The Business of Giving Back: How Nonprofits Are Borrowing from Silicon Valley

03/31/20 • 43 min

2 Listeners

You could use some good news. Today on Morning Brew’s Business Casual podcast, we’re delivering just that—a conversation on the business of giving back with charity: water founder Scott Harrison.

Charity: water’s not your average nonprofit. Harrison has made the organization’s business model famous in the finance world for his focus on almost radical transparency and a nontraditional banking setup.

In this episode, Harrison goes deep on how that works...and justifies the highly unique, heavily Silicon Valley-influenced (and sometimes criticized) model.

Plus, Harrison—who’s a former nightclub promoter—has something of an unorthodox approach to marketing that sheds light on more than just the nonprofit community. Small taste? He’s more concerned with what Nike or Apple is doing than what his direct competitor is doing.

This episode might make you feel better in a downer of a news cycle, but that doesn’t mean we’re holding back on the business analysis. America’s 1+ million charities raked in $427.7 billion in contributions in 2018—meaning charitable giving is big business.

Listen now and let us know what you think.

In this episode, Harrison goes deep on how that works...and justifies the highly unique, heavily Silicon Valley-influenced (and sometimes criticized) model.

Listen now and let us know what you think.

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