By Cordell Carter II, Philanthropic Sector Advisor at injii
Thanks to a combination of factors, the philanthropic sector (also known as the social sector — which includes traditional 501c3 organizations, corporate social responsibility initiatives, social entrepreneurs, B-Corps, inter alia) is booming. This is, in large part, due to rapid accumulations of wealth from breakthroughs in our digital age, the federal government’s devolution of activities to states and millions of people asking “to what end am I doing x?” The sector is growing by 25% per year* as more young professionals, funders and entrepreneurs seek greater meaning out of work much earlier in their careers. After starting my career in management consulting with the IBM Corporation, I have spent the last decade in various philanthropic sector organizations and I have been raising money almost non-stop.
I have had the great fortune to have been a part of worthy efforts, and the challenging task of asking someone else for money has been aided by my belief in mission and my organizations’ ability to execute upon it. It’s been a good run for which I am thankful.
Having learned a few things along the way, I have witnessed the sector grow really fast and have two observations: firstly, mergers and acquisitions as a growth strategy is under-used in the philanthropic sector (reading between the lines here, there is too much redundancy which confuses investors) and secondly, in spite of our worthy objectives, leaders in this sector are expected to be every bit as innovative as leaders in other sectors — so we must continue to learn in order stay ahead of the game. We have to sell the vision, organization, people and capabilities of our organizations every single day. Investors want innovation and relevance as we are actively seeking to add our causes to investors’ already-full dance cards.
In my bid to stay ahead, I’ve been counseling people interested in gifting convertible virtual currency (e.g. Bitcoin). Prior to having looked it up and discovering the interesting world of blockchain, bitcoin, coin-mining and ICOs, I was wholly ignorant of this fascinating slice of commerce. As a fundraiser, I was most interested in two things: 1) what is the IRS’ view of convertible virtual currency, and 2) whether I had just discovered a new way of lowering the sector’s most dreaded performance indicator — overhead or cost of fundraising.
This is where a new blockchain start-up called injii comes into play. Justin Paul, the founder, blended his love of music and tech to create a coin-based platform that reduces the costs of fundraising by connecting content creators with their favorite charities. Here’s a real case study for you: I love this artist in Chattanooga, TN by the name of MeLyn Thompson (she sings a combination of country and soul that is divine!). I once asked her to sing for a non-profit I lead so I could drum up interest in some of her real world fans. She came, she sang and the fans gave a little. With injii, no one has to go anywhere! MeLyn could have sung in front of a live feed to injii’s digital platform and invited her fans to watch from the comfort of their homes or devices. Each “like” would have resulted in a certain amount of Injii Access Coins (IACs) from injii to my non-profit that my non-profit may trade or sell on an open market. It behooves the organizations, as the new owners of the IAC, not to crash the value of it through ill-advised sales as their causes would net less revenue (and its leaders may be guilty of negligence or a breach of fiduciary duty). What’s more, it is likely (using hedging terms here) that the IRS would view the IACs as “investment interest” as they are not sold or purchased with an expectation of profit, so the non-profit garners revenue…with much lower costs.
Can you all imagine if injii was up and operational during the recent spate of natural disasters that affected Houston, Florida and Puerto Rico? Major artists would not have had to get on planes or come to concert halls, just get in front of a camera and do what they do while tweeting/IG-ing, blogging to their fans to tune in and like. In a flash, the American Red Cross and others would have started seeing IACs in their name that could have been leveraged to aid people who lost homes in a flash.
Injii is about to the change the game for the philanthropic sector and I am excited about this new avenue of fundraising. I invite you all to join me in leveraging this tool because our causes are too important for any of us Type-A leaders to hog it all for ourselves. Though I do have first right of refusal to MeLyn’s performance on the Injii platform…not kidding.
Cordell Carter, II is nationally recognized for cross-sector successes in philanthropy, education and technology. Currently leading a global education forum for emerging leaders for a national think-tank, his previous leadership roles were with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Business Roundtable, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and the IBM Corporation.
*Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/business/for-nonprofits-a-bigger-share-of-the-economy.html
