Pledging 1% of revenue

[JonGibbins]

Hi fellow pledgers! I'm looking for some advice on approach to fulfilling my company's 1% pledge. We are already pledging 1% of our revenue towards environmental impact by giving to non-profits working hard to protect our planet. We joined Pledge 1% some time ago to help us frame our giving another 1% of revenue to have social impact  and improve people’s lives.

We track our giving (financial donations) and our volunteer time, each of which either get attributed to our environmental impact pledge or our social impact pledge. Pledge 1% offers pledges of 1% of equity, time, product, or profit, but not revenue specifically. Revenue is however mentioned on the profit pledge.

I'm wondering if (and how) others have used Pledge 1%  as a framework for giving back based on revenue.

Many thanks in advance,

Jon

[Kali N]

Interesting question (and love that As It Should Be is a B Corp as well), I'd love to hear about this as well.

I wonder if a revenue commitment vs profit might raise some flags with investors? It would be interesting to hear how you have navigated that (if you have investors). Would revenue be much different to profit in terms of how it's calculated and attributed?

thank you for putting this to the Pledge team & broader community!

[JonGibbins]

Thanks, Kali! 

B Corp was a big step for a small business like mine, as all of the work involved in that currently falls to me. But it was one that I felt was important to me as a framework for building and growing the sort of business I want As It Should Be to be.

I'm not concerned about giving on revenue as being an issue for my business. I'm bootstrapping and not looking to attract investment for the business. If anything, my intent moving forward would be to work towards employee ownership. But that's a long road, which we're only just starting to walk along. 

The only difference between committing to revenue rather than profit as I see it, is the number you begin with. The 1% commitment is calculated and attributed in the same way. I do, however, attribute both financial donations and in-kind / volunteer work as time against the 1% commitment as a value reflecting what the financial equivalent would be for the time given.

One thing that I like with the commitment of revenue is that it cannot be worn down by business deductions. 1% of every invoice we send out goes to environmental non-profits that are working to protect our planet, and another 1% is given to social enterprises working to improve people's lives.

[Kali N]

Thanks @JonGibbins - this is a great summary, and a really long-term view of how you are building giving back into your organisation! If it's about safeguarding the amount you are looking to commit, there are a few members who have Pledged to do Profit, but have committed to over 1%; for example, in India businesses with annual revenues of more than 10bn rupees must give away 2% of their past three-year average net profits to eligible CSR activities, so our Pledge peers there go beyond 1% in profit donations.

If you do go forward with revenue, please let me know how you go - I'd be very curious to learn more so we can continue to share and support each other and explore new ways of implementing giving!

[InesGarcia]

Hi Jon sorry seen only this now

How have you crafted so far? and most importantly how are you measuring impact?

Check this resource entry from some time back https://community.pledge1percent.org/t5/Member-Stories/GetAgile-Writes-the-Book-for-Social-Impact-Me...

Check this other one most recent entry : https://community.pledge1percent.org/t5/Pledge-1-Blog/Ines-Garcia-Navigating-the-Intersection-of-Cor...

[Ingrid_IndexEng]

Hi Jon, yes we do the same in terms of pledging 1% of revenue. At the end of the calendar year, I work out 1% of our revenue in the previous year, and then we gift that amount to three charities - one charity is for endangered species (30%), one is for lunches in schools across the country, and one is for emergency response in our local community  (these are social needs and come to 70%). If we only gifted 1% of profit, we felt it is not really going to be a huge amount that would make an impact - and we cannot give "in kind".  It sounds like now you are thinking of giving 2% of your revenue to charity, with 1% going to environmental and 1% to social? That is generous, and will really make a difference!