Corporate philanthropy is booming — and it’s affecting real change. Entrepreneurial startups like Hello Tractor, are helping farmers in Nigeria by offering them Uber-like apps. Give Directly is helping the poor by allowing individuals to send money straight to the phones of those in need. Ben and Jerry’s is well known for supporting a variety of causes; it partners with many different nonprofits that focus on racial justice, refugee support programs, environmental protection and more.
NGOs are stepping in to support corporate philanthropy. PepUp Tech, for example, is a career readiness nonprofit that collaborates with tech companies. They provide brands with volunteers, internships, job opportunities and funding for underrepresented communities.
In his book ‘The Business of Changing the World’, Marc Benioff, entrepreneur and CEO of Salesforce, outlines why your company can — and should — start making the world a better place. He gives examples of 20 great strategic corporate philanthropy leaders; and pointers to corporate CEOs who want to incorporate social responsibility into their business model. Benioff calls for his peers to embrace corporate philanthropy from the top down.
The tech disruptors, corporates, and social entrepreneurs above make up a diverse pool of aid contributors. Together, they’re changing the culture of philanthropy. The success of corporate philanthropy elevates their public image, boosts their employee productivity, morale, and engagement, and improves the bottom line.
Suffice to say this is a win-win situation for both society and the private sector. It means a new image for businesses — one that’s charged with social accountability from the inside out— and one that proves their adaptability to global concerns. The result? Sustainable practices, and philosophy of aid that truly makes the world a better place.
Change the world with Kinder
As an entrepreneurial startup, we want to help you kickstart this new culture. You can do this by focusing on effectiveness when choosing causes to support — rather than just helping for helping’s sake. Then you can be confident your support is going to have real social impact, instead of just CSR-washing.
We believe charities are empowered through knowledge. This includes improving their transparency and organisational skills. This is why we evaluate charities across the world — to give lesser-known organisations (who excel in these areas) a platform. It helps them connect to the people and companies concerned with philanthropic effectiveness.
Our United Actions (UAs) — where you can donate to several charities in a cause area with a single donation — is the result of this. Each United Action represents a pressing issue, and the excellent charities within them offer different yet collective solutions to solve them. United Actions offer businesses of all sizes the opportunity to support organisations doing great work.
We aim to unite businesses with effective philanthropy, by promoting a more progressive and evidence-based giving culture. This will improve social impact and accountability for both charities and donors, and create positive change for our world.
Now is the era of collective action. We invite you to join in — by joining Kinder.
Want to learn more about how to do good better? Contact us.