Make a Donation

[Alicia_Schmidt]

Make a Donation

From deciding how much to telling your team — in an afternoon.

Start with what you care about. The most important thing about your first donation is that it reflects something genuine — a cause connected to your personal values, your company’s mission, or both. Authentic giving builds culture.

Step 1 — Decide How Much

There’s no wrong amount for a first donation. These benchmarks give you a starting point.

Company Stage	Suggested Starting Point
Pre-revenue / bootstrapped	A meaningful personal donation from the founder — $100–$500. It’s a signal, not a sum.
Early revenue (under $500K ARR)	0.5–1% of monthly revenue. e.g. $5K MRR = $25–50/month, or $300–600/year.
Growing ($500K–$2M revenue)	1% of revenue. Quarterly donations may be easier to manage than annual.
Per-deal model (any stage)	Donate a fixed amount every time a new client signs. Ties giving directly to growth.

🚀 THE STARTUP RULE

Start with an amount you can comfortably sustain. It’s much easier to increase a giving commitment than to walk back one you’ve announced publicly.

Step 2 — Make the Donation

Three options in order of simplicity:

1. Direct bank transfer — the simplest option. Go to the nonprofit’s website, find their donate page, and give directly. Most accept credit cards, ACH, or checks.
2. Every.org — a free giving platform that handles the transfer and sends you a tax receipt automatically. Good if you want a clean record from day one.
3. Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) — if you’re donating more than $5K or want to give to multiple organizations over time. Deposit now, distribute when ready. Fidelity Charitable, Schwab Charitable, and Vanguard Charitable are the most accessible.

💡 PRO TIP

Before you donate: Confirm the organization is a registered charity in the country where you are donating — check their website or search at charitynavigator.org. Keep your donation receipt or confirmation email. Ask your accountant how to record it in your books.

Step 3 — Tell Your Team

This is the step most founders skip. Don’t. A donation your team doesn’t know about does nothing for your culture.

• Send a short message or email: which nonprofit you supported, how much (if you’re comfortable sharing), and why it matters to you.
• Add it to your next all-hands as a one-liner: “We donated $X to [nonprofit] this quarter.”
• Post on LinkedIn if you’re comfortable — tag the nonprofit and keep it simple. One paragraph, one reason.

🤖 AI DRAFT PROMPT

Write our donation announcement to the team

Use this to generate a short, genuine message to your team about your first donation — takes 2 minutes to fill in.

Copy into your preferred AI assistant (Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini), then fill in the [brackets]:

Write a short internal message announcing our company's first charitable donation as part of our Pledge 1% commitment.

Our company: [name].
Nonprofit we donated to: [name and one sentence about what they do].
Amount donated: [$X — or leave blank if you'd prefer not to share the amount].
Why we chose this cause: [1-2 sentences — connect it to our personal or company values, keep it genuine].
What employees can do: [e.g. learn more at their website / suggest other causes for next time].

Tone: warm, genuine, brief. Under 150 words. Not a press release.

Ready to build something more lasting?

Follow the full Pledge 1% learning path to set up an enduring giving program →