Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives

Benevity Creates Nonprofit Community Council to Strengthen the Donor-Charity Ecosystem

Mar 15, 2016 8:30 PM ET

CALGARY, AB – March 16, 2016 /3BL Media/ – Benevity, Inc., the global leader in online workplace giving, matching, volunteering and grant management solutions, launched a council of thought leaders from the nonprofit space to help shape the way people and companies connect to charitable causes that matter to them.

In an effort to build a more impactful and efficient donor-to-charity ecosystem, the company recruited 11 experienced leaders from diverse organizations. These members of the newly formed “Benevity Nonprofit Community Council” will use their experience and perspectives about industry trends and processes in workplace giving, technology and philanthropy to increase the volume, efficiency and impact of donation funds and other resources flowing through to charities.

As companies look to engage their employees and customers to support causes through their corporate responsibility initiatives, or “Goodness Programs,” Benevity is intent on ensuring voices from the charitable sector are heard and incorporated. Benevity’s award-winning SaaS product Spark powers some of the world’s largest workplace giving programs. With more than 2 million users around the world, the company will process half-a-billion dollars to 100,000 charities worldwide this year.

Bryan de Lottinville, Founder and CEO of Benevity, explained the rationale behind the Council: “The charity side of our ecosystem is a critical stakeholder in our mission. While most software vendors in the space have focused on the front-end of charitable gifts and left the donation processing element largely to be borne by the charities, Benevity is determined to invest more time and resources in driving aggregation, automation and process improvements for our global database of recipient charities. An essential step in that process is listening to their needs, learning about friction points and collaborating to improve outcomes for all participants. The Council will help us with all of this.”

The Council met for the first time at Benevity’s annual Goodness Matters User Conference in San Diego in late February. With new insights, Benevity plans to deliver greater efficiency as well as improvements in functionality, processes and services via the Benevity Causes Portal to better serve all stakeholders in the donor-to-charity ecosystem.

“Benevity’s Nonprofit Community Council is a simple but powerful model because they are actively listening to the nonprofit community,” said Oliver Hurst-Hiller, CTO & Head of Product of DonorsChoose.org and Chair of CTOs for Good. “Many of us working in the charitable sector have been waiting for an opportunity to help inform and strengthen companies’ efforts to connect their people with causes like ours. We welcome this new partnership to advance our many shared goals and create more collective impact.”

Council members include:

  • Alan J. Abramson, George Mason University
  • Thomas G. Bognanno, Community Health Charities of America
  • William Campbell, Points of Light
  • Oliver Hurst-Hiller, DonorsChoose
  • Cheron Carlson, EarthShare
  • Jocelyne Daw, JS Daw & Associates
  • Rebecca Masisak, Techsoup Global
  • Monisha Kapila, ProInspire
  • Mike O’Mahoney, St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church
  • Elena Pak, Girl Scouts USA
  • Kalman Stein, Founder of EarthShare and Charities@Work (Council Chair)

At the first meeting, the Council discussed a variety of issues, including how encouraging more nonprofit organizations to receive donations electronically may help them reduce some of the inefficiencies of receiving donations via cash or check. By sparking greater conversation around electronic payments, Benevity is challenging the status quo and seeking to leverage the power of technology to create better outcomes—namely reducing costs and time spent for the organizations receiving and processing funds. Benevity leads the industry with roughly 75 percent of funds sent to charities through electronic means, including EFT and PayPal. 

“We’re excited about the input we received from the inaugural meeting of the Council,” said de Lottinville. “It was a very engaged group and lots of actionable insights were provided. We fully expect many of the other vendors in the online and workplace giving space to establish something similar, which will be great for the landscape and the organizations and issues we are ultimately seeking to impact.”

About Benevity
Benevity, Inc., a certified B Corporation, is the global leader in online workplace giving, matching, volunteering and granting programs. Some of the world’s most iconic brands rely on Spark, Benevity’s award-winning SaaS solution, to power corporate “Goodness Programs,” that attract, retain and engage today’s diverse workforce by connecting people to the causes that matter to them. With software that is available in 15 languages to several million users around the world, Benevity will process donations benefiting more than 100,000 global charities this year.

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Leela Stake
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