Tammy Hahn | My Next Chapter
“Do you want to help figure out how to ship bags of cat food faster or do you want to help write the story of a team and product that caused world-wide impact on the most pressing issues of our time?” Seems like an easy choice.
I’m incredibly excited to announce that I’m teaming up with co-founders Jake Wood, Adam Miller, and Joe Marchese to revolutionize the way individuals and corporations approach social impact. Our new company, Groundswell, sits at the intersection of Fintech and Philanthropy, bringing much needed digital renovation to how we invest to create impact.
It has long been my dream to leverage the professional skills attained in the corporate world to apply in furthering impact at a tech-forward foundation or company addressing the world’s biggest problems.
The events of the last 18 months have shown the world that the issues we face affect everyone; there are no innocent bystanders. COVID-19, George Floyd’s murder, #StopAsianHate, the takeover of Afghanistan, the alarming effects of climate change. To be silent now is to be complacent. If we stand for nothing, we will fall for anything.
To dismiss an opportunity to build with this amazing team, to work on this visionary yet fragile idea, seemed downright irresponsible.
Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash
Groundswell is founded on the principle that everyone should be able to give like Gates, get taxed like Buffet, and get recognized like Rockefeller. Our aim is to decentralize philanthropy for the masses, and we’ll do that by building a solution that gives everyone the power of a personal foundation in the palm of their hand.
We also recognize that the current models for corporate philanthropy and social responsibility no longer serve us well. Corporate philanthropy has long been a centralized function discussed around senior executive and boardroom tables. This landscape has been increasingly difficult to navigate given the volume of issues, the urgency in nature, and the demands of employees and consumers despite often differing point-of-views. What if companies acknowledged that diverse problems require diverse solutions and enabled their employees to invest in solutions they believe are best for the problems they believe are most critical? Like the 401K did for retirement, Groundswell will usher in a new era of employee empowerment.
Americans give nearly $500B/year to charity*, the most out of any nation in the world. We believe there is a smarter, more intentional way to give and be more impactful.
Others believe it, too. With a seed round of $5M in funding, our investors include leading venture capital firms Human Ventures, Lowercase Capital, Core Capital, and Quiet Capital, and individual investors that span multiple Fortune 500 CEOs, former military generals, media executives, and entrepreneurs who align with our values and support this imperative journey.
Thank you, Jake Wood, for asking me this very important question. No, I don’t want to ship cat food faster; I want to create impact. I want to be a part of Groundswell’s vision to see every solution funded, and every problem solved.
What about you? Are you ready to change the world? Click here to get involved. I’m hiring Product Managers and Designers! Click here to get involved. I’m hiring Product Managers and Designers!
Featured Resources
Blog
15 Million Steps Closer to Disrupting Philanthropy
Fortune favors the bold. It’s a favored saying among the military circles I used to serve in. I believe that when bold vision is combined with bold action, and encapsulated in a culture of relentless commitment to both, that extraordinary outcomes are possible. Groundswell’s mission was born of this boldness: to democratize philanthropy for the masses. We aim to make charity a standard component of employee compensation and ensure that everyone has access to the same giving tools as the ultra-wealthy.
That type of mission requires significant resources, and thus I have some exciting news to share – today we are announcing that GV (formerly Google Ventures) is leading a $10 million Series Seed investment in Groundswell! GV will be joined by Human Ventures, Moonshots Capital, Felicis Ventures, and Core Innovation Capital.
This financing will give Groundswell approximately $15 million to build the world’s most innovative giving platform and will catapult us toward our vision of creating a future in which every solution is funded and every problem is solved.
We pitched partners at many of the most iconic venture capital firms in the world and received several offers, but GV was undoubtedly the right partner for Groundswell. Not only did GV immediately understand the immense commercial prospects of Groundswell, they fully bought into our vision to build a company capable of driving significant positive social change. Most importantly, they did not see those things as mutually exclusive objectives.
We are also fortunate that GV partner MG Siegler will be joining the Groundswell board of directors. From our first phone call, I knew that MG was someone that I wanted to work with. His eyes lit up when I spoke about how we could solve the inherent challenges of current donor advised fund offerings while simultaneously building a new corporate benefit that reimagined compensation. It also helped that MG’s dad is a Wisconsin grad and former Marine – it allowed me to get over the troubling fact that he’s a Michigan grad.
Luckily, I’m equally thrilled by our other participating investors. Human Ventures was writing a check to invest in Groundswell before we even had a pitch deck (or a name!) and I’m eager to continue working with them. As a Marine Corps veteran, Moonshots’ commitment to backing military veteran entrepreneurs aligns with my worldview that our servicemen and women make incredible founders. I have known Aydin and the folks at Felicis for a long time and Groundswell is perfect for their impressive portfolio of companies. Silver Lake has limitless potential to help us scale and secure early adopters. Last but not least, I knew Core was a team I wanted to partner with the first time I heard their investing thesis: backing missionary companies and mercenary returns.
The team here at Groundswell has its work cut out for it. While this financing puts wind in our sails, we know that the journey we are on is not for the faint of heart. Our aim is to create an entire category (Philanthropy-as-a-Service) that reinvents corporate philanthropy, total compensation, and individual giving. It’s a bold objective. But fortune favors the bold.
If you’re a passionate and talented human eager to join a world-class team, check out our careers page. If you work at a company that wants to be on the leading edge of corporate social responsibility and talent acquisition, reach out to request early access and become a Groundswell launch partner. Everyone else – buckle up, because this is gonna be a helluva ride.
Meet the Team
Meet Daniel Covelli
Describe your journey to Groundswell in two sentences.
My time in college gave me a profound understanding of two often competing world views, technological innovation and a demand for better institutions. I chose to work at Groundswell because it sits at the intersection of these two interests by providing much needed funding to nonprofits via great software.
What is a cause you are most motivated by and where can we learn more?
One area that I am deeply interested in is clean energy research on college campuses. I think one of the only ways we can solve the impending ecological crisis is by creating cheaper, more efficient green alternatives to the existing energy and transportation solutions that currently exist. If you can, the best way to support this cause is by giving back to your alma mater’s science or engineering departments. Another way you can help is by giving to a stem education non-profit like Girls Who Code, Project Lead the Way, or First Robotics so that our young people have the tools needed to solve the global problems of tomorrow.
What makes you excited to show up to work on Monday morning?
I am excited to show up to work on Mondays because I get to learn new stuff almost everyday and work on problems that directly contribute to a better world.
What’s the last thing you’ve read, listened to, or watched?
The last thing I read was Blitzscaling by Chris Yeh and Reid Hoffman. The authors argue that companies like Airbnb, LinkedIn, and Paypal are all marked by a period of exponential organizational and user growth known as blitzscaling and that this phase is critical for mature startups in consumer tech.
Where can we connect with you?
Blog
Want to Make Giving a Habit in the Office? Here’s How.
Here’s some good news, for a change: In recent years, Americans have shown a stronger and stronger desire to donate to charity. This is especially true for younger givers. Nearly 61% of Gen Z and 48% of Millennials say they plan to give more than they have in the preceding three years. Overall, 31% of people say they plan to increase their giving.
And in 2020 – a tough year – Americans gave $471 billion to charitable organizations. In short, the giving instinct is alive and well. And companies can encourage this in the workplace.
But here’s the challenge: Most companies’ go-to strategy for driving workplace giving is the corporate matching program.
There’s nothing wrong with matching programs. On paper, they’re great – 84% of professionals say they are more inclined to donate if a match is available. The problem? The logistics around company matching can be a huge pain in the ass – involving Excel sheets, legacy software, and other inefficiencies. This is a major blocker, because people want to enjoy giving.
We give because it’s the right thing to do. But we aren’t emotionless altruism machines. We also like to give because it makes us feel good. We want the buzz, the warmth, the excitement of giving.
This is what the current matching solutions lack. Delays and administrative processes get in the way of feeling. Read on to find out how company giving can be revamped – by using Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) to match employee contributions before they give to charity, not after the fact.
The Problem: Philanthropy Without the Buzz
The concept of corporate matching is a fantastic idea; businesses match their employees’ charitable contributions to nonprofit organizations with cash contributions of their own. Employees get to double their impact and companies get credit for supporting organizations in the community.
This impact-doubling method has enormous potential over the next few years. Evidence from Deloitte shows that 37% of employees will participate in philanthropic activities, motivated by the opportunity to make a difference with causes close to their hearts – such as hunger, homelessness, education, and social and racial equality. The prospect of doubling their impact is exciting .
However, the problems start with how matching happens. With current matching programs, the actual matching happens in one of two ways:
Scenario #1:
Someone at the company – usually an overworked person in HR or finance – tracks everything in a giant Excel sheet, verifies each request one by one, and manually cuts checks to qualifying charities. The fun of giving stops and additional work becomes a tedious task. Employees miss out on the buzz and excitement of giving, as the whole thing just feels like paperwork (and nobody likes additional paperwork).
Scenario #2:
The company uses a legacy software platform that is meant to streamline the matching program – however, the platform is getting dustier by the day, and is often a blocker. Employees have to find the portal, login, get a password reminder, go through the right steps. Then they make their contribution – say $100 – and have to trust that somehow someone somewhere is going to chip in the other $100. As a result, the energy is sapped out of the giving process. The thrill of giving is diminished and the whole process will be bland: no rush, no emotional boost, just dead morale.
The Solution: Match Donations Up Front
“Groundswell makes donation easy. Creating small habits that add up over time, in the same way you would for a 401k – I think that’s going to be a game changer. It should really be like, let’s democratize that, and really listen to and trust our employees to be making good decisions.”
Layla Kajer, Director of Internal Communications & Community, Greenhouse
Imagine if this is how 401(k) programs worked: An employee buys a particular company’s stock within their 401(k). They then have to go to their benefits team, show them their purchase confirmation, and ask them to buy the same stock and deposit it into their account.
This would be absurd! And yet it’s effectively how corporate matching currently takes place.
This is why, at Groundswell, we are allowing companies to leverage DAFs in their matching programs. 88% of HR executives say that corporate giving, along with other effective employee engagement programs, has a positive impact on their employee acquisition and retention. The way to maximize this impact is to make corporate matching as immediate, exciting, and animating as possible.
How to do this? By structuring corporate matching around donor advised funds. At Groundswell, we allow companies to place matching contributions into a DAF that employees then direct themselves. This way, when an employee makes the decision to give to a charity, they are making a donation that’s immediately twice as big.
No delays, no hassle. Just double the impact, right then and there. This way, matched giving comes with the excitement and buzz that it should.
Contact Groundswell today and start reinventing individual and corporate giving.