GiveMeaning's Mission: Make Philanthropy Simple

In a recent interview, Tom Williams, the 27 year-old founder of GiveMeaning spoke of the motivating force behind his philanthropic initiative and its likely direction in 2007. GiveMeaning is one of several online communities that provide a platform for group fundraising over the internet.

The website helps networks of small-scale philanthropists develop and fund solutions to pressing social problems. Launched in late 2004, GiveMeaning has enabled an audience of mostly North Americans to initiate projects that address local and international issues as diverse as cancer-treatment and homelessness to war crimes and animal rescue. Building a community of small-scale philanthropists sounds like a novel idea. The reality is that GiveMeaning faces a crowded marketplace for its concept.

The world of group fundraising websites has already witnessed its first round of consolidation. In November 2006, WhatGoesAround.org announced that it would merge with NetworkforGood, the online giving portal that AOL, Yahoo, and Cisco Systems launched together in 2001.

With the launch of ChipIn last month and the continued growth of sites like FirstGiving and Fundable, GiveMeaning confronts a sizable challenge from its counterparts in the private sector. So what makes GiveMeaning different?

The Starbucks of Philanthropy

Williams sees a parallel between the GiveMeaning experience and picking up a Starbucks coffee.

By offering a consistent service-oriented experience, the website’s founder hopes to give millions of North Americans a good reason to regularly visit his online community instead of brewing up a giving plan on their own.

According to Williams, GiveMeaning excels at providing customized advice to individuals who want to turn the initial impulse to act into positive outcomes. “Our website caters to people who at least once a year have an ‘I want to do something moment” said Williams. “GiveMeaning removes as many obstacles as possible from completing a fundraising task.”

At GiveMeaning, initiators of group fundraising campaigns begin by describing in general terms the outcomes they want to produce or the issues they want to tackle. GiveMeaning staff then search their offline database to find the “best qualified organization able to receive funding” for that particular outcome or issue.

This process relieves campaign organizers from the lengthy process of tracking down a worthy organization, especially for projects situated outside of North America. Continuing with the comparison to Starbucks, GiveMeaning's advice ensures that donors don’t lose time looking for the best ingredients for their campaign. GiveMeaning's staff members are constantly adding to their database of potential recipient organizations.

Measuring Return on Generosity

In step two of transforming the ‘I want to do something moment’ into action, GiveMeaning provides the philanthropist with a set of tools for building momentum behind his or her campaign. GiveMeaning requires that all new projects recruit at least 100 supporters of the proposed project, at which point donations can be received. According to Williams, the vote helps ensure sufficient support to meet a fundraising goal.

“It’s not enough to just put up a fundraising page and hope that your goal will be reached. You have to be committed and have sufficient community support,” said Williams. Once a fundraising target is reached, GiveMeaning transfers funds from the network of donors to the recipient organization without charging a processing fee or sharing the donor information.

Donors are provided with a tax receipt and opt-in progress reports. In GiveMeaning parlance, these reports are called “a measure of return on generosity.”

Plans for 2007

At the end of the interview, Williams hinted at several upcoming enhancements to the GiveMeaning platform. In the coming months, GiveMeaning will release a user-friendly version of its intelligent matching database.

The search engine will provide philanthropists with instant suggestions of recipient organizations based on keywords relating to desired outcomes. Williams is also planning to restructure the way GiveMeaning is presented in order to place greater emphasis on the emerging community of small-scale philanthropists who make regular visits to the website.

If Williams and his colleagues are successful, the long-term impact of GiveMeaning will be to re-brand philanthropy as an everyday activity that is seamless, rewarding, and most importantly meaningful.