High Net-Worth Individuals Have the Power To Change The World

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No matter how much financial success you have, the best entrepreneurs are those who give back to their communities. Instilling philanthropic values in the people around us is crucial in bettering our society. The best way to reach success and to be a well-rounded business professional is to incorporate philanthropic values into business planning from the very start.

The key to philanthropy is to make it engaging. For example, partners show their children the importance of helping others through hands-on activities such as donating toys or helping elderly neighbors. This makes philanthropy engaging and even more likely to make a difference in the lives of everyone involved.

If you’re a high net-worth individual, you have the opportunity to connect with your giving on a whole new level. Not only can you make your work engaging, but you can implement structural processes that will lead to the highest amount of impact possible.

High net-worth individuals with a lot of generosity have a large means to put their plans into action. The best way to go about this is for individuals to convene and share their information from various resources in order to create change at the grassroot. High net-worth individuals are typically driven by the simple agenda of doing good.

So why exactly is it that high net-worth individuals have the power to make a large difference? People with high net-worth are often able to work side-by-side with nonprofit organizations. The most effective giving occurs when these people empower the NGOs they work with. This involves learning more about the NGO’s challenges, finding solutions to red flags, and taking advantage of opportunities for growth. High net-worth individuals who truly make a difference don’t simply donate to companies; they create an effective partnership with the companies.

One example of this is an American family that funded School-on-Wheels, an education program in india that transformed a commercial bus into a mobile classroom that traveled from one slum to another to bring education to children on the streets. Because of the family’s funding, thousands of vulnerable children benefitted, and the NGO’s capacity was increased. The funding was critical to helping the company create a lasting impact. The funding continued for many years, building capacity and systematically addressing the needs of School-on-Wheels.

School-on-Wheels was able to reach its full potential largely due to the honest evaluation, clear reporting and constant dialogue between the organization and the family that funded it. The organization has since grown to enormous heights. In fact, Prince William and Kate Middleton chose this NGO as one of three nonprofits they visited in India.

It is important to structure your company so that you can maximize impact. One way to do this is to create a shared value system. Think about what problems are most important to the company and why solving those problems is so important. Then think about your investment philosophy. Consider whether you will make long-term investments or single-year grants. Once you’ve thought about your values, your mission statement should come naturally.

Evaluation and reporting is an important part of the upkeep of a philanthropic campaign. Create a simple quarterly or bi-annual report that clearly outlines the positives and the negatives. Evaluation of your grantees allows you to brainstorm about the ways to empower your grantees and how you can build capacity. It’s also a great idea to collaborate with other high net-worth individuals and philanthropists who want to work toward the same goal.

There is no one right way to make a difference, but if you incorporate philanthropy into your business strategy from day 1 and collaborate with others, your efforts are sure to create change in the world.

 

New Study Shows Which Cities Receive Most Charitable Donations

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Earlier this year, Fidelity Charitable released a 2016 “Giving Report.” Then, on June 22, 2016, Fidelity released a supplement to this report. The supplement analyzed the amount that donors give based on philanthropic interest and metropolitan area.

Over 80,000 donor-advised funds are managed by Fidelity on behalf of 132,000 donors. Fidelity Charitable’s funds have $3.2 billion in assets, making Fidelity Charitable’s funds the second-largest grantmaking group in the U.S. To analyze all the funds and develop the supplement, Fidelity used almost 42,000 funds advised and established by donors located in the top 30 U.S. metropolitan areas (MSAs).

In order to select the top 30 MSAs, Fidelity Charitable looked at the number of Fidelity donor advised funds in each city. The supplemental material went on to assess which cities had the highest giving in eight philanthropic sectors: arts and culture, environment and animals, human services, society benefit, international affairs, religion, education, and health. These sectors are defined by the Urban Institute’s National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE).

Giving is very personal in nature. People usually donate to causes that are important to them. For this reason, it is no surprise that the city-by-city supplement shows that different cities have different giving priorities. Our country is large and diverse, and the giving trends shown by the supplement reflect this diversity. For example, Fidelity donors in Salt Lake City donated the most money to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Salt Lake City was not in the top 10 in charitable support of any category aside from religion. Conversely, Boston-Cambridge-Quincy was in the top 10 in every category besides religion. In fact, Boston was number one in giving to health charities.

In the supplement, the most detailed information is provided for 12 MSAs: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Minneapolis, New York City, Los Angeles, Raleigh-Durham, Salt Lake City, Seattle, and Washington D.C. Within these 12 metropolitan areas, public broadcasting was a very popular industry to donate to. The popularity of public broadcasting among Fidelity DAF donors may show a correlation between Fidelity investors and devotees. It may also show that Fidelity donors give gifts at every level rather than just giving major gifts. This point was already brought up in the main 2016 Giving Report, but the data from supplement nicely supports it.

Going along with the idea that we donate to causes that are close to our hearts, Washington, D.C. ranks the highest for donating to charities in the international affairs sector. It also ranks high for donating to human services, education, environment and animals, arts and culture, and society benefits. San Francisco-Fremont-Oakland leads in donating to environmental and animal causes as well as arts & culture organizations. The top 10 lists also contain a few smaller metropolitan areas. St. Louis is among the top five cities that give to the environment and animals. Detroit is number two on the list for donating to human services. According to Fidelity, the diversity in city size could be proof that certain causes are supported with varying levels of intensity in many parts of the coutnry.

2016 is the first year that Fidelity has analyzed its fund data on the axis of geographic location. While they didn’t correlate these findings with other giving data that is available, they are open to the possibility of doing so in later years. If this correlation is done, researchers and practitioners may be able to better understand local giving patterns. They may also be able to figure out whether Fidelity DAF donors make choices that are similar to, or different from,  those of other donors in their own hometowns. Fidelity’s supplemental report is valuable and could be the basis for more expansive analysis in the future.

 

5 Tips to Craft an Engaging Corporate Philanthropic Campaign

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5 Tips to Craft an Engaging Corporate Philanthropic Campaign

Whether you’re launching a new program, revitalizing a stale one, or just want to make sure you’re following best practices to maximize both your reach and impact in your company’s corporate social responsibility program. Below are five steps you should follow in order to create an environment of success when it comes to promoting a certain charitable cause or mission.

Setting goals for your mission

Before actually starting this process, you need to sit back and reevaluate what the exact goals are when it comes to defining “success.” Consider how key causes map to the interests of your employees and goals of your business. Remember: the best philanthropy programs with solid support come from a set purpose with employee engagement. Authenticity is absolutely essential stepping stone.

Plan

Plan for a system that works the way you work and assemble your team. Reduce or eliminate inefficient tasks or processes to funnel or cultivate long term success. Basically, maintain flexibility and decide how to adapt during the evolving process of your corporate social responsibility program.

Secure a strong online presence

Enhance your overall brand message and share your philanthropic story with a website dedicated to the cause. This not only makes it clear for your supporters to find you, but it is also easier for potential volunteers to engage. In other words, utilize this site to give examples of your work , latest/upcoming events, and ways individuals can get involved at both micro and macro levels.

Launch time

The system before launching is essential when it comes taking small steps to success. After all the preparation leading up to this point, take the time to make sure everything is in place.  Depending on the  locale or area your company is targeting, partnering up with a business or other establishment to help in this stage.

Effectively communicate your results

At the end of the fundraiser or digital campaign, craft a comprehensive report underlining all the success with the use of social media channels, your website, and support from employees. Follow-up after each donation to collect data and send any stories to your communications/marketing team for promotion. Also, be sure to gather photos, stories, and anecdotes to help promote next year’s event.

How to More Effectively Participate in Philanthropy

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For many organizations and companies, philanthropic engagement has been strictly a business exchange in which corporations give money, and nonprofits give reach. Unfortunately, this does not necessarily mean that this exchange will produce results.

While nonprofits have such limited reach as it is , it is important for companies and nonprofit organizations to engage in a more responsive way to successfully alleviate hunger in a certain city or better cloth homeless youth.

Another idea to reconsider is the fact that funds do not necessarily translate to domestic or international success. Just because a certain organization or philanthropic body raises a few million dollars in no way means they will reduce hunger in a specific country, city or state.

It is also important to keep in mind that passionate people tend to work together in more ways than one. Driving engagement and traffic to have 500 one dollar donors instead of a single donor that donates 500 dollars is essential moving forward.

Also, a smart company would collaborate with their employee base in terms of finding a philanthropic cause, organizing ways to help, and most of all have a say in how to aid the targeted community. This in turn, creates a culture of kindness/selflessness, positive thinking, and mutual bonding in order to strengthen work based relationships.

Once employees are interested and engaged in what the company is participating in with respect to their new and improved philanthropic arm, there is a strong likelihood these employees will share their positivity in the social media space. Just look, for instance, at Microsoft, which regularly encourages its community to be even more philanthropic than the year before:

microsoft logoAccording to a recent study, in 2015 alone, Microsoft employees raised a record-breaking $125 million for more than 18,000 nonprofits and schools across the globe. The tech giant not only raise a hefty amount of money, but also made it their mission to constantly improve how they help, shape and act in a world that is increasingly becoming global. With participation reaching at around 71 percent, there is no question Microsoft’s employee base is becoming more involved in the philanthropic realm.

It is clear that millennials are no longer impressed or pleased with companies simply donating or fundraising for a charity. An engaging, well-thought out story is what this generation looks for as they both enter and navigate the job market.

According to a recent 2015 Aflac Corporation Survey:

  • 75 percent of consumers said they would be happier to work for a company with an effective, strong CSR program.
  • 65 percent of respondents link diversity with a company’s ethical standards.
  • 92 percent of millennials are more likely to purchase from an ethical company more so than any other generation.

By serving the needs of those in need, corporations create an ecosystem of trusting consumers, a happier workplace community, and sometimes a higher employee retention rate across the board.
Basically regardless of company size,  the company and charity relationship is clearly an ecosystem that will continue a cyclical charitable symbiotic relationship.

The Future of Corporate Philanthropy

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The Future of Corporate Philanthropy

 

Within the vast digital space, the development of tools, websites and campaigns used to gain user engagement continues to increase year after year. An employee engagement tool called “Benevity” eases the sometimes confusing process of donating, volunteering, and grant making as a means to make this user experience as simple and hassle free as possible.

At a recent conference in San Diego, the director of employee engagement for Benevity publicly discusses the various trends, and emerging areas for improvement in relation to the “digital philanthropy” moving forward.

The director of solutions at Benevity, Saunders, also highlights the fact that the volunteer space is changing due to more companies offering volunteer opportunities to employees not only in corporate headquarters, but also across multiple offices under the business umbrella.

According to several data sources, 77% of companies allowed non-headquarter employees to engage with certain volunteer opportunities or programs implemented by the firm. On the other hand, around 58% of companies reported that at least one program was made available to their international employees.

During the conference Saunders also printed out the recent trend centered around the overall demand of employees increasingly becoming more aware and engaged in corporate philanthropy. While “volunteer” within the corporate world can tend to be fairly broad, these opportunities generally consist of these bodies offering ways their employees can get involved.

Studies have shown that increased employee engagement in corporate philanthropy, not only increases loyalty internally, but also increases loyalty internally, but also augments the donation revenue with relation to individuals giving money to the cause.

Benevity also spoke on behalf of the vital importance with regard to the qualities of collaboration, teamwork, and integration that comes with volunteering. In addition, there has been evidences indicating that individuals more inclined to volunteer actually results in giving far more money, resources, and time to a wide array of philanthropic causes.

On average, these individuals give roughly around 41% more than the average Americans, further underlining how much of an impact volunteer programs make within the mentality of “paying it forward.”

Also, Benevity makes it clear that providing potential and current employees within corporate philanthropy the necessary tools to guide their success is more than important, it is absolutely essential to grow. The ability to utilize technology to effectively guide volunteers in this process is a cornerstone tool. Volunteering is centered around integration, sos it is only fitting that this quality is the basis for technology use in volunteer programs and opportunities.

One program that continuously proves to be successful is called the “Dollars for Doers” opportunity, which has shown to boost engagement for employees. Essentially, this program donates on behalf of a high-performing employee who not only exhibits genuine interest in the cause, but also is an active member, trying to better the overall engagement experience.

Not only are the Dollar for Doer programs some of the best functioning ones in the world, but they have also increased in popularity during the last few years. Around 5% of Benevity clients offer their employees this program in order to boost and further develop their firm’s philanthropic arm.

To improve any program to a higher standard, a fair share of creativity is needed to raise certain standards to the next level. Even though less restrictions within the program allow for more leeway in terms of how operations (volunteer) run, creativity has no doubt moved to the forefront of future program implementation.

In this regard, companies are making it easier for volunteers receive cash rewards and other complementary opportunities in the program. Another added benefit of this program is the increased appeal from nonprofit partners to work with companies that provide this opportunity for their employees. The creativity and less restrictions on the rewards side within the Dollars for Doers program will foster an environment geared towards more companies adopting this process.

With a forty percent increase of pro bono service across companies throughout the country, private institutions actually have the highest growth rates. A pro bono or highly skilled volunteer is someone who donates his/her professional services for a nonprofit, or on behalf of another philanthropic organization.

A pro bono volunteer is different from other volunteers in that they bring expertise to an organization on a project basis that includes clear guidelines, deliverables and work that is tailored to their skillset. Pro bono and skilled volunteers range along a continuum of technical expertise and experience in terms of skills, levels of commitment, and the types of projects that appeal to them.

A great way to reflect on the work you or your team has completed when working with a charity and their partners is to discuss the project a few days after participation. Evaluating what and how to improve certain aspects of the volunteer project after completion allows not only employees to be more effective, but it also allows for increased awareness moving forward.

New Source to Help Nonprofit Fundraising Campaigns

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Coming up with new tactics to advance your organization’s growth in the philanthropy can be quite challenging, so it is essential to stay up to date with the latest trends or fresh approaches to secure your charity’s mission. Even if your organization is maintaining its local base or is perhaps expanding to another area of the country, covering your bases to ensure your charity’s mission is seen through at every possible angle is absolutely essential. It is highly important to make sure your organization is coming up with different, new ways to approach enticing volunteers, donors and partnerships as means to make a statement within the philanthropic world.

Matching Gifts
This tactic is probably the most useful, but surprisingly underused way to create a fundamental incentive across the board for your base. Essentially quite an easy process, all your organization has to do is promote matching gifts to your donors and encourage them to submit requests to their employers.

Simple ways to encourage donor engagement on social media:
-embed this message in your emailed newsletters.
-driving engagement on social media
-creating a page on your website that highlights various ways to give back
-stating the matching gift program at the bottom of the donation form.

Volunteer grants

They are monetary rewards that employers give their employees after an individual or team of employee volunteers at a nonprofit for a certain amount of time. According to a recent statistic, 50% of employees who volunteer for the first time in 2016 will actually participate through a program or different type of incentive given within the internal workings of their company. Similar to approaching matching gifts, you can actually apply the same strategy to advertise volunteer grants across the board.

Please keep in mind that many of these grant programs actually require employees to volunteer for a certain number of hours before the money is given to the nonprofit, so keep a lookout for varying hour limits in the organization that interests you.

Fundraising Matches & Challenge Grants

Some companies will not only match the donations of their employees, but they will also match the money that those employees raise for fundraising events that allow people to socially connect or engage with one another.

Next time you host a fundraising event that requires your participants to solicit pledges or donations from their friends and family members, create a short presentation or speech underlining the effectiveness in fundraising matches. This will provide some insight to your fundraisers and their contacts to better understand the overall benefit of this new tactic.

For example, a challenge grant of a thousand dollars might require an organization to raise an initial amount of a thousand dollars before the grant is awarded. It’s important to keep in mind, that generally speaking, challenge grants actually involve regular check-ins with the company to ensure that goals are being met.

This also allows for business development between the two parties in order to gain a better understanding of how your help directly affects the organization. To learn more about an overlooked source of fundraising for nonprofits or other philanthropic organizations, please visit the GuideStar Blog.

Charity Paired With Youtube

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Unlike a good portion of stars that come from the Hollywood pool of affluent celebrities, there is something quite refreshing about online sensations that work their way up to achieve talent. Comparing these two levels of celebrity could not only be more drastically different within the spectrum of fame. Although these two different types of celebrity interact with their fan base on digital or social media platforms, it is an interesting trend that youtube celebrities have the tendency to socially engage their fans in a more intimate way. On the other hand, Hollywood celebrities are more inclined to maintain social relations with fans, but can sometimes engage them at arm’s length which intentionally creates a level of emotional distance.

Nonprofit organizations and other charitable causes heavily depend on financial resources to not only fund their national or multinational campaign, but also the voice of an influential celebrity who in essence, possesses the ability to fundamentally change the nature of the cause. As many of the present day Youtube sensations come from modest households, it is commonly seen that these online celebrities are more willing to promote or engage in philanthropy. In regards to cultivating a massive, loyal following for a specific cause or charity, it is evident that Youtube sensations have the potential of replacing Hollywood celebrities as the main forefront for generating a following for a cause.

youtube charity

Moreover, pairing the needs of digital influencers and brands alike, the organization called Reelio Cares has been examining the needs of both parties as a means to create a symbiotic partnership between the functioning entities. Ava Kelly, the manager of Reelio Cares, points out some key highlights that her organization has accomplished in regards to this innovative way of combining the power of youtube celebrity and charity in order to complete the goal of helping those less fortunate.

Ava Kelly offers some insight of this trend that could redefine the way we generate philanthropic engagement by stating, “It’s been a great learning experience so far,” “Seeing how far behind the non-profits were when it came to [influencer] marketing and working with digital influencers to educate them about working with non-profits, that’s probably been where a lot of my time has been spent. These digital influencers are very different than Hollywood celebrities.”

Reelio Cares has mastered the art of finding charities’ digital equivalent with YouTubers such as DigDeep, which supports the notion of clean water for every human. The success of this campaign resulted in three youtubers generating social media buzz when they decided to live on no more than four liters of water for a single day. Along with hitting around 1.1 million subscribers, the campaign generated a 9.9 engagement rate which is more than twice the average rate of a branded campaign of this nature.

It is safe to say that charitable bodies can benefit from this advantageous partnership which marries the influencers of Youtube digital entertainment to philanthropy. Check out Forbes’ article that delves deeper into charity and the digital world.