#013 Give 1% To The Planet
Or to anything you care about really.
As countries and communities around the world enter recession, donations to charitable organisations are plummeting.
And it makes sense right? When people struggle to afford their most basic needs, they’re not able to think about long term plans, or the needs of others. They need to think about getting through.
This is where a donation structure that’s based on percentages and undertaken by businesses can be incredibly powerful.
Let’s dive in.
So, what’s the big idea?
1% For The Planet is a pledge that both individuals and organisations can take to donate 1% of their income or revenue to “the planet” — also known as a range of highly vetted environmental organisations.
At the time of writing this, they’d collectively managed to give back more than USD $253 million to environmental causes.
Because the concept is based in income or revenue (that is to say, when money is coming into an organisation or person), and is such a small proportion, it’s based in real-time to the changing conditions of its donors.
Organisations aren’t committing to a regular, monthly contribution.
They’re committing to donating money, when they get money — across either a product line, a brand or their entire organisation.
Getting Started
If giving to environmental causes isn’t your thing, you could use this pledge structure to donate 1% of your revenue to any good cause you care about.
The benefit of an initiative like 1% For The Planet is that they work hard to verify the organisations they endorse and also verify that you’re living up to your pledge.
If you want to get started with 1% For The Planet, I don’t need to say anymore. They have everything you need to know about getting started here (for both individuals and organisations).
If you’re wanting to use this structure to donate regularly to another organisation of your choosing, you might need to think about:
- What type of organisation do you want to choose? Does it align with the mission of your organisation, an impact framework you’re fond of, or perhaps tie into a Sustainable Development Goal?
- What specific organisation do you choose? Is it important they’re in your local community or share common interests? How do you verify the impact of their approach, or does it even need to be verified?
- How are you going to measure your giving? Is it going to be exclusively money based, or will it be in the forms of in-kind donations or time too? Both of those are acceptable forms of contribution under 1% For The Planet, up to a point.
- How are you going to verify your contribution? Will it be in partnership with your local organisation that you’re donating to? How will you be held to account?
- And most importantly, when are you going to start and how will you maintain regularity?
Conversation Starters
If you need some ways to open the conversation with peers, seniors or even your own internal dialogue, here are some things you could ask:
- In what ways do we already give back to our communities (either communities of practice or geographic communities)?
- What are our profit margins at the moment (by product lines and across the entire brand or organisation)?
- What costs are built into our products and services?
- Can we absorb an extra 1% into our cost structure?
Going Further
If you’re already investing 1% of your revenue into impact initiatives that align with your values, congrats! Perhaps you could donate 2% instead? 😉
All jokes aside, 1% is a great starting point to scale up from.
Taking this further might look like committing 1% to a couple of different organisations in your community, or to something like paying the rent.
If you’re already doing interesting things on a percentage basis within your organisation and have some ideas to share, I’d love to hear from you.
Good Work is a collection of bite-sized ideas and resources for organisations wanting to make work, well, more good.
We’re on a mission to catalogue ideas that organisations can use to become more sustainable, healthy and impactful, for both their teams and wider communities.
Want to collaborate on a piece or share an idea? Reach out to me here.
