Presenting five new effective giving initiatives

By CE, Ben Williamson @ 2024-08-13T16:37 (+189)

Introduction

In May 2024, Ambitious Impact (AIM) ran a program to incubate new effective giving initiatives (EGIs) in partnership with Giving What We Can. In short, EGIs focus on raising awareness and funneling public and philanthropic donations to the most cost-effective charities worldwide.

In the last few years, several Effective Giving Initiatives, such as Doneer Effectief, Effektiv Spenden, and Giving What We Can, have moved millions in funding to the best charities globally. The success of these and other similar organizations suggests that further initiatives in this space could be highly beneficial, given that many highly effective charities are bottlenecked by access to funding.

This article introduces five new effective giving initiatives incubated through the program we ran earlier this year in their own words. It summarizes their country of operation, near-term plans, targets, and any room for additional seed funding.^[1]

Organization Summaries

Ellis Impact

Co-founders: Fernando Martin-Gullans, Helene Kortschak

Country of operation: United States (New York City)

Website: www.ellisimpact.org     

Email address: fernando@ellisimpact.org, helene@ellisimpact.org 

Seed grant: $84,000

Background (why is this a promising country/angle for an EGI?)

While Americans are the global leaders in total charitable giving, with over $450 billion donated annually, they currently give less than 0.5% of it to the most effective charities. Ellis Impact aims to expand effective giving by focusing on high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) in New York City.

Why HNWIs? Charitable donations are overwhelmingly heavy-tailed. For example, less than 5% of donors account for 40% of donations at existing EGIs such as Giving What We Can and Effektiv Spenden.

Why New York City? Home to the largest number of millionaires (>350,000) and a GDP of $1.2 trillion, NYC has the highest wealth concentration in the world and is more economically powerful than many countries with existing EGIs (e.g., Netherlands, Sweden, Norway). It also has the highest charitable giving in the US, totaling $20 billion per year in itemized donations.

Near-term plans

Our first six months will focus on expanding our local network of prospective donors by attending events (e.g., networking events, conferences, galas) and tapping into existing and under-explored communities in NYC (e.g. EA Finance). We plan to further engage prospective donors through 1-1 advising and hosting our first lean, in-person events to raise awareness around effective giving, bring together like-minded individuals, and introduce them to cause area experts.

Targets (reach/giving multiplier/etc.)

Our minimum goal for our first nine months is to counterfactually raise our seed funding amount in public donations (>$84,000). Our ambitious goal is to raise three times as many counterfactual donations as we received in seed funding (i.e., $252,000).

Room for more funding

In late July, we raised $84,000 from the Seed Funding Network, allowing us to run for nine months. We would require an additional $20,000 to extend our runway to 12 months, decreasing the risk of having to shut down before we can demonstrate good results since, according to the experience of other HNW donor advisors, donor relationships potentially take longer than nine months to cultivate. Any funding on top of that would be used for hosting and attending additional and higher-quality events to meet and engage prospective donors.

If you are interested in supporting our efforts in other ways, we are currently:

• Looking for warm introductions to prospective donors in NYC as well as super connectors and ambassadors for future warm introductions. If you know someone you think we should meet, please contact Fernando at fernando@ellisimpact.org.
• Assembling a team of skilled volunteers to support event planning and digital marketing. If you have experience running events and are based in NYC, or have experience with content marketing, copywriting, and SEO and would like to contribute, please contact Helene at helene@ellisimpact.org.

Benefficienza

Co-founders: Luca Stocco, Sebastian Trenckmann

Country of operation: Italy

Website: www.benefficienza.it 

Email address: info@benefficienza.it 

Seed grant: $83,000

Background (why is this a promising country/angle for an EGI?)

Italy offers a promising yet underutilized market for effective giving. It has roughly half the GDP of Germany (home to Europe’s largest EGI) but donates twice as much in relative terms, leading to similarly sized donation markets. However, Italy does not currently have a domestic EGI, and the idea of effective giving has not yet spread in the country. This is likely due to low English proficiency, which poses barriers to accessing global effective giving resources (predominantly available in English). Resources on effective giving in Italian are almost completely absent.

Near-term plans

We will replicate and build upon the model of the most successful EGIs. Our strategy centers around our website—which we aim to launch by the end of August—with localized content on effective giving, effective charity recommendations, quick user support, and a donation platform through which users can make tax-deductible donations. To attract traffic, we will cherry-pick the most successful tactics from existing EGIs—including podcast appearances, SEO-optimised blog posts, newspaper features, and building an ambassador network—while testing other outreach tactics to improve our strategy iteratively.

Targets (reach/giving multiplier/etc.)

We aim to raise $550,000 in counterfactual donations in the first year, achieving a giving multiplier of over 4.5.

Room for more funding

We have secured funding for 9 months and are open to receiving additional donations. With more funding, we will have more time to capitalize on what we have learned and deepen our relationships with HNWIs, typically the source of most donations. This will decrease the risk of shutting down due to insufficient opportunity for trial and error. Please reach out if you are interested in supporting Benefficienza, and we can discuss funding opportunities in detail.

We are also looking for warm introductions to potential ambassadors and donors in Italy. If you know someone you think we should meet, let us know at info@benefficienza.it.

Mieux Donner

Co-founders: Jennifer Stretton, Romain Barbe

Country of operation: France, French-speaking Switzerland

Website:    mieuxdonner.org

Email address: jennifer@mieuxdonner.org, romain@mieuxdonner.org 

Seed grant: $95,000

Background 

France is among the top 10 countries globally in terms of charitable donations. With a higher rate of private donations compared to other major European countries and an annual donation amount of €8.5 billion, France presents a fertile ground for promoting effective giving, especially as French citizens have the lowest English proficiency in Northern Europe, limiting their access to effective donations concepts.

Switzerland has the third-highest number of millionaires worldwide, and Geneva, Switzerland, has the second-highest concentration of millionaires. This wealth concentration presents a significant opportunity for promoting effective giving. As the first French organization dedicated to marketing effective giving, Mieux Donner aims to introduce these high-net-worth individuals to the most impactful global charities.

Additionally, while Effektiv Spenden offers tax deductibility for donations in Switzerland, the French-speaking region remains underrepresented due to language barriers. Mieux Donner has partnered with Effektiv Spenden to provide tax-deductible donation options for French speakers in Switzerland, filling a critical gap.

A note on effective giving in France: There is one other effective giving organization in France called Don Efficace - they are a research-focused organisations whose aim is to increase the tax-deductible portfolio of effective charities. Their strategy to increase donations to effective charities is to find effective charities within France that qualify for tax deductions. In comparison, Mieux Donner is an outreach-focused organization. Our strategy to increase donations to effective charities is to market the most effective charities, regardless of their tax deductibility status in France.

Near-term plans

Mieux Donner has already made significant strides, including registering the charity, launching a website and donation platform, establishing a presence on social media, organising our first event, and beginning to rank on SEO. In the near term, Mieux Donner plans to:

• Promote the 🔸10% Pledge in partnership with Giving What We Can (GWWC), encouraging donors to commit a portion of their income to highly effective charities.
• SEO objectives: Achieve top 10 rankings for key search terms within six months to increase visibility and reach.
• Offer donor advisory services: Provide personalised calls to advise donors on impactful giving opportunities.
• Email marketing campaign: Deploy targeted email campaigns to engage potential donors and supporters.
• Media and advocacy outreach: Engage with journalists, leading press outlets, and potential advocates to spread the message of effective giving.
• Prepare for the Giving Season: Focus efforts on the critical donation period of December, which accounts for 1/4 of annual charitable donations in France. This includes heightened ambassador outreach, content creation, giving season vouchers, and peer-to-peer fundraising initiatives.

Targets 

Mieux Donner aims to secure $1 million in donations during its first year. By the fifth year, the organisation seeks to achieve a giving multiplier of 14x, meaning every euro invested in Mieux Donner will generate 14 euros in donations for the most effective charities globally. The target is to raise €3.5 million annually in counterfactual donations, significantly increasing support for high-impact organisations.

Room for more funding

Our seed funding is 90% of our frugal 9 month budget. This will allow us both to work full time on the project for 9 months with no funding for anything other than cofounder wages. We are looking for 25k to extend our runway to 12 months. This will enable us more time to prove our concept as SEO and brand awareness takes time. It will also allow us to afford freelance web developers to improve our donation platform and run paid ads.

We are looking for volunteers interested in web development, copywriting, social media marketing and event organisation. You can subscribe to updates and learn about future funding and support opportunities in our newsletter.

Effectief Geven

Co-founders: Mathieu Spillebeen and Jeroen De Ryck

Country of operation: Belgium

Website: https://www.effectiefgeven.be 

Email address: mathieu@effectiefgeven.be, jeroen@effectiefgeven.be 

Seed grant: None. We got ±50% of our budget for the first three years through a generous donation from a HNWI.

Background 

Belgium is a relatively wealthy but small country in Western Europe. 6.5% of the population are millionaires, and 56% of Belgians donate. Yet, the concept of giving effectively is largely unknown. Belgium is an administratively complex country, with the northern part (Flanders) being Dutch-speaking and the southern part (Wallonia) being French-speaking. At the same time, this has some benefits. Doneer Effectief is already well established in the Netherlands and is the most successful EGI yet (in terms of euro raised per capita). Being able to copy a lot of their materials is a massive timesaver. Similarly, we can copy French material from Don Efficace and Mieux Donner that is already culturally adapted to the Walloon culture.

Near-term plans

• We will continue to expand our website with more content and donation advice specific to the Belgian legal and tax context.
• We are in contact with several well-known Belgian people willing to be ambassadors for our organization.
• We will roll out the next phase of our donation platform before the giving season, in collaboration with Doneer Effectief.
• Write blog posts for keywords and optimized for SEO
• Help and support donors with donating with personalized donor advice
• Organise and take part in events
• Engage with the media about effective giving
• Engage with influencers of potentially promising target audiences
• Maintain a bi-monthly newsletter

Targets 

We aim to raise €240k in our first year, with a GM of 1.2. By year 3, we aim to expand this to €1M raised, with a GM of 4.

Room for more funding

As we’ve only managed to raise 30% of our yearly budget, we are still looking for €50k for us to dedicate a larger amount of time to make more significant progress by giving season, evaluate our first six months, and adjust our strategy based on those results. Additionally, we could dedicate more time to sorting tax deductibility for our donors and expanding to Wallonia by translating all content and outreach into French.

Impactful Giving

Co-founders: Chetan Kharbanda, Jesse Pagliuca, Krishna Veni

Country of operation: India

Website: impactfulgiving.in

Email address: team@impactfulgiving.in

Seed grant:$88,000

Background (why is this a promising country/angle for an EGI?)

The Massive Potential of India's Donation Market: India is the 4th largest donation market in the world, with approximately $15 billion donated annually. This market is projected to grow by 64% over the next five years, introducing a significant influx of new wealth holders. Current effective giving initiatives (EGIs) have found that new donors are especially receptive to effective giving concepts, making this segment highly promising. Despite this potential, there has been no systematic effort to build an ecosystem or promote the practice of effective giving within this expansive market.

Unique Opportunity to Give Locally: India is home to multiple highly effective charities, making them ideal for Indian donors. While most EGIs can reach only about 10% of their populations (those willing to donate internationally), focusing on local donations allows us to tap into a much larger donor base. By August 2024, we will have secured tax deductibility, offering donors a 50% rebate on their contributions and further encouraging local giving.

Bringing a Successful Model to a New Market: Our goal is to adopt successful strategies from other effective giving initiatives and tailor them to the Indian context, leveraging our understanding of Indian culture and context. Leveraging best practices, we will build a donation platform, promote the benefits of effective giving, and offer free 1:1 consultation services to large donors.

Near-term plans

We have registered as a legal entity and started building a network of trusted advisors and experts. As we prepare to launch our pilot in October 2024, we have completed user research, initiated partnerships with evaluators and charities for recommendations, tested key messages and content with our target segment, started building our brand, and are currently developing our website.

During our pilot phase, we plan to test the most promising outreach strategies, focusing on SEO, content marketing, securing media coverage, partnering with ambassadors, and personal networking. These strategies are specifically tailored to the Indian market, with content customized for our target segments and informed by audience research. To enhance engagement, we will maintain a dedicated helpdesk and offer exclusive, free, one-on-one philanthropic consultations for donors.                           

Targets (reach/giving multiplier/etc.)

We aim to raise $272,800 in our first year, more than double our operating budget. By the fifth year, our goal is to generate $13.6 million annually in counterfactual donations—nearly 20 times our budget. This would mean that every dollar invested in us generates $20 in donations that otherwise would not have been raised.

Room for more funding

We have secured 70% of our first-year budget through the Seed Funding Network and are open to additional funding. This budget will cover our expenses for the first 7-8 months, but the tight schedule presents challenges. Although we will have time to test our core strategy during the pilot program, there may not be sufficient time for necessary adjustments. The limited timeframe also restricts our ability to build long-term relationships with donors, risking a loss of momentum. Additionally, the full benefits of our SEO and donation platform efforts will take longer to materialize.

We are also seeking volunteers to work on content writing, copyediting, and social media marketing. If you're interested, please contact us at team@impactfulgiving.in.

1. ^{^}

   Disclaimer: These organizations are all independent of both Ambitious Impact and Giving What We Can. As such, they will make their own educated choices of which charities to promote and where to donate funds.