Entrepreneurs can give back, by giving early to Pledge 1%

[Pledge 1]

By Seth Levine, Managing Director, Foundry Group

At Foundry Group, an investment firm in early-stage technology firms, we believe we all benefit when everyone succeeds. That’s why every time we succeed, we give back to the community.

If you are a local entrepreneur with a startup, we invite you to join us in this movement. Together, we can continue to make a real impact in our community!

Latest case in point:

The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County announced this week it will grant an additional $300,000 to local Boulder County nonprofits this summer in response to a 62 percent cut in funding from Foothills United Way. The grants will be funded by Foundry through our membership in Pledge 1% Colorado.

When Foundry Group was started in 2007, we made the community an investor through our participation in Pledge 1%.  We saw the important role the community played in supporting our company, our investments (many of which are local) and our employees.

The timing of this most recent distribution aligned with the opportunity to help fill the gap affecting our local nonprofit organizations addressing basic needs, health care, and education for Boulder County’s most vulnerable residents.

We hope this money will impact the thousands of local families and individuals who struggle to make ends meet in what is viewed by many as a wealthy, prosperous community. In fact, Boulder County has higher poverty rates than Colorado as a whole, and more than 9,000 children in our community live below the poverty level (defined as just over $24,000 per year for a family of four.)

Pledge 1% Colorado - a program of The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County - flips traditional philanthropy on its head. Historically, an individual or company waits until he or she has become successful to donate money. With

Pledge 1%, companies and founders can be philanthropists, even before they have ample  cash to give. It gives an actionable step to the value many of us in the local startup community support around #givefirst - the idea that we give before we get that pervades the Boulder and Front Range startup ecosystem.

Pledge 1% members set aside a small percentage of their early equity (usually in the form of stock options) for the community. Although the equity isn’t worth much at the time of the commitment, the payout can be tremendous if the company becomes successful.

Local startups such as Rally, Gnip, Revolv, Mocavo, DocPopcorn, Techstars, and Filtrbox have joined Foundry Group in distributing more than $6.2 million to Colorado community nonprofits at the point of exit - when companies are either acquired or go public. There are 120 companies throughout Colorado who have similarly tied their own success to their communities - and hundreds more throughout the world who have joined this movement through the international program, Pledge 1%. When Pledge 1% companies win, the community wins.

Entrepreneurs  choose this community as their home -- and their business’ home-base -- because they enjoy the quality of life here. That quality of life doesn’t come without many people and organizations working everyday to make Boulder County a better place for all.

We hope that these companies’ leadership in philanthropy inspires others to do the same. Giving back isn’t limited to the economically elite: It can be an equitable value shared by the young, old, green, seasoned, rich and poor.

We’re honored to support the many people and organizations stepping up to address Boulder County’s greatest needs. We hope others will consider joining us. Learn more at http://www.pledge1colorado.org and www.pledge1percent.org.

Originally posted: November 29, 2016