Time, Money or Your Life?

What do you have that can you give to others?

We all have special skills, talents and time to give of ourselves to others.

It is truly the hardest, most meaningful and most rewarding thing humans can do for each other.

“Friends can help each other. A true friend is someone who lets you have total freedom to be yourself – and especially to feel. Or, not feel. Whatever you happen to be feeling at the moment is fine with them. That’s what real love amounts to – letting a person be what he really is.” Jim Morrison  Read more at bit.ly/1fheZ0v

Part of our circle in life should also include helping others who are not necessarily friends but others who just need help. There are many good organizations that are in this as a business, and then some people are freelancing, just helping others in need on their personal time. Money or clothing donations can be done remotely, giving of your time in most cases meant you must be there.

Ideas can flow freely on the Internet and we are now connecting in new ways with Peer to Peer (P2P) or Person to Person relationships that can be very effective in helping others.

Givology is one of those organizations that is connecting people and is guided by the slogan Give to Learn, Learn to Give.

As a 100% volunteer-run social enterprise, Givology connects you to grassroots education projects and student scholarships around the world. From teacher training and school lunch programs to library construction and scholarships, we emphasize transparency and maximizing the impact per dollar given.

How can one person make a difference?

Even though you may be oceans away, you have an opportunity to change the life of a child and his or her community. Not only is education a basic human right, but it breaks intergenerational chains of poverty, improves health outcomes, spurs economic growth, combats gender inequality, empowers choice, and promotes peace globally.

We started Givology with the philosophy that small dollars and small volunteer hours aggregate into a powerful force for change. We wanted to create an online community where personal connections really matter and that regardless of the size of our donation, we’d get regular updates, full transparency, and maximum impact per dollar spent. Here’s how Givology works:

1. Browse

   Once you register for an account, check out the different student and project profiles on Givology. With our background in international development, we seek out partnerships with grassroots education organizations and post their highest priority funding needs. We only select partners that meet our strict standards for impact evaluation, deep relationships with the community, local hands-on focus, proven track record, and innovation. That way, we provide our Givology community with pre-screened causes that effectively deliver change every day.

2. Give

   Once you add money to your Givology wallet, you can allocate it to the different education projects and scholarships that resonate with you. Our dashboard makes it easy for you to track your impact portfolio and monitor for updates. For special occasions, consider giving a customizable gift certificate to your loved ones, or buying Givology merchandise in which 100% of profits go to our projects and students.

3. Interact

   Our mission is to make giving interactive – to create a community and full experience around giving. Through our messaging function, you can send a letter to our students which we translate and deliver. In the regular updates that we receive and post online, you’ll find that our students often respond! We encourage you to blog about your experience and join a Giving Team. Through your dashboard, you can log your volunteer hours for Givology, post updates to your social media networks, and track your impact over time. Moreover, we hope that you consider starting a Givology chapter in your local community or considering joining our team to help us make our organization even better.

Our Impact Summary

We started Givology when we were students at the University of Pennsylvania. Since our launch in 2008, we’ve raised more than $300,000 to help over 2,800+ students in 26 countries through 46 grassroots partnerships. With more than 2,600 donors, 90 global volunteers, 11 chapters globally, and 30 core team members, Givology pioneers a new model of “crowd-sourcing” philanthropy to make the largest impact at the lowest cost. As a 100% volunteer-driven organization, we received the Intelius Award for “Best Student-Run Social Enterprise”, “Top Education Non-profit” by GreatNonprofits, “Technology in Education” prize by Education Without Borders, Ford Focus Finalist, as well as being featured in Nicholas Kristof’s inspiring book Half the Sky, Vivanista, Knowledge@Wharton, Philadelphia Inquirer, MTVAct, among other print and media sources.

Vision and Mission

Give to learn, learn to give.

1. Vision

   Globally, nearly 1 out of every 5 children of primary-school age are not in school, 40% of secondary-age children don’t attend school, and even more do not have the opportunity to pursue higher education. Poverty is a principal cause. Often times, families have trouble affording school fees and supplies, or may simply need their children to contribute to household income. In addition, the poor quality of local schools may make the benefit of education appear elusive.

   At Givology, our vision is to make quality education accessible for all children. We believe that education is the single most important and sustainable resource for individual empowerment, community advancement, and poverty alleviation. Through our network of grassroots partnerships, we strive to connect our network of donors with innovative, high-impact projects and scholarships that can transform local communities one at a time.

2. Mission

   As a 100% volunteer-run organization, Givology is an online giving marketplace that aggregates small dollar donations and small volunteer hours into a powerful force for change. Through our network of grassroots partnerships, we link our donors with high-impact education such as teacher training, library construction, textbook purchases, student sponsorship, among other activities. In particular, we emphasize transparency and impact monitoring – through our web interface, our donors can receive regular updates, send letters to our students, blog about their experiences, connect with other donors, and learn about education policy globally. Our philosophy is “Give to Learn, Learn to Give” – every person has a responsibility to the world and has something powerful to offer. In particular we aspire to:

   – Create an online community for giving – to connect our donors to high-impact pre-screened investments in education
   – Identify transformational grassroots education organizations to bring into our network and facilitate information-sharing of best practices
   – Raise funding and support for our partnership network through online and offline channels
   – Spread awareness and generate research about effective education initiatives globally
   – Promote cross-cultural relationships through blogging, messaging, and social media
   – Crowd source impact to make the largest impact at the lowest cost through our volunteer base

   Since our launch in 2008, we’ve raised more than $300,000 to help over 2,800+ students in 26 countries through 46 grassroots partnerships. With more than 2,600 donors, 90 global volunteers, 11 chapters globally, and 30 core team members, Givology pioneers a new model of “crowd-sourcing” philanthropy to make the largest impact at the lowest cost. As a 100% volunteer-driven organization, we received the Intelius Award for “Best Student-Run Social Enterprise”, “Top Education Non-profit” by GreatNonprofits, “Technology in Education” prize by Education Without Borders, Ford Focus Finalist, as well as being featured in Nicholas Kristof’s inspiring book Half the Sky, Vivanista, Knowledge@Wharton, Philadelphia Inquirer, MTVAct, among other print and media sources.

Find out more about how you can join this new way to give to others: givology.com/