Category Archives: Philanthropy

On Monday night I went to a reception in Palo Alto hosted by the National Center for Women and Information Technology. My friend Brad Feld is chairman of this non-profit which seeks to ensure that women are fully represented in the creation and application of information technology. This is something that I’ve always wondered as I go around meeting folks and 99% of the time it is men.

I saw some old friends (most from the extended Mobius family) and met a couple interesting people. The point I hammered home to folks was that outreach to women in IT needs to start at the grammar and high school level. For example, in my electronic music class at school 1 out of 24 of the students is a woman, and in the Computer Science AP class I hear there is just one or two. If technology is a “guy’s thing” all throughout school, we can’t be surprised that so few women choose to focus on things other than technology in college and in life.

This is just one of the non-profits I’m monitoring. Check them out. I’ll be posting later on my thoughts on integrating blogs and philanthropy…as the holiday season approaches.

Just read Brad’s post on one of his companies donating 1% of their revenue through ’04 to the Lance Armstrong Foundation…and then Ross Mayfield’s add-on as he describes how SocialText treats philanthropy and community service. My reactions:

1. This is all great stuff that everyone should be doing.

2. The salesforce.com foundation (digital media for youth) is the sole recipient of the company’s 1% employee time, equity, and profit. Ryan Martens at Rally Dev takes a different approach. He thinks employees should be able to get involved with organizations about which they are passionate. The salesforce model makes it easier to track the impact of the collective effort, Ryan’s philosophy is 100% inclusive, in case some employees don’t believe in the mission of a company foundation. Interesting differences.

3. What if a firm like Mobius VC put together a framework for all their portfolio companies to develop integrated philanthropy? Mobius’ own philanthropy could be a resource center and a turn key guide for their newly funded companies to get started on this early. The way this stuff will spread is for organizations that have a big impact and influence on start-ups to exercise that influence in a philanthropic way. Maybe they’re already doing that, I don’t know.

I’ve been doing some exploring on the Omidyar Network. It’s quite an interesting place with a whole host of discussion forums and workspaces. What intrigues me about this is its emphasis on network-centric advocacy and philanthropy. This fires me up just like the Skoll Foundation’s emphasis on systemic change is so much more exciting than soup kitchens or any other charity project that doesn’t solve the underlying problem.

A few days ago I printed out the 25 page thread on social enterprises. The first poster says:

There’s really two generations (so far) of social enterprise. The first generation generally looks for profits, and redirects those profits towards social good. Think of Target, gives 5% of profit to local charities, etc. Great stuff, but somewhat limited in the impact that you can have this way. The second generation, he explained, was where the very act of making a profit creates social good. (I think the economics term is that the business has “positive externalities”.) Think about alternative energy producers, or organic food producers.

Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, responds:

I would state it even more strongly: the second generation is characterized by very tight interdependence between profit and social good. When you can’t make a profit without having a positive social impact, you know you’re talking about this second generation.

On another note, the NYTimes Magazine had an article on Yellow Fever – everyone I know is wearing the Live Strong bracelets from Lance Armstrong/Nike. It’s a quick article on how this bracelet has turned a charitable endeavor into a cool style. And they’ve been darned successful.

Driving home from a couple meetings today (yes, I am licensed driver, beware) I heard on NPR an underwriter that was a foundation with the mission “Creating ideas to solve society’s problems.” Translation: we can do whatever the hell we want with our grant money. I could relate because as I work to get the Comcate Foundation up off the ground I’ve struggled to define its mission in broad language for IRS purposes. Salesforce.com and my friend Marc Benioff, their CEO, have inspired me to pursue integrated corporate philanthropy. The salesforce.com Foundation is the Company’s “secret weapon” says Marc. When I first heard about it, and before I knew Marc, I thought, “yeah, a nice PR angle.” I’ve matured to understand that the Salesforce Foundation is at the core of the Company’s culture and at the core of the Company’s success.

In Marc’s book he outlines his 1% philosophy – 1% of employee time, company profits, and pre-IPO company equity is donated to the Foundation. He contrasts this philosophy to when he was at Oracle and Larry Ellison told him “Here’s a $100 million go start a foundation.” Most of his case studies are about big companies.

As the Comcate Foundation becomes a real entity with two clear but broad goals – one is focused on furthering the goals of the corporation while the other is pure charity, a fair balance I think – I wonder why I can’t find other start-ups who can serve as models. It’s much harder to set aside that 1% equity when the company is young, before it has “made it.” In a quick search to find other integrated philanthropy efforts in start up software companies, I came across one company that had an “environmental policy.” For a company that didn’t seem to have any impact on the environment whatsoever, I was intrigued. When I clicked on it, the policy was, in essence: “We know we have nothing to do with the environment but we do vow to turn off the lights when we leave the room.” I’m sure the officers there have checked the “give a little get a lot back” box and moved on.

This post is not meant to be a “I’m so high and holy” message. Far from it. I’m really wondering why isn’t this more popular with true start-ups…before they’re successful. And why aren’t influencers who work with lots of start-ups making this more a priority? The salesforce.com Foundation is a testament that this is a win win for all.