New mindset leads to new ways to give to charities in York County workplace

During the holidays, employees of Williams & Fudge financial institution can be seen racing child-size bicycles in the company’s parking lot before donating the bikes to children in need.

The tradition is an example of the value the Rock Hill firm places on giving back to its community, said Alice Davis, director of foundation and community support. Now the company has found another way its employees can support charities. In January, the online giving platform Givolio launched a pilot workplace initiative through Williams & Fudge, said Jason Broadwater, founder of Givolio and president of the Rock Hill-based company RevenFlo, which runs the site.

On Givolio, donors choose from more than 1 million nonprofit organizations and create their own giving portfolio, Broadwater said.

“People have an investment portfolio and a stock portfolio, so we think it’s not unreasonable they would have a giving portfolio,” he said.

Since 2016, individuals have been able to sign up for a Givolio account and choose organizations to support and how much to give, either in one-time or recurring donations, Broadwater said. Givolio provides access, ease and organization since all of the giving is done in one place, and the platform provides all tax documentation, he said.

Williams & Fudge is the first company to use the site for workplace giving, Broadwater said.

“It gives everyone flexibility,” she said. “When you give to nonprofits, you give because you’re passionate and someone doesn’t need to tell you where to give.”

Williams & Fudge matches employee donations to a select group of Givolio-listed charities, but employees have the option of giving to any of the available nonprofits, Davis said.

“We want to be involved with organizations we give to and see that impact,” she said. “That’s part of the mindset we have.”

Alternate way of giving

Givolio is one of many similar tools cropping up for charitable giving, said Shannon Wiley, deputy general counsel in the S.C. Secretary of State's office. Nonprofits must register with the Secretary of State.

“We’ve seen an explosion of these kinds of entities,” Wiley said.

It’s a trend that reflects the changing mindset of donors, Broadwater said.

“We believe the millennial generation wants to give and that giving looks different than it used to,” he said. “It used to be that you become rich and when you are older you give lots of money.”

Now, Broadwater said, donors want to give small amounts over time.

“We see it appeals to the baby boomer generation,” Broadwater said. “A lot of baby boomers are tired of being solicited, and they are embarrassed if they don’t give $1,000. They feel like they are supposed to give a large amount.”

Givolio allows donors to change -- anytime via phone or computer -- the amount they give and who they are supporting. Givolio also allows employees to sign up through their employer and support nonprofits they are passionate about using payroll deductions, Broadwater said.

“Employers are coming to understand that people, especially the millennial generation, want to work for a company that is socially responsible and in doing so they want access, ease and organization,” he said.

Williams &Fudge project manager Bill Caldwell, 68, said he used to write separate checks to each organization he supported. Caldwell said, with Givolio, he can give directly to charities with less effort.

“It gets a lot of money into the community on a monthly basis,” he said. “I tend to support local charities and it’s a good way to have an up-to-date record available if I ever need to refer back or check my giving.”

Caldwell, former Director of Development for the Alzheimer’s Association Western Carolina Chapter and former gifts manager for the American Red Cross in Charlotte, said Givolio reflects the changing ways people are giving.

“Each generation has preferences about how they give,” he said. “Tools like this are being launched in support of new ways of giving.”

Giving smart

Because Givolio collects donations for charities and takes a percentage of the donation to run its service, Wiley said the Secretary of State’s office informed Broadwater last week that Givolio must be registered as a professional solicitor by April 29. She said it’s not uncommon for organizations to be unaware of the requirement.

“This is not an unusual misconception given the recent development of online fundraising platforms,” Wiley said.

Broadwater said Givolio is now registering with the state.

Givolio’s listed charities come from Guidestar, a database of IRS-recognized nonprofits. Guidestar provides information about nonprofits’ missions, finances, programs, transparency and legitimacy.

However, Guidestar is not a charity watchdog, according to its website.

“We encourage all charitable donors to read the fine print and see how much of their donation is going to a charity, when they are not giving to a charity directly,” Wiley said.

Every nonprofit has overhead or administration costs, Wiley said. It’s important, she said, for donors to consider the pros and cons of using giving tools to support nonprofits.

Broadwater said Givolio charges 3 percent for workplace giving, and 4.9 percent plus 30 cents for each individual donation.

“That’s about as much as the normal credit card transaction fee,” he said.

Broadwater said the low fees for employers and individuals makes Givolio stand out among traditional giving organizations. Broadwater cited United Way as an example.

On its website, Givolio states: “Traditional institutions that run workplace giving campaigns (like the United Way) report over 20 percent overhead costs, eating significantly into the money given, while Givolio charges a flat three percent for workplace giving. Thus, much more money goes to the nonprofit.”

United Way is listed among the charities on Givolio.

Broadwater said donors who give through Givolio don’t hit overhead costs twice.

“It takes overhead to run an organization,” Broadwater said. “But if I’m just trying to give through an organization, to give to another organization, I don’t want to hit overhead at both organizations.”

United Way does not charge a fee to donors who want to send their gift directly to a partner agency, said James Jeter, director of collective impact for United Way of York County. The organization’s president Rebecca Melton said United Way absorbs the costs of credit card fees in those situations.

“We are not a giving platform,” Jeter said. “We do have giving options like any nonprofit, but our main priority is to identify community issues in York County specifically and see how we can put resources in place to respond to those needs.”

United Way’s 20 percent overhead is the cost to run the organization and funds training, vetting of partner agencies and accounting functions, Melton said. United Way tackles issues related to health, education and financial stability within York County and has turned its focus to collective giving.

“How you judge a nonprofit is not what they invest in their organization,” Melton said. “We’re moving away from (the notion) you’re better if you can put less money into what people refer to as overhead cost.”

Broadwater said Givolio offers a different solution.

“The ability for an employee to sit there on their phone at midnight and change who they are giving to, there’s nothing like that out there and we do it at a disruptively low cost in terms of how much money actually gets to the nonprofit,” he said.

Amanda Harris: 803-329-4082

This story was originally published April 22, 2017 at 5:39 PM with the headline "New mindset leads to new ways to give to charities in York County workplace."