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#ORGinAction: Global Impact Helps Organizations Make a Difference Around the World

By Tony Connor, Director of Marketing, Public Interest Registry

We’re excited to share another #ORGinAction with you through our recurring series, which highlights how organizations who trust the .org domain are using it to anchor their communication, networking and advocacy efforts online. Meet Global Impact, which works directly with for-profit and nonprofit organizations to enhance their social impact, as well as the global philanthropic community through workplace and giving campaigns.

This month, Public Interest Registry interviewed Joseph Mettimano, chief marketing and development officer for Global Impact, who has worked with the organization for the last 6 years. We hope you enjoy the following Q&A with Global Impact.

Q: Under what need was Global Impact founded?

A: Global Impact was founded in 1956 to enable and promote U.S,-based international charities in workplace giving campaigns. Since then, we have expanded our capabilities and built our reputation around being a leader in growing global philanthropy. Since our inception, we have generated more than $1.8 billion to help people in need around the world.

Today, we offer a full-continuum of services to support non-profit, public sector and private sector clients in increasing their social impact, fundraising and visibility. We are experts in workplace giving and employee engagement, but also provide organizations with a broad range of services that help them achieve their corporate social responsibility and social impact goals.

Specifically, we provide integrated, customized advisory and management services; workplace fundraising and representation; campaign design, marketing and implementation for workplace and signature fundraising campaigns; and fiscal agency and technology services.

Q: How would you describe to potential partners, both international charities and public/private sector organizations, the benefit of working with Global Impact?

A: Global Impact brings more than 60 years of experience in growing global giving and philanthropy to its partners. We are experts in raising visibility and funding for our partners, and in providing strategic advice, which helps maximize social impact for organizations. Global Impact also helps organizations build partnerships and collaborations, which is increasingly important in today’s environment with the need to do more with less.

Most people know us for our work promoting a network of more than 100 international non-profits, such as CARE, Save the Children and Heifer International, in workplace giving efforts in more than 300 companies and public agencies in the U.S. However, we are doing much more than that. We are working behind the scenes every day with clients such as Comic Relief—which operates the Red Nose Day campaign in the U.S.—the Combined Federal Campaign, the U.S. government’s annual workplace giving campaign for Federal employees, Hilton, Target, and many others to help organizations grow partnerships and increase employee engagement and giving.

Q: Are there certain geographic hotspots representing the international charities you assist? Are there areas you’d like to have larger foothold in?

A: Regarding the charities we support through our alliance, the scope of these international charities’ work is truly global and many of them also aid vulnerable populations here in the U.S. For example, Save the Children, Habitat for Humanity, and ChildFund International are just some or our charity alliance partners that are working here at home and abroad. There are also many charities such as Amref Health Africa, American Himalayan Foundation, and the Near East Foundation that do focus their work on specific geographic regions.

Q: What is the most challenging part of organizing a campaign for a new charity partner? 

A: The challenge in all fundraising of this sort is determining what message is going to resonate with donors and figuring out how to rise above the white noise.

Q: What trends have you seen emerge in global philanthropy?

A: There are a couple of emerging trends in philanthropy that are worth noting. First, with an estimated $390 billion raised in 2016 in the U.S., total private sector giving is increasing. Giving grew from individuals, foundations, and corporations, but saw a decrease from bequests according to the Giving USA 2017 Report.

Second, U.S. private sector giving to the developing world is now outpacing U.S. government official development assistance (ODA). According to the 2016 Index of Global Philanthropy and Remittances, U.S. private giving in 2014 to developing countries outpaced U.S. ODA by $10.8 billion.

Q: Can you describe a recent success with one of your partners?

A: We provide a broad range of services and are happy to provide a couple of examples.

First, Global Impact is serving as the backbone partner for IMPACT2030, a private sector led collaboration with the United Nations, the private sector, nonprofits, governments and academic institutions that is mobilizing human capital investments through employee volunteer programs to advance the SDGs. Global Impact worked in partnership with IMPACT2030 to build and implement new record-keeping platforms and processes in support of their growing membership. We also supported improvements to their communications strategies, successfully engaging a broader audience through social media and email newsletters.

Second, Global Impact partnered with The Sloth Institute Costa Rica to serve as their fiscal sponsor, enabling the organization to raise tax deductible contributions from donors in the U.S. With Global Impact’s support, the organization raised over $100,000 from more than 1,000 donors, helping further their mission to protect and enhance the welfare and conservation of sloths. We also enabled The Sloth Institute to establish crucial relationships with American foundations and corporate sponsors. Through a customized donation page, donors from around the world can support the organization through the Adopt a Sloth program and volunteer to work with sloths in Costa Rica. Additionally, Global Impact provided financial planning and staffing guidance to position the organization for sustained operational success.

Q: Can you share insight behind your domain name, “charity.org,” differing from your organization’s name of Global Impact. What benefits or challenges have you experienced by having a domain name that is different from your organization’s name?

A: We originally planned to use globalimpact.org, but since that domain name was already claimed by someone else, and they do not wish to sell it, we decided on charity.org. It represents the core of our ethos as an organization. It is a catchy domain name and we believe creates a fair amount of organic traffic to our site, but it is a challenge since most organizations’ URL will match the name of the organization itself.

Q: Have you experienced alignment between your organization’s mission and being a part of the .org community? 

A: Absolutely. Global Impact’s mission is to build partnerships and resources for the world’s most vulnerable people and our vision is to be the leader in growing global philanthropy. We feel that being part of the .org community is important to our brand and helps communicate to stakeholders that we are an organization dedicated to serving others.

Q: Are there any new programs Global Impact is working on?

A: One of the most exciting new programs Global Impact is working on is a revolutionary strategic giving tool, Growfund®, that allows people to start their own personal foundation for as little as $1. Operating like a 401(k), Growfund empowers people to save for their giving the same way they save for their retirement. We believe this new charitable tool will help democratize philanthropy for all.

We’ve also been doing a lot of work collaborating across the civic, public and private sectors to increase engagement with the United Nations (U.N.) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and help ensure their success. To that end, we recently launched with Blackbaud, the Council on Foundations, and Foundation Center, a new resource to support organizations in aligning and tracking giving to the SDGs.

The Global Goals Mapping tool is a comprehensive resource list that maps giving and volunteerism using both the IRS National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) codes and the United Nations International Classification of Nonprofit Organizations (ICNPO) codes to classify the activity and programs of charities and connect them to the SDGs and related targets. It creates a shared alignment resource and common language to support all organizations across sectors in their efforts to map their contributions toward the SDGs.

Q: What is rewarding about being a part of the Global Impact team?

A: Every day I get to work with amazing charities that are doing transformative work around the world, which is very rewarding. I also have the opportunity to work with many private sector companies that are increasingly focused on creating social impact and engaging their employees in these efforts. It is very gratifying to know the work I am doing is making a difference and contributing to the betterment of people in every corner of the earth. Additionally, the team at Global Impact is an inspiring group of people—highly talented and dedicated—and I enjoy collaborating with them each day.

There are a number of ways to get involved with Global Impact. They’ve created High Impact Funds so people can easily donate to causes, such as clean water, global health, refugees, education, etc., they are most passionate about. To participate or learn more about this #ORGinAction, visit their website at charity.org and/or their social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Are you a #ORGinAction? Reach out to us via Twitter (@PIRegistry) and tell us how you use your .org to amplify your organization’s work.