Giving Compass' Take:

• In this podcast, Alberto Lidji interviews Stephanie Gillis, CEO of Giving Compass, on how the platform combines technology and philanthropy to help donors give with greater impact. 

• There is a common set of principles and practices that can lead donors to impact-driven philanthropy. How are you developing your giving strategy? 

• Here is the Giving Compass guide to impact-driven philanthropy. 

CEO of Giving Compass, Stephanie Gillis, joins Alberto Lidji to discuss how combining philanthropy and technology can help a broad audience learn, connect and take action.

Giving Compass is a philanthropy knowledge hub.  Its origins were driven to a great extent by Jeff and Tricia Raikes – two early Microsoft employees who were fortunate to accumulate considerable wealth.  As Jeff and Tricia were exploring how best to give away their wealth, they realised there was a lot to learn about philanthropy.

As they embarked on their own philanthropic journey, they noticed many people were approaching them for advice.  However, they realised that this approach was not scalable and that maybe there was an unmet need for philanthropy expertise and content to be disseminated through innovative technology.

Giving Compass was essentially a content aggregator in its early stages.  Today, it’s a website that aggregates and curates high quality content for donors who want to give with impact; it’s also a community of people who care about leaning into their giving and learning and growing as donors.

When asked about what exactly ‘impact’ is, Stephanie recognises the word can take on many different meanings and definitions. She notes that they used to say that impact is in the eye of the beholder.

For Stephanie, much has to do with the ‘how’ and the best practices of how people give.  She believes it’s important to approach philanthropy with humility and with a beginner’s mind. Collaborating and working with others matters, too. Indeed, one should never stop learning – giving is a journey and philanthropy is a joy.

Read the full article and listen to the podcast about combining technology and philanthropy by Alberto Lidji at The Do One Better! Podcast.