r/Philanthropy

Hi! I started a project that allows people to anonymously plant flowers on a global map.

I was pleasantly surprised how many people participated in such a short time, so I decided to set goals:

- 500 planted flowers and I donated to a pollinator fund
- 1000 flowers and I planted a tree in my local park here in Puerto Vallarta
- 2000 flowers and I plan to donate to another pollinator fund
- 5000 to be determined, but you get the idea...

The thing is, it's all coming out of my pocket and I wasn't planning on creating a business model that costs money. 😄 But I did manage to create a platform that gets people excited about participating as a team towards a goal - one that makes a real impact in the world. I posted videos about the progress, about the process, the planting of the tree, etc. People are genuinely happy to be a part of this and I've received so much positive feedback.

So now, I'm searching to find people who may want to donate to future milestone's selected organizations. I'm not looking for large amounts, but I think it's a nice way to connect and feature both the organization and the person giving.

I want to showcase good people doing good things.

Note: I am NOT asking for donations. I'm asking how to locate people who may want to donate to environmental nonprofits.

Where would I find such a group of people?
How could I pitch this idea?

I really appreciate your answers. This is all new territory for me. I'm a software designer by trade, but the nonprofit / charity side of things is a bit outside of my wheelhouse.

I was curious to know how much funding is deployed to conservation efforts near me. I started by pulling a list of organizations using conservation-related tax codes, and cross referencing with the Land Trust Alliance and a few other sources. Financial records for 501(c)3 non-profit organizations in the U.S. are publicly accessible. So, once I had a list of organizations, I was able to fetch recent financial records for all organizations. I then plotted all funding values on the map using the organization's location.

The largest organizations are active all over the world, so their values should be excluded from any sort of local analysis. The area near DC, for example, shows billions in funding due to organizations such as the Nature Conservancy.

Curious to hear what y'all glean from this. Is there anything you'd like to see included in the map?

Hi r/Philanthropy. I am career aid worker working on a passion project that involves a novel approach to direct aid allocation that aims to change how donations are made to persons in need around the world. I am not including links, this post is not about the project itself.

I think most members here are US based, I am not. I would really appreciate your advice on what would be the best way for me to look for donors that may be:

- Interested in novel experimental approaches and allocate part of their funding accordingly

- have preference for direct donations and do not care much about tax cuts, at least at a smaller scale of donations

Is there particular communities/forums that would make sense for em to explore, instead of blasting cold messages to people?

Should I pay someone to help me find and engage potential donors?

Appreciate any advice.

United Nations-designated International Days and Weeks and Years can be leveraged for both getting the word out about your nonprofit and for fundraising.

Each day, week and year has a designated theme. Many come with ready-to-use artwork and social media keyword tags you can use.

Your social media or newsletter messaging can be simple: "Today is the International Day of xxxx. You can support our nonprofit's work regarding this cause by donating at xxxxx." You can expand it much more, detailing your work, having an event in conjunction with the day, and posting information onlinr leading up to the day.

You can find a list of UN days and weeks here.

As has already been noted on this subreddit, 2026 is the International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development, per the 25th anniversairy of the International Year of Volunteers in 2001.

2026 is also the International Year of the Woman Farmer and the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists.

2027 will be the International Year of Legal Literacy and the International Year of Sustainable and Resilient Tourism, though more designations may happen before the year stars. You can see a list of UN Years by designation here.

Is your charity, nonprofit or other mission-based organization leveraging UN designated days, weeks or years in some way for fundraising or awareness building? Please share in the comments.

Normally, these kinds of things probably shouldn’t be discussed publicly, but what happened on the airplane really bothered me, and I haven’t been able to get over it.

What particularly irritated me is that I work for a multinational company in a country-management role, and even in that position, I personally don’t prefer to fly business class on domestic flights. However, it seems St. Jude has a different policy. The entire group I saw was flying business class from Raleigh to Chicago.

I found that quite unfortunate. When I donate to an organization like St. Jude, I do so with the belief that the money is primarily going toward helping children and supporting their mission—not toward providing business-class flights for managers on domestic routes.

I donate to St. Jude a couple of times a year based on my personal feelings and desire to support the cause. At the same time, I’ve been receiving relentless calls and mail from them, including paper notebooks and address stickers. After seeing this, I honestly started wondering whether I should reconsider how I support the organization.

I’m not saying this to attack St. Jude or question the important work they do for children. I’m simply sharing why this experience left a bad impression on me and made me question how donor money is being spent.

Should philanthropists focus on buying lifetime fixed-income annuities for the homeless and poor individuals such as older people who didn't plan well and have chronic illness and not much of a safety net? I was thinking of people like Warren Buffet and Mackenzie Scott...would their billions be better off annuitized and cash-transferred to the poor?

Not sure if this is the best place for my question. I work for a national corporate foundation who has been using Benevity in recent years. We’ve had continued issues with the platform and not great customer service. We are looking at other vendors since the cost becomes more and more expensive and everything is nickel and dimed after the contract is signed. We use it for grant making and employee giving and volunteering, including corporate matches. It houses our applications during our various RFP windows throughout the year.

As we are looking at other vendors, I would love to learn what other medium to large size foundations are using for these purposes. Our internal vendors team is vetting a handful of vendors now, but looking for actual firsthand experience. I would love to find something that still does both but at the end of the day, would you separate platforms if they are the best and can communicate with each other. Thank you for any guidance!!

In July, the Arcus Foundation announced that it will wind down operations in 2029. The foundation’s LGBTQ social justice program will honor all grant commitments currently in progress and continue making new grants until October 2028. Ape conservation grantmaking will continue under the current strategy and transition in 2027 to a new U.K.-based charity, WildLives Earth, that will support the conservation of endangered species, including great apes and gibbons.

During its 25 years of operations, the foundation has been among the largest private donors to both LGBTQ rights and ape conservation. Its funding has contributed to notable successes, including legal and policy changes in a range of countries in Africa and the Americas that have increased protections for LGBTQ people, the end of biomedical research on chimpanzees in the United States, and an increase in habitats with stable or growing ape populations.

Over the past 25 years, Arcus Founder and Board President Jon Stryker has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars through the foundation to more than 500 organizations, in addition to millions more donated in his private capacity.

“My commitment to both LGBTQ rights and endangered species is unchanged,” Stryker said. “I’m proud of the foundation’s long partnerships with so many fearless human rights defenders and conservationists around the world during the past quarter century.

“I intend to continue supporting these causes through philanthropic vehicles that I will be modeling in the very near future.”

Official announcement.