I'd like to support your work to encourage more bold givers

An Appeal from Jason Franklin, Executive Director

Dear Friends of Bolder Giving,

The Gates Foundation believes Bolder Giving is a key player in shifting the culture towards outrageous generosity and they have demonstrated that confidence by pledging to Bolder Giving $200,000 a year for three years -- but each year we need to match their gift.

Would you be willing to make a contribution to help transform giving?  Please help jump-start our efforts to match our second year of Gates’ Foundation support.

Last year, thanks to many of you, we met the first year’s match.  The organization transformed from a handful of part-time people working out of the founders’ home, to four full-time staff with a NYC office.  With this additional capacity, we’re making huge strides in our work to:

• Inspire people towards greater giving, by spreading the stories of bold givers from across the economic spectrum, and
• Support people to turn that inspiration into action, by developing tools that help people take strides towards bold giving.

A few examples of our increased capacity:

• This year our Monthly Spotlight with Bold Givers (a collaboration with Chronicle on Philanthropy) reached nearly 13,000 people through free teleconferences, web chats, and archived chat transcripts.
• Over the year, our website had 24,000 visits, and viewers downloaded more than 1,000 copies of the Bolder Giving Workbook.  In just their first month, our new Bolder Giving and More Than Money websites have attracted 3,800 visits.
• We’ve developed “syndication partnerships” (with magazines and websites) who this coming year will regularly disseminate our Bolder Giving stories to 1.5+ million people, and “program partnerships” (with community foundations and donor networks) who will help us offer presentations and workshops on bold giving to thousands of donors.

“Giving Big” is now big news and not just because of the wave of billionaires pledging to give away the majority of their wealth to charity.  People from all financial backgrounds have heeded the clarion call as well - becoming Bold Givers and sharing their stories to inspire others. 

One such great success story is Jill Warren. Jill and her minister husband Bob Schoenhals give 30-60% of their modest income to charity each year, especially to reproductive rights, peace action, hunger, and housing issues.  Their story is one that many of us can connect with – their decision to give because others have less, their struggles to give when times were financially challenging.  Jill & Bob’s motto is, “We take the good with the bad – but we always live in generosity.”

Jill’s story is just one of many examples of how Bolder Giving inspires donors from all backgrounds and circumstances to give to “Give more. Risk more. Inspire more.” 

As Bolder Giving launches into our next year of work, we invite you to make a tax-deductible donation either online, by mailing your check to the address below, or by calling us at 646-678-4384 for stock donation information. 

Support Bolder Giving’s work so that the causes you care about, the issues that touch your life, and the movements you champion grow to have the funding they need to thrive. Through fostering a culture of greater generosity, we make the world a better place.

With excitement,
Jason Franklin
Executive Director

p.s. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about our work, please contact me or our Deputy Director Thai Pham, at 646-678-4384, .