits, or to better understand the causes that matter most to your employees, these best practices can help you achieve those goals.

By reducing the administrative burden required to launch and implement a Giving Program, Groundswell frees you up to focus on what matters most: inspiring your employees and having a positive impact on the world through your company’s support for charitable causes.

6 Tips for Maximizing Participation in Your Employee Giving Program

1. Communicate Early and with Intention

Communication is a critical component of any successful giving program. We want you to have the tools to effectively share program details and encourage participation - whether launching a new employee giving program or transitioning from an existing one.

The key is to help employees understand why and how Groundswell fits into your company’s broader vision around corporate citizenship and employee engagement - and build enthusiasm around the potential to collectively have a positive impact on the world through donations to charities.

Program Launch Communications:

Here are some ways to think about the program launch. Depending on whether this is a new program or transitioning from an existing one, your adoption plan may change. You don’t want to inundate employees with too much information, while also providing them with the resources they need to successfully enroll in the program and easily engage on the platform.

Keep it short, and emphasize that the intent is to center employees in corporate philanthropy and make it as easy as possible for employees to give.
If the Giving Program is new: Why now? How does it align with your company’s values? Why is Groundswell a good fit for the company?
If the program is replacing an existing program: Why now? What’s different (and better) from the previous program? New matching or gifting features? It may also be helpful to highlight the tax effectiveness of the donor-advised fund model.

Monthly Program Communications

In order to encourage ongoing participation in your program, and for employees to take advantage of the gifts and matches offered by your company, we encourage monthly nudges to remind employees about the program.

Monthly Cause Spotlights

Start off the month by highlighting some timely causes - make sure to link to Groundswell-curated “Featured Cause” Portfolios that Groundswell uploads to the dashboard every month for a hand-off approach to spotlighting.
Share “Cause of the Month” information with employees, leveraging the toolkits found in Groundswell’s Resource Center.

Engagement & Impact Reporting

Utilize the data that you can find on your company Dashboard or download via CSV to highlight some of your company’s collective impact - including a percentage of employees enrolled, the total dollar amount that has been donated, as well as top nonprofit donation recipients and/or cause areas.
This helps employees see how their individual donations are having a larger impact as part of your company’s collective giving program.

2. Drive Early Adoption through Gifts

Gifts can be a terrific way to get employees to sign up and start using the Groundswell platform immediately. Here are a few tips on how to drive early adoption using the Gifting feature:

Launch with a one-time gift into employees’ Giving Accounts that will show up as soon as employees enroll. This can be a great way to create buzz about the program and empower employees to donate and make an impact immediately - even before they contribute their own funds to their Groundswell account.
Throughout the year, provide unexpected, ad hoc gifts into employees’ accounts - for work anniversaries, milestones, great performance, etc.
A way to make it fun is to do a lottery at All Hands meetings by randomly selecting an employee to receive $25 in their Groundswell account. Follow this link or reach out to the Groundswell Customer Success team to learn more.

3. Inspire Engagement through Matching

Set up a matching program that immediately doubles the impact when an employee puts funds into their Groundswell Giving Account. This creates a feeling of “we’re in this together” - and drives home the message about an equitable approach to corporate philanthropy.
A match program can run for an entire year, or be tailored to specific months.
With the Groundswell match happening at the point of contributing funds to the Groundswell account, employees can tangibly see and feel what it means to double the impact for the charities and causes that matter most to them.

4. Leverage Cause Campaigns & Respond to the Emergent Events

Planned Campaigns:

Utilize a Social Impact Cause Calendar to plan monthly or bi-monthly communications to employees highlighting specific causes - with resources to educate employees about the cause, and a curated list of nonprofits most relevant to the cause. You can refer to Groundswell’s monthly cause portfolios that are updated to reflect timely causes and issues.
Tip: Plan your annual budget to launch match campaigns focused on specific charities or cause areas throughout the year.

Unforeseen Events:

Utilize Groundswell’s curated list of best-in-class nonprofits responding to disasters in the United States or globally. Being able to quickly and confidently point your employees to vetted nonprofits to donate to shows that you are responsive as a company and empowering employees to take action in moments of crisis.
Tip: Keep a portion of your annual budget in reserve so that you can match employee donations and/or provide gifts to employees to expand the impact in response to the unforeseen emergency.

5. Engage Employee Resource Groups

Another mechanism to center employees in corporate philanthropy and recognize their own lived experiences: provide Employee Resource Groups (ERG) a platform to speak to key cause areas (e.g. AAPI Awareness, Black History Month, etc).

ERGs can take the opportunity to recommend nonprofits that they think are most effective and related to the cause, and share their commitment to specific causes with the tag-line “My cause is ____ “
Tip: Solicit recommendations from the Employee Resource Group for books to read, films, and documentaries to watch, and podcasts to listen to. This can generate a deeper understanding of causes and lead to engagement via donations to support the causes.

6. Lean Into End-of-Year Giving Spirit

30% of annual giving happens in December, with about 10% of all annual donations coming in the last three days of the year. For nonprofits, this can be a critical time to raise funds and prepare programming budgets for the next year.

You can leverage Groundswell's Giving Tuesday resources to launch an end-of-year donation campaign, featuring specific cause areas and nonprofits.

Tip: Set a budget aside for a surprise end-of-year gift - leveraging the fact that a large percentage of people prefer to donate at the end of the year.

Read related articles

Groundswell is your ally in corporate philanthropy.

Groundswell enables companies to lay the foundation for their employees to adopt a generous giving attitude towards charities and world-shaping efforts.

6 mins read

Blog Post

Complete Handbook to Corporate Grants

Corporate grants are financial support provided by a business to a nonprofit organization, educational institution, or another type of community group.

These grants can be used to fund a wide range of projects, including programs and initiatives that align with the values and mission of the funding organization.

In this ultimate guide, we will explore the various types of corporate grants available, how to find and apply for these grants, and tips for success in securing funding.

Types of Corporate Grants

There are several types of corporate grants that organizations can apply for, depending on their needs and the focus of the funding organization. Some common types of corporate grants include:

General Operating Support: These grants provide funding for the general operations and administration of an organization, including salaries, rent, and other overhead costs.

Project-Specific Grants: These grants are provided to fund a specific project or initiative, such as a research project, community development program, or arts and culture event.

Capital Grants: These grants are provided to fund the purchase of long-term assets, such as equipment, real estate, or vehicles.

Sponsorship Grants: These grants provide financial support for a specific event or activity, such as a charity fundraiser or sporting event.

Matching Grants: These grants require the recipient organization raises a certain amount of funds on their own, which is then matched by the funding organization.

How to Find Corporate Grants

There are a few different ways to find corporate grants that may be a good fit for your organization. Here are some tips:

Research funding organizations: Many businesses have corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs that provide grants to nonprofit organizations. Research the CSR programs of businesses in your industry or local area to see if they offer grants.

Use grant databases: There are many online databases that list corporate grants, such as Grants.gov and the Candid, formally known as Foundation Center. These databases allow you to search for grants based on your organization's location, mission, and area of focus.

Join grant-seeking networks: There are many online networks and forums for grant seekers, such as Candid, formally known as GrantSpace, and the Grant Professionals Association. These communities can be a valuable resource for finding corporate grants and learning about the grant-seeking process.

How to Apply for Corporate Grants

Once you have identified a corporate grant that is a good fit for your organization, the next step is to prepare and submit a grant proposal. Here are some tips for success:

Follow the application instructions carefully: Each grant program will have its own application requirements and guidelines, so it is important to follow these instructions carefully. Be sure to complete all required forms and provide any supporting documents that are requested.

Clearly articulate your needs and objectives: In your grant proposal, be sure to clearly explain your organization's needs and the specific objectives that you hope to achieve with the funding. Use specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals to demonstrate the impact that the grant will have.

Demonstrate your organization's capacity to deliver: In addition to outlining your needs and objectives, it is important to demonstrate your organization's capacity to deliver on its proposed project or initiative. This may include information about your staff, volunteers, resources, and past successes.

Proofread and edit: A well-written and well-organized grant proposal is more likely to be successful. Be sure to proofread your proposal carefully and have at least one other person review it before submitting it.

Tips for Success in Securing Corporate Grants

Start early: Many corporate grant programs have deadlines that are several months in advance of the funding period. It is important to start researching and preparing your grant proposal as early as possible to allow sufficient time for revisions and any additional information that may be requested by the funding organization.

Build relationships with funders: Building relationships with potential funders can be a valuable asset in the grant-seeking process. Attend events and networking opportunities where you can meet with representatives from funding organizations, and consider reaching out to them directly to introduce your organization and its work.

Be persistent: Securing corporate grants can be competitive, and it is not uncommon to be rejected on the first try. Don't be discouraged by rejection – use it as an opportunity to learn and improve your grant proposal for the next round of funding.

In conclusion, corporate grants can be a valuable source of funding for nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and community groups. By researching and identifying appropriate grant programs, preparing a strong grant proposal, and building relationships with potential funders, your organization can increase its chances of success in securing corporate grants.

More about Groundswell

Groundswell is an affordable workplace giving program built for modern businesses. We give organizations the infrastructure and tools to make it easy to empower employees to support the causes they care about during moments that matter most.

Subscribe to our newsletter and reach out to our team to learn more about Groundswell.io.

6 mins read

Blog Post

The Workplace Giving Handbook: Everything You Need to Know

Workplace giving programs offer employees an important benefit.

It gives employees a way to support the causes they care about and trust that their support is actually doing good in the world.

But what exactly is workplace giving, and how do you set up an employee-powered giving program at your company?

What is Workplace Giving?

Matching Gift Programs

The concept is simple in theory: an employee donates to a qualified nonprofit, and the company then makes a matching donation to the same nonprofit.

In practice, matching gift programs can be cumbersome and difficult to manage. In fact, for every dollar donated through matching gift programs, more than $2 goes unclaimed.

Volunteer Programs

Volunteer Grants

Volunteer Hours Matching

The third iteration of volunteer donation programs rewards your employees with the extra cash they can donate to others based on hours that they spend volunteering with community organizations.

Donations Through Payroll Deduction

However, the choice of charities to support is usually very narrow — often only one or two charities are chosen by the board.

A growing number of CEOs are moving away from the top-down approach to corporate giving, and moving to a model that puts the choice in the hands of their employees.

What Is a Workplace Giving Campaign?

Workplace giving campaigns are typically annual events companies hold to encourage employee donations to a cause.

How Does Workplace Giving Work?

Payroll Deduction

The company creates a campaign to engage and encourage employees to sign up for the giving program. This is no small undertaking — entire toolkits are devoted to teaching employees and volunteers to run successful campaigns.
The employee fills out a pledge card, designating the amount of the donation and/or the amount to be deducted each pay period. If the company allows it, they may also choose one of several pre-approved nonprofits to receive their donation.
The payroll department — or the company's payroll provider — sets up the recurring deduction for each employee.
If the company also operates a matching donation program, HR processes all donations to set up the matching donation.
Each pay period, the payroll department deducts and deposits the funds from each employee into a central account, then sends the final donation amount to the paying agent, such as the United Way.
The paying agent distributes the funds to the designated organizations.

Donation Matching Programs

The company determines which organizations will qualify for a matching gift and makes the list of qualifying organizations available to employees, and creates rules to determine the amount of the match. There may be differing amounts depending on the employee's position or other criteria. For example, all full-time employees may qualify for 100% matching, while managers qualify for 200% matching.
The employee makes a donation to the charity of their choice.
After determining that their chosen organization qualifies for a match, the employee fills out and submits a request to HR for their employer to match their donation.
HR processes the request and determines the match amount based on the rules.
The company sends a check for the matching amount to the qualifying organization.

Emerging Trends in Workplace Giving

The newest trends in corporate giving include making charitable giving part of the employee's benefits package and providing granular control and choice on when and where to donate their funds.

Benefits of Workplace Giving Programs

Improved Employee Recruitment: 55% of employees — including 75% of Millennials — would choose to work for a socially responsible company, even if they got paid less.
Increased Employee Engagement: Employees are more engaged at work when they feel their employer aligns with their values.
Increased Profitability: Companies with the most engaged workers are 21% more profitable.
Better Public Image: People think more positively about businesses that give back to the community.
Deeper Community Connections: A well-planned employee giving program helps the business connect and cement relationships with organizations in the community.
Increased Employee Loyalty: Employees are more likely to recommend businesses that support them and their interests.
Higher Retention Rates: Employees who take advantage of employee giving programs stay with the company 75% longer.

What Employees Care About

Why Is Employee Giving Important?

In addition to the benefits to your employees and your business bottom line, employee giving also brings an immense benefit to the community.

In 2021, workplace giving programs raised more than $5 billion, with about 50% of that coming from matching gift programs. Those donations went to

Education-related causes: 29%
Health and wellness causes: 25%
Community and economic development causes: 15%

Employees who donated through workplace giving programs reported that they donated to

Hunger and homelessness relief: 47%
Education: 23%
Social and racial equity causes: 20%

How to Set Up a Workplace Giving Program

Evaluate Your Company's Corporate Social Responsibility Policy. If You Don't Have One, This Is A Good Time To Brainstorm.

Create a vision for your CSR that balances your responsibilities to your shareholders/owners, your employees, the community, the planet, and any other stakeholders.
Evaluate your current activities in light of community service. Do you partner with local organizations? Host volunteer activities? Make donations to local charities? Any of these would fit under the umbrella of CSR.
Establish a corporate code of ethics detailing how your company will treat employees, customers, the environment, and competitors in all your dealings.
Get strategic with your giving program to ensure that it aligns with your company's values and ethics.

Set a Budget for Your Giving Program.

The amount you budget for corporate giving should be no more than you can afford to give without affecting the cash flow you need to operate your business.
Many large companies earmark 1% - 5% of their pre-tax earnings for charitable giving. Small companies often donate 6% or more to charity.
Consider designating profits from one particular product for giving.
Use the Sabsevitz Ante-Up Formula — multiply last year's pre-tax net income by 1.2% to come up with a donation budget.
Check out more suggestions for setting your budget in this blog post.

Set Up Guidelines for Your Program

Employees: will all employees be included in your benefits program? Will they all be level-funded, or will some positions qualify for a higher workplace giving benefit?
Moments That Matter: Can you make donations more meaningful by tying deposit amounts to specific events in the lives for your employees?
Decide which charities/causes your company will support. Will you restrict employee giving to designated nonprofits? How expansive will your list of eligible organizations be?

Establish A Process For Collecting, Matching, And Donating Contributions.

See the section on How Does Workplace Giving Work?
(Hint: Groundswell takes the stress out of this step.)

Publicize The Program.

List it as a benefit in your recruitment materials.
Provide an easy — and very visible — way to access your program's front end on your employee website, Discord, or other communication software.
Highlight your program in the company newsletter.
Create and distribute flyers explaining the program, its benefits, and how to use it to your employees.
If you offer donation matches, make sure that local nonprofits are aware of it.
Partner with local nonprofits and community organizations when it makes sense.

Is Workplace Giving Tax Deductible?

Maximizing Tax Benefits for Workplace Giving

It's important to understand how tax-deductible donations work in order to maximize the benefits of a workplace giving program.

Some types of corporate giving offer more benefits than others.

Workplace Giving with Groundswell

6 mins read

Blog Post

Unlocking Philanthropy: A Ready-to-Use Corporate Giving Policy for Modern Businesses

Sample Corporate Giving Policy You Can Use Today

In today’s socially conscious environment, more companies than ever are recognizing the value of corporate philanthropy. Not only can a robust giving policy boost a brand’s image and reputation, but it can also play a pivotal role in community development and global betterment. If your company is considering the establishment of a formal corporate giving policy or refining its existing strategy, this sample policy might be the perfect starting point for you.

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Pillars of a Strong Corporate Giving Policy

Corporate giving programs range from employer donation matching programs to full blown corporate social responsibility programs with grantmaking and volunteerism. Many companies find somewhere in the middle that aligns with their size, budget, geographic presence and most importantly company values and commitment to diversity and inclusion. But what truly makes a corporate giving policy stand out? Let’s delve into the key features, from donation matching to the strategic use of platforms like Groundswell.

1. Donation Matching: Doubling the Impact

One of the most effective tools in a giving policy is donation matching. This is where companies match employee donations to eligible non-profits, effectively doubling the contribution. Such programs not only amplify the impact but also motivate employees to participate, knowing their chosen cause will receive twice the support.

2. Charitable Stipends: Encouraging Employee Choice

Charitable stipends are allowances given to employees to donate to a non-profit of their choice. This not only encourages a culture of giving but also empowers employees to support causes they’re passionate about. The stipends can be a fixed amount annually or can vary based on the employee’s role or tenure.

3. Dollars for Doers: Volunteering Translated to Contributions

“Dollars for Doers” programs convert volunteer hours into monetary donations. When employees volunteer their time for a cause, the company makes a donation equivalent to the hours spent. This fosters a culture of hands-on involvement and ensures that both time and money are being donated to valuable initiatives.

4. Corporate Grants: Sowing Seeds for Bigger Change

Beyond individual employee contributions, companies can set aside a dedicated fund for corporate grants. These grants can be given to non-profits, research initiatives, or community projects that align with the company’s CSR objectives. Such grants can lead to substantial, long-term changes and foster strong partnerships with community leaders and organizations.

Why Choose Groundswell for Your Giving Initiatives?

Incorporating these elements into a giving policy requires streamlined management, transparency, and ease of execution. This is where platforms like Groundswell come into the picture.

Groundswell offers an efficient and affordable solution for companies aiming to elevate their philanthropic endeavors. Here’s why it’s the ideal choice:

User-Friendly Interface: Groundswell’s platform is designed for both companies and employees, ensuring smooth navigation and straightforward donation processes.
Versatility: Whether it’s donation matching, handling charitable stipends, or managing corporate grants, Groundswell offers solutions tailored to each company’s unique needs.
Cost-Effective: Groundswell provides a comprehensive suite of tools at competitive prices, ensuring that more of your money goes towards the cause rather than platform fees.
Transparency: Track donations, monitor employee involvement, and generate detailed reports to measure the impact—all in one place.

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Conclusion

An effective corporate giving policy is a blend of structure, employee engagement, and impactful contributions. By incorporating elements like donation matching, charitable stipends, “Dollars for Doers,” and corporate grants, businesses can create a ripple effect of positive change. And with platforms like Groundswell, executing these initiatives becomes not just feasible but also highly efficient and cost-effective.

6 mins read

Blog Post

5 Tips to Boost Engagement & Impact on Giving Tuesday

Leverage GivingTuesday to boost generosity

Every November, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving is known as GivingTuesday, which often serves as the unofficial start of end-of-year giving campaigns. This comes on the heels of holiday shopping deals on Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday. It is a worldwide phenomenon, inspiring millions to lean into the end-of-year holiday spirit with generosity and compassion. For many charities, GivingTuesday has become their biggest day for donations – and can help resource their ability to have an even greater impact in the year ahead.

For companies, GivingTuesday and the end-of-year giving season offers an opportunity to double down on their commitment to social responsibility, strengthen relationships with employees, and boost their impact in the community and broader world.

At Groundswell, we partner with companies all across the country to design and launch GivingTuesday campaigns – leveraging our easy-to-use platform that makes it easy for employees to participate and send donations to the causes and charities that they care most about. Below are some best practices to boost engagement and inspire generosity during the giving season.

1. Make Giving Easy:

A lot of giving platforms out there make it incredibly hard to donate. Some don’t have all 1.5 million IRS-approved charities listed. Others require employees to navigate through a web of intranet or sharepoint sites to find the giving program landing page. And others require that HR is notified of any donations an employee wants to make. At Groundswell – we are committed to removing all of the friction, and ensuring that employees can find charities easily, through a platform that is accessible from the palm of their hand, so they can give whenever they want to.

2. Launch a GivingTuesday Match Campaign:

Through Groundswell you can customize and launch a special GivingTuesday match campaign in a matter of minutes. Simply pick the nonprofits to include in the special campaign, select the start and end-date for the campaign, and then determine the match – 2x, 3x – along with any overall budget limits, then you’re done!

3. Boost engagement by involving ERGs:

Share nonprofit recommendations from Employee Resource Groups to provide inspiration around causes and nonprofits that matter to your employees. You can feature these nonprofits on dedicated ERG Corporate Spotlights and Campaigns that will be visible to all employees on their Groundswell dashboard.

4. Surprise (and Delight) Employees With A Gift to Give:

Consider sending a surprise “gift to give” to reward those already participating in your giving program (and to incentivize others to enroll). These gifts might be used to further maximize impact through the existing campaign, or to donate to other nonprofits your employees care about. Groundswell’s custom gift feature allows companies to easily schedule and send gifts with little to no administrative burden.

5. Level up with Volunteer Matching:

Groundswell’s Volunteer Matching program – sometimes known as Dollars for Doers – recognizes that some employees may not have funds to contribute, but have time – and rewards them in the same way. It’s an inclusive approach that invites everyone to participate in GivingTuesday, even those who may not be able to donate their own funds.

6 mins read

Blog Post

12 Employee Benefits Survey Questions Modern Companies Should Ask

Scroll down for a free survey template below.

Let's dive in to the importance of asking the following questions.

Is our workforce satisfied with the current employee benefits package?

How comprehensive are the employee benefits we offer?

Are we showing true commitment to Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion through our benefits?

Do our benefits reflect our company culture and values?

The question, "do you feel our benefits package supports our cultural values?" will highlight any potential discrepancies in practicing what you're preaching.

Did you know? Two-thirds of employees say it’s important for a company to align to their values.

Are we catering to the needs of a remote or multi-location workforce?

With remote work on the rise, is the company adapting its benefits accordingly? It's essential to find out if employees feel supported, regardless of their work setting.

Would employees recommend the company based on our benefits?

How do specific benefit categories fare?

What additional benefits do employees desire?

If your workforce desires a more meaningful benefit, see why decentralizing your corporate philanthropy strategy can achieve greater impact at scale.

How often should I send an employee survey about our benefits?

While every business has their own set of unique needs, conducing a quarterly employee survey at minimum can help you get a pulse check.

What are some affordable benefit options we can provide employees?

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[Free Template] Employee Benefits Survey Questions

How satisfied are you with our company’s benefits package?
Do you feel our benefits package is comprehensive in its offering?
Do you feel our benefits package supports our cultural values?
Do you feel our benefits package supports our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion?
Do you feel our benefits package supports our remote or multi-location workforce?
How likely are you to recommend applying based on our benefits package?
How satisfied are you with our physical health benefits (i.e. health care, sick leave, etc)?
How satisfied are you with our social impact benefits (i.e. corporate matching, volunteering, etc)?
How satisfied are you with our mental health benefits (i.e. vacation time, EAP, etc)?
How satisfied are you with our financial health benefits? (i.e. retirement, student loan assistance, etc)
How satisfied are you with our fringe benefits and perks? (i.e. fitness subsidies, stipends, etc)
If you could choose one benefit not currently offered, what would it be?

6 mins read

Blog Post

Israel-Palestinian Victims: Where to Support

Israel has declared war against Hamas after the terrorist group launched a surprise attack from Gaza into Israeli territory on the morning of Saturday October 7, the Jewish Sabbath and a major holiday.
In total, more than 1,400 Israelis were killed by Hamas militants, and over 100 civilians and soldiers were taken to Gaza as hostages.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas and retaliated with airstrikes that have killed at least 2,800 Palestinians, and another 9,700 wounded, per Palestinian health officials.
Escalation in the conflict will further endanger civilians on both sides, and humanitarian groups are working to provide support to those in need.
Please consider donating today in support of organizations aiding those impacted.

Organizations providing humanitarian aid:

Groundswell has put together a list of organizations on the frontlines you can directly support:

American Friends of Magen David Adom: Magen David Adom ensures 33,000 paramedics, EMTS, first responders, and first-aid providers -- volunteers and staff -- have the training, equipment, and medical supplies they need to treat all injured and ill people in Israel.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF): As medical centers are overwhelmed, MSF is donating critical medical supplies to hospitals and health facilities in Gaza to respond to medical needs.
IsraAID: IsraAID is partnering with local and civil society organizations to coordinate humanitarian efforts, providing psychosocial support, urgent aid to vulnerable communities, evacuees, and their families.
Save the Children: Save the Children has been working with Palestinian children since 1953, with a permanent presence in the occupied Palestinian territory since 1973. Their main aims are to ensure children survive, learn, and are protected from all types of abuse.
Palestinian Childrens Relief Fund: As a humanitarian organization, its teams are on the ground delivering crucial and life-saving medical relief and humanitarian aid where it is needed most.

The best way to support is to provide funding to one of the many nonprofits that are working to provide assistance to those impacted. You can support them directly today.

Donate on Groundswell

6 mins read

Blog Post

6 Tips For An Effective Corporate Volunteerism Program with Groundswell

For companies seeking to streamline their giving and volunteering in one place, Groundswell has a number of volunteer features designed to easily track, reward, and engage employees. We have been extremely thoughtful about the volunteerism features we’ve built - with an eye towards being value-add for companies that may need some support with their volunteerism initiatives, and want to streamline their giving and volunteering programs in one place - from design to execution to reporting.

6 Tips For An Effective Corporate Volunteerism Program

1. Set your goals:

When designing a volunteer program, it’s important to start by defining your goals, whether you’re focused on participation numbers, team-building, or the ability to provide additional support to a nonprofit that is already a recipient of corporate funding. None of these are mutually exclusive, but how you approach volunteerism, and the ways in which you execute it, may help advance certain goals more than others.

2. Identify internal champions:

A volunteer program is rarely successful unless there are internal champions that can provide peer-to-peer encouragement, or geographic-specific coordination. While Groundswell's volunteer platform provides important tools to facilitate and help execute volunteer programs, some of the most successful companies have internal champions or volunteer “ambassadors” who can engage and motivate their fellow employees to participate, as well as build critical relationships with nonprofits. For companies with different geographic hubs, having champions to spearhead volunteering events can help drive meaningful employee engagement at a more local level.

3. Create community across groups and locations:

Leverage regional champions and/or Employee Resource Group leads to help spearhead events that bring employees together across geographies and other affinity groups. Groundswell’s Volunteer Event Management tool enables companies to schedule and manage registration for larger events, as well as empower teams based in different regional hubs to schedule and track participation in their own volunteer events..A best practice is to designate a specific time of year for volunteer activation - whether a day of service, week or full month - so that employees can feel motivated and inspired to participate when the entire company is focused on volunteerism and service.

4. Align your Giving and Volunteering Program Through Dollars for Doers:

Groundswell’s Volunteer Matching feature - also known as Dollars for Doers - provides another way for employees to show their support for the causes that matter most to them. Through Volunteer Matching, an employee logs volunteer hours and then receives funds into their Groundswell account, to then be donated. And it also recognizes that some employees may have time to give, but not money to donate – and rewards them for that. You can set up a Volunteer Match program as a stand-alone, or combine with an existing donation matching program.

5. Design a program that includes remote or hybrid workers:

Many companies are eager to revive larger, in-person events. But not everyone may be based at the headquarters, and the “new normal” of hybrid work schedules may make it difficult for larger groups to come together. Groundswell’s volunteer platform can be customized to allow employees to volunteer their time even if they aren’t able to be at an event in-person. The Volunteer Hours Tracking Tool enables employees to log those individual volunteer hours, so that the company can capture their participation even if it is not with a larger group volunteer event.

6. Leverage Data for Internal Feedback and External Storytelling:

Groundswell’s streamlined reporting dashboard allows companies to easily access key metrics around volunteer hours, participation levels, and number of events. By integrating across giving and volunteering programs, companies can have a holistic view of their impact for ongoing or annual reporting requirements. The data is also an important tool for internal reporting and engagement - highlighting regions that may be particularly active in their giving and volunteering, and inspire more engagement for future events.

6 mins read

Blog Post

Celebrating the Rich Cultural Heritage: International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples

The International Day of the World’s Indigenous People on August 9 pays tribute to the world's indigenous communities.

Indigenous peoples makeup 15% of the world's extremely poor and suffer higher rates of landlessness, malnutrition, and internal displacement than other groups.

Numerous nonprofits are working to protect and preserve indigenous communities in the United States and worldwide – please consider supporting them today.

Cultural Survival

Cultural Survival is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating for the rights of indigenous peoples worldwide.

What the Cultural Survival organization does:

Advocates for Indigenous Rights: Cultural Survival works to raise awareness about the challenges faced by indigenous peoples, including issues like land rights, cultural preservation, and self-determination.
Supports Grassroots Initiatives: The organization provides support and resources to grassroots projects and initiatives led by indigenous communities. This support helps strengthen their cultural practices, language preservation, and sustainable development efforts.
Publishes Indigenous Media: Cultural Survival publishes various media platforms, such as a magazine, radio programs, and online content, to amplify the voices of Indigenous peoples and share their stories, struggles, and achievements with a global audience.
Promotes Fair Trade: Cultural Survival supports fair trade practices by assisting indigenous artisans and producers market their traditional crafts and products. This initiative helps preserve cultural heritage while generating sustainable income for the communities.
Conducts Research and Education: The organization researches indigenous issues, producing reports and educational materials to raise awareness among the public and policymakers about the challenges faced by indigenous peoples and the importance of protecting their rights.
Fosters Capacity Building: Cultural Survival empowers indigenous leaders and communities through capacity-building programs, offering training in community organizing, legal rights, and sustainable resource management.
Builds Networks and Alliances: The organization fosters alliances and collaborations with other NGOs, indigenous organizations, and human rights groups to strengthen collective efforts in promoting indigenous rights and welfare.

Red Eagle Soaring

Red Eagle Soaring is a nonprofit organization in Seattle, Washington, dedicated to empowering Native American and Indigenous youth through theater arts and storytelling.

What the Red Eagle Soaring organization does:

Native Youth Theater Program: Red Eagle Soaring offers a comprehensive theater arts program tailored to Native American and Indigenous youth. Through workshops, rehearsals, and performances, participants learn various aspects of theater, including acting, stagecraft, playwriting, and directing.
Cultural Empowerment: The organization emphasizes cultural empowerment by incorporating traditional Native storytelling, dance, and music into theatrical productions. This approach preserves cultural heritage and provides a unique and authentic platform for youth to share their stories and experiences.
Youth Leadership Development: Red Eagle Soaring focuses on nurturing leadership skills among its participants. The organization encourages youth to take on responsibilities both on and off the stage, fostering a sense of ownership and agency in their artistic endeavors.
Performances and Workshops: Red Eagle Soaring stages theatrical performances in various venues, including community centers, schools, and theaters, allowing the participants to showcase their talent and creativity to broader audiences. Additionally, the organization conducts workshops and outreach programs to reach more young people and expand its impact.
Life Skills and Mentorship: Alongside theater training, Red Eagle Soaring provides participants with life skills development and mentorship. These programs focus on building self-esteem, communication skills, teamwork, and problem-solving abilities, essential for personal growth and success in any field.
Healing and Well-being: Red Eagle Soaring recognizes the healing potential of creative expression and storytelling. The organization helps youth process trauma and emotional challenges by providing a supportive and compassionate environment, contributing to their overall well-being and resilience.

Huairou Commission

The Huairou Commission emerged from this conference to address the specific challenges women living in poverty and marginalized communities face.

What the Huairou Commission organization does:

Women's Leadership and Capacity Building: The organization strengthens women's leadership capacities in grassroots and community-based organizations. They provide training, mentorship, and resources to enhance the skills of women leaders and enable them to become effective agents of change in their communities.
Networking and Partnerships: The organization facilitates networking and collaboration among grassroots women's organizations, CBOs, and other civil society groups. By fostering partnerships, they create a global network of support for women's empowerment initiatives and share best practices for community development.
Knowledge Sharing and Research: The Huairou Commission researches and documents women's issues, community-led development, and gender-based challenges marginalized communities face. They share this knowledge through publications, conferences, and online platforms to inform policymakers and practitioners.
Community-Led Development: The organization promotes community-led development approaches, emphasizing the importance of local knowledge, culture, and traditional practices. They support initiatives designed and implemented within the communities, ensuring sustainable development that meets the specific needs of women and their families.
Disaster Resilience and Climate Justice: The Huairou Commission addresses the unique vulnerabilities of women in disaster-prone regions and advocates for climate justice. They work to incorporate gender-responsive strategies in disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation efforts, recognizing that women often play a critical role in disaster preparedness and recovery.
Urban Development and Land Rights: The organization advocates for secure land tenure and housing rights for women in urban and peri-urban areas. They support community-driven initiatives for affordable housing, access to land, and basic services to improve the living conditions of women and their families in cities.
Economic Empowerment: The Huairou Commission promotes economic empowerment among women by supporting income-generating activities and entrepreneurship opportunities. They facilitate access to financial services, skills training, and market linkages to enhance women's economic independence.

Nia Tero

What the Nia Tero organization does:

Indigenous-Led Conservation: Nia Tero collaborates with Indigenous communities to advance conservation efforts that are led and guided by the communities. The organization recognizes Indigenous peoples' profound knowledge of their lands and ecosystems and empowers them to be the primary stewards of their territories.
Land Rights and Tenure Security: The organization works to secure and defend the land rights of Indigenous communities. They advocate for legal recognition of customary land tenure systems and support efforts to protect Indigenous lands from illegal encroachments and land grabs.
Cultural Heritage Preservation: Nia Tero is dedicated to preserving and revitalizing Indigenous cultures, languages, and traditional practices. The organization recognizes the importance of cultural heritage in maintaining the resilience and identity of Indigenous communities.
Climate Change and Biodiversity Conservation: Nia Tero addresses the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss on Indigenous communities and territories. They support community-led climate adaptation and mitigation strategies that integrate traditional knowledge with modern science.
Sustainable Livelihoods and Economic Empowerment: The organization promotes sustainable livelihoods for Indigenous communities, supporting economic activities that align with their cultural values and ecological knowledge. This includes promoting sustainable agriculture, artisanal crafts, and eco-friendly enterprises.
Collaborative Partnerships: Nia Tero actively builds partnerships with other conservation organizations, governments, and corporations to leverage resources and amplify the voices of Indigenous communities in decision-making processes that affect their lands and resources.
Indigenous Leadership Development: The organization invests in the leadership development of Indigenous youth and women, recognizing their crucial role in shaping the future of their communities and advocating for their rights on local and global platforms.

Amazon Watch

Amazon Watch is a nonprofit organization that focuses on protecting the Amazon rainforest and advancing the rights of Indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin.

What the Amazon Watch organization does:

Environmental Advocacy: The organization campaigns against deforestation, illegal logging, and environmental degradation in the Amazon rainforest. They work to raise awareness about the importance of the Amazon ecosystem in mitigating climate change and conserving biodiversity.
Indigenous Rights and Land Defense: Amazon Watch partners with Indigenous communities to protect their ancestral territories from land grabs and encroachments by mining, oil drilling, and agriculture industries. They support Indigenous land titling initiatives and advocate for recognizing Indigenous land rights.
Corporate Accountability: The organization monitors and challenges the actions of corporations operating in the Amazon region. They hold companies accountable for environmental and social impacts, aiming to promote responsible business practices that respect the rights of Indigenous communities.
Campaigns against Oil and Gas Extraction: Amazon Watch opposes destructive oil and gas extraction projects in the Amazon. They work with local communities to resist harmful extractive activities threatening the environment and Indigenous peoples' livelihoods.
Support for Community-led Initiatives: Amazon Watch provides support and resources to strengthen the capacity of Indigenous communities to defend their rights and territories. This includes legal assistance, training, and funding for sustainable development projects.
Indigenous Rights Documentation: Amazon Watch conducts research and documentation to expose human rights violations and environmental abuses faced by Indigenous communities in the Amazon. They share these findings with the international community to promote accountability and justice.
Climate Justice: The organization advocates for climate justice, emphasizing the role of the Amazon rainforest as a critical carbon sink and the impact of climate change on vulnerable Indigenous communities. They highlight the importance of Indigenous knowledge and traditional practices in climate resilience.

Native American Youth & Family Center

The Native American Youth & Family Center (NAYA) is a nonprofit organization based in Portland, Oregon, dedicated to serving the Native American community, focusing on youth and families.

Founded in 1974, NAYA aims to provide culturally relevant services, support, and opportunities to empower Native American individuals and families to achieve self-sufficiency and overall well-being.

What the Native American Youth & Family Center organization does:

Youth Programs: NAYA offers programs specifically designed for Native American youth, including academic support, leadership development, cultural enrichment, and mentorship opportunities. These programs aim to build confidence and foster a sense of identity and cultural pride among young Native Americans.
Education and Academic Support: The organization provides educational support services, such as tutoring, homework help, and college preparation assistance. NAYA strives to improve educational outcomes for Native American students and increase their access to post-secondary education.
Cultural Preservation and Revitalization: NAYA is committed to preserving and revitalizing Native American cultures, languages, and traditional practices. The organization hosts cultural events, workshops, and classes to pass down traditional knowledge and strengthen cultural connections within the community.
Family Services: NAYA offers comprehensive family services, including parenting support, counseling, and access to resources for Native American families. The organization focuses on creating a supportive and nurturing environment for families to thrive.
Housing Assistance: NAYA provides housing support services to help Native American individuals and families find safe and affordable housing. This includes rental assistance, housing counseling, and information on homeownership opportunities.
Wellness and Healthcare Services: NAYA provides wellness programs and healthcare access to support the physical and mental well-being of Native American community members. This includes health screenings, counseling services, and wellness workshops.
Youth and Family Empowerment: Overall, NAYA's mission is to empower Native American youth and families by providing them with the tools, resources, and support they need to thrive. The organization strives to create a strong and resilient community that celebrates and preserves Native American cultures and traditions.

First Nations Development Institute

Founded in 1980, the organization supports sustainable economic and social progress for Native American tribes and organizations across the United States.

What the First Nations Development Institute organization does:

Grantmaking and Capacity Building: The organization provides grants and capacity-building support to Native American tribes and organizations. These grants fund community-led projects, including economic development, food sovereignty, cultural preservation, education, and youth programs.
Indigenous Food Systems: First Nations Development Institute promotes food sovereignty and revitalizes Indigenous food systems. They support initiatives encouraging traditional agricultural practices, local food production, and access to healthy, traditional foods.
Economic Development and Entrepreneurship: The organization supports economic development efforts within Native American communities. This includes developing small businesses, providing entrepreneurial training, and supporting community-based enterprises.
Native Youth and Education: First Nations Development Institute invests in the educational and leadership development of Native American youth. They provide scholarships, mentorship programs, and support for cultural education to empower the next generation of Indigenous leaders.
Financial and Technical Assistance: The organization offers financial and technical assistance to Native American organizations and individuals seeking to improve their financial literacy, financial management, and asset-building skills.
Data and Research: The organization researches and collects data on Native American economic and social issues. This information helps inform their grantmaking and advocacy efforts and contributes to a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing Native American communities.
Philanthropic Engagement: First Nations Development Institute collaborates with other philanthropic organizations to increase support for Native American-led initiatives and community development projects. They work to increase awareness and investment in Native American causes.

Native American Heritage Association

The Native American Heritage Association (NAHA) is a nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid and support to Native American communities in need.

Founded in 1993, NAHA focuses on improving the living conditions, health, and overall well-being of Native American families, particularly those living in poverty on reservations.

What the Native American Heritage Association does:

Emergency Assistance: NAHA provides emergency assistance to Native American families facing immediate hardships, such as food shortages, housing crises, and natural disasters. They offer critical support to help families overcome these challenges.
Food and Nutrition: The organization runs food distribution programs that provide nutritious meals to Native American families, especially those who struggle with food insecurity on reservations where access to fresh and healthy food is limited.
Elder Care: NAHA supports Native American elders by providing essential resources, medical supplies, and home repairs. The organization recognizes the importance of honoring and caring for Native American elders in the community.
Medical and Dental Care: The organization offers medical and dental clinics on reservations, providing access to healthcare services often lacking in remote and underserved areas. These clinics help address health disparities and improve the overall well-being of community members.
Warmth for Winter: NAHA runs the Warmth for Winter program, providing winter clothing, blankets, and heating assistance to families who face cold temperatures and lack the resources to stay warm during the winter months.
Housing Improvements: The organization undertakes housing improvement projects, such as repairing roofs, installing insulation, and addressing critical home repairs to ensure safe and livable conditions for Native American families.
Partnership and Collaboration: NAHA collaborates with Native American tribes, organizations, and other nonprofit groups to maximize their impact and ensure that their programs align with the needs and priorities of their communities.

Other causes to support:

6 mins read

Blog Post

The Big Donation Distribution Problem You Don’t Know About

At Groundswell, we are passionate about challenging the status quo, and one industry standard that we’ve set our sights on is the unconscionable donation distribution delays normalized by legacy platforms like Benevity, Cybergrants, and YourCause. These companies, which currently service the majority of Fortune 500 companies, routinely take 30-60 days to send a donor’s donation to charity, and 90-180 days to send a company’s matching gift.

‍We believe that this is wrong. So we’ve fixed it.

‍Groundswell is the fastest employee giving platform, sending both the employee's donation and the company's match together within 5 days.

Why do distribution timelines matter?

In this blog post I’m going to share with you why this is so powerful. But first, let me tell you why this is personal.

From 2010 through 2020 I served as the founder and CEO of the global humanitarian relief organization Team Rubicon (TR). TR responds to hundreds of disasters and crises each year, each mission carefully planned. One critical planning factor is fundraising - how much will the organization be able to successfully raise in the immediate onset of this event? The first 96 hours of an event are the most telling, as individual donations begin pouring in and corporations begin calling to make pledges. Using these early signals, a budget is prepared and a mission is launched.

Now fast-forward four months. A literal mountain of paper checks begin arriving, representing the matching donations that have finally been invoiced, collected, aggregated, and distributed to us by Benevity, Cybergrants, and YourCause. However, more often than not the mission was already over - and the money now unable to be spent effectively.

Don’t get me wrong - a nonprofit is never going to complain about donations coming in. But having not known that these checks were coming, they were not included in the original budgeting. This created massive headaches for our staff, but more importantly, represented a missed opportunity to have delivered more impact during the response phase.

When I started Groundswell, this was one very real problem that I set out to solve.

Why does it take so long for legacy platforms to distribute donations?

There are several things that lead to these distribution delays, the primary of which is these platform’s process of distributing donations in aggregated batches. That process looks like this:

Employee 1 makes a $10 donation to a Charity X on September 1st, Employee 2 makes a $15 donation to Charity X on September 10th, and Employee 3 makes a $25 donation to Charity X on September 30th.
In October, the legacy platform combines all donations designated for Charity X in September into a single amount - in this instance $50 ($10 + $15 + $25)
On or around October 15th, $50 is sent to Charity X - often via a paper check

In this process, Employee 1’s donation does not reach the charity for at least 45 days. Worse yet, many platforms have a minimum donation threshold, which means that the platform will not process the distribution until a minimum amount has been designated for the charity. This often means that a donor’s money can sit as a pending payment for months or even years, until additional donors make enough donations to reach the threshold.

The process gets even more convoluted when there’s a corporate donation match involved. That process looks like this:

Let’s assume Employees 1 and 2 in the above scenario work for Acme Corporate, while Employee 3 works for XYZ Corp. Acme Corp and XYZ Corp both offer employee donation matches.
Following their respective September donations, the legacy platform will send both Acme Corp and XYZ Corp an invoice for the match amount owed by each company, $25 and $25 respectively in this example. This invoice is sent in late October for September’s donations.
Both companies receive and review the invoice. Reconciling the invoice takes 1-2 weeks.
Upon approval, administrators at both companies forward the invoice to accounts payable for payment. Acme Corp has net-30 payment terms and sends the legacy platform $25 in late November. XYZ Corp has net-60 payment terms, so does not send its $25 until late December.
The platform receives all funds in late December and processes payment of the matching donations to Charity X in January.

This example clearly lays out how an employee that made a donation on September 1st may not have her matching donation reach the charity for five months! This process erodes the employee experience, creates unnecessary administrative tasks for company administrators, and delays critical cash flow for nonprofits.

How has Groundswell upended this process to make distributions in 5 days?

Groundswell’s commitment to social impact drives everything we do. Thus, we set out to set a new standard in donation distribution timelines. The result is that we:

Instantly match an employee’s donation
Send both the employee’s donation and the company match together within 5 days
No longer aggregate these payments together, but instead send them individually

Now we have improved the employee experience, eliminated the administrative burden on companies, and improved the nonprofit’s cash flow.

But we’re not done. The only reason we’re waiting five days to distribute instead of sending the funds within 24 hours is because donors occasionally initiate credit card or ACH reversals, and it’s challenging to resolve these if we’ve already sent the funds to charity. However, we’re committed to examining the data over the coming months to determine what our reversal rate is, and whether we’re able to further reduce this timeline accordingly.

6 mins read

Blog Post

Help victims of Morocco's deadly earthquake

A powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Morocco on Friday, and with the death toll already surpassing 2,800 it is the deadliest and most powerful earthquake to hit the North African country in decades.
The epicenter was in the High Atlas Mountains, located about 50 miles southwest of the popular tourist city of Marrakech.
Rescue teams are struggling to reach those in affected areas due to roads blocked by the rubble left in the quake’s wake.

Organizations helping victims of Morocco's earthquake:

Groundswell has put together a list of organizations you can directly support:

International Committee of the Red Cross
Team Rubicon
CARE
International Medical Corps
Doctors without borders
GlobalGiving
UNICEF

The best way to support is to provide funding to one of the many nonprofits that are working to provide assistance to those impacted - please consider donating today.

Donate on Groundswell

6 mins read

Blog Post

October: Causes to Support

October recognizes Breast Cancer, Mental Illness, Poverty Eradication, Animals, and Arts & Humanities.

Join the Groundswell movement to learn about and support these nonprofits and countless others found on the Groundswell app.

Breast Cancer Awareness

National Breast Cancer Foundation

Cancer & Careers

Empowers and educates people with cancer to thrive in their workplace, by providing expert advice, interactive tools and educational events.

Breast Cancer Research Foundation

Provides critical funding for cancer research worldwide to fuel advances in tumor biology, genetics, prevention, treatment, metastasis and survivorship.

Mental Illness

Anxiety & Depression Association of America

Dedicated to the prevention, treatment, and cure of anxiety, depression, OCD, PTSD, and co-occurring disorders through the alignment of science, treatment, and education.

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)

The nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness.

The Jed Foundation

Protects emotional health and prevents suicide for our nation’s teens and young adults, giving them the skills and support they need to thrive today…and tomorrow.

World Animal Day

World Wildlife Fund

RE:WILD

Wildlife Conservation Society

Saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature.

Poverty Eradication

Innovations for Poverty Action

Concern Worldwide

Against Malaria Foundation

Helps protect people from malaria by funding anti-malaria nets, specifically long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs), and works with distribution partners to ensure they are used.

Supporting Arts & Humanities

Americans for the Arts

Sesame Workshop

A global impact nonprofit organization with a mission to help children everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder.

Art Start