Dear community,
Last summer, our team began working on a concept that could create social impact and allow busy professionals a new way to give back without disrupting their typical work day. We repeatedly heard feedback from our community of business people who felt an urge to give back, but lacked the time. Because of this, we set out to create a service that would allow professionals an outlet to create social good through existing business behaviors.
In the recent month, we have never been so sure that a service like this is needed. COVID-19 has shown us the fragility of our surroundings. From a business perspective it has disrupted our ability to keep our offices open, interact with our co-workers, and have a general sense of where this is all going. As we sit isolated in our home, the sense to “do something” is stronger than ever.
As businesses struggle to stay alive, so do most nonprofits. They no longer have volunteers to support their mission, donations are lacking, and fundraising events have been canceled. These vital nonprofits to our community also need new ways of interacting with current donors, finding new supporters, and keeping their missions alive to better society.
Today, we officially announce several important things. First, the company will officially rebrand to Givsly, the name of our new platform launching today. While the company will take the name of our new platform, our experiences offering will still be a big part of the service we provide to our community. Second, after three months of being in closed BETA, Givsly is now in open BETA. Access to the platform is free. We do not believe that social impact should sit behind a paywall, so feel free to sign up at www.givsly.com and see the business professionals in your network that are looking to make an impact. Lastly, all platform fees until the end of June will be donated back to nonprofits. While this platform allows business professionals to do good by doing business, the Givsly team is more focused on our message of impact than we are on making money as a company during these difficult times.
So you may be wondering, what exactly is the Givsly platform? Givsly is a social impact platform where business professionals can volunteer a virtual or in person business meeting a week, month or quarter in exchange for a donation to a nonprofit that they care about. Users simply make a donation to that prospect’s nonprofit to confirm the meeting.
Givsly solves several problems while creating social impact:
1. In demand professionals have a new way of creating social impact in their busy business day. If you get external requests for business meetings on a regular basis, then you can use Givsly. Most in demand professionals can get between 10 – 50 meeting requests a day and knowing where to focus new business meetings can be a challenge. On top of that, finding time outside of that in demand schedule can create difficulties to give back. Givsly brings social impact to that busy professional’s video conferencing screen or office.
2. Professionals looking for new business relationships have a new way to connect and save time. As a former leader of sales teams, I have witnessed the time spent trying to get in front of a new business prospect. I have also spent months emailing potential business prospects trying to get time with them. How many coffees, lunch and learns, happy hours have you paid for in order to get a meeting with people? Once you do meet, I also know how long it can take to form a real connection in business. How many times do you start out a new meeting with some comment on the weather? Givsly provides a new option to this. Instead of paying $200 on a frivolous gesture to get a meeting, you are now able to take that money and make a donation for that same meeting time. It also allows you to connect with your prospect in a new way by showing you care about causes that they care about.
3. Nonprofits need new options when raising money for their mission. From day one, our mission has been to help as many nonprofits as possible, but at no charge to them. For nonprofits, Givsly is completely free. They just have to sign up to receive donations. This gives them a completely new way of raising money at no cost or heavy lift to them. Nonprofits will also get insight into new business professionals and companies that care about their cause. Thus, forming a more long lasting and deeper relationship beyond the Givsly platform.
For most of my life, I was not focused on how the blessings of my life could give back to those in need. Taking that first step seemed overwhelming and it was easy to “not have the time” to think about ways of giving back. Several years ago, I decided to start taking the steps to change my thinking. That shift in thinking was what sparked the launch of the company and now the launch of the Givsly platform. I realized that as business professionals, we already had everything we needed to do good. We just had to think differently about how we use some of the resources and time that we already have. My hope is that the services we continue to build will not only do good, but help you to think differently about how easy it can be to take that first step to making an impact.
Stay safe. Be healthy. Do good.
Chad Hickey