Why Philanthropic Giving Is A Business Advantage With Kate Williams

Chris Ronzio (01:39):

Hey, everyone welcome back to Organize Chaos. I'm your host, Chris Ronzio. Today we're here with Kate Williams. Kate, welcome to the podcast.

Kate Williams (03:14):

Thanks. I'm psyched to be here.

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Finding Your Passion

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Chris Ronzio (03:16):

Thanks for coming on. Before we get into everything amazing that you do in your organization, I want to start with a little background question, because a lot of people get into a career that just they're not really passionate about, and it seems like you've gotten yourself into a organization and a career that really aligns with your passions and maybe it started from a young age. I'm curious, how did you realize you had a passion for the outdoors and what did you do to intersect with that?

Kate Williams (03:46):

Well, I was fortunate. I did have an aha moment, which I know sounds cliché, but I actually did. I was on a backpacking trip when I was 18 in the big mountains in Wyoming and went through some challenges, including snow, missed reration for food, broken leg, all that kind of exciting stuff, which for many people would be like, "Well, that sounds like a horrible trip." It was super hard work and I was called on to do more than I thought I could.

But in the end I remember watching the helicopter taking our injured instructor away and having this... Like I was exhausted, I was tired, I was hungry, my feet were wet and I was just like, "I love this. This is what I want to do." I didn't know exactly what I meant by this, but it was a combination of being in this incredible, beautiful wild place and being called on to do more than I thought I could do and doing that with a group of people.

I really have been trying to figure out what this is for my whole career in terms of both that environment and leadership people space.

Chris Ronzio (04:52):

Your instructor broke their leg and got carried away and you had to just fend for yourself or did the helicopter take you as well?

Kate Williams (05:00):

Yeah. I glossed over that. I mean, it is a story, but basically we were about 30 miles from the nearest road head, and this was before cell phones and easy access to services. We had a pretty organized runner team, went out, and as an 18-year-old, I found myself in the circumstances being asked to lead the remaining students to the pass, where we would be calling in a helicopter. Of course, it snowed that night and of course we had missed our reration so it was challenging.

But again, for me, it was this experience of this is real and I have to show up and there are very real consequences. I found that I loved that and that it was... Of course, I didn't wish the broken leg on anyone, but I found that the real consequences, real show up was really powerful and inspiring and galvanizing for me.

Chris Ronzio (06:00):

Wow. I don't know if it was fortunate or unfortunate, but that situation was this aha that prompted you to think, "I got to do this for a living. I've got to orient my life around this." Was it a complete 180 from something you were doing in the past, or how did you take the step into making this your professional area of focus?

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Turning A Passion Into A Career

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Kate Williams (06:20):

Yeah. I basically had two chapters to my career where I was figuring out the this. The first was after I graduated from college and during college actually, during my college summers, training myself and then becoming an outdoor educator, because I thought, "Well, that was such a powerful experience for me. So I want to educate others and create the opportunity for others to fall in love with place and with that experience so that they can have that experience, go forth in the world."
I did that for about 10 years and then I pivoted because the leadership piece was really more and more interesting to me. I also was ready not to be out in the field all the time.

I pivoted into environmental nonprofit work with a brief stop in graduate school to facilitate that pivot and really then have been in environmental nonprofits since then with a interest in the content side and impact side of the environment, but also in the leadership side of like, how do you organize a bunch of people, your staff, your stakeholders to drive change? I'm super fascinated by that question.

Chris Ronzio (07:29):

Any time I've gone on an adventure, like hiking on a glacier or doing a ropes course, there's always someone there that's just so good at training and so empathetic with how you're going through that. I feel like that's an incredible recruiting ground for businesses to find people, if they care as much about business as they do the outdoors. You eventually ended up at 1% for the Planet. Can you talk a little bit about how you found or how you got this opportunity to join them?

Kate Williams (07:58):

Yeah. I mean, I think like most things in my life, it was serendipity and planning. The planning part is some of what we've talked about. I had a passion, I pursued it. I trained myself and found opportunities to implement that work. That's planning part and doing the work. Then the serendipity part is I had been the executive director of another nonprofit and I was ready for change and just started talking to people as you often do and opening up the to the world and putting the message out there.

Ended up learning that 1% for the Planet was an opportunity and it happened to be right across the street from me at that point. I was able to make that move based on having those conversations and really learning that what I had been working on, that environmental piece, the building partnerships, the thinking about how you organize people to drive change was something that 1% for the Planet was looking for as well.

Chris Ronzio (09:01):

Can you give us the quick elevator pitch? I know everybody heard your intro before this started, but what is 1% for the Planet? What is the mission?

Kate Williams (09:10):

We are a global community of business members and individuals, mostly business members who are focused on driving change through implementing a giving commitment to environmental nonprofits every year. Our business members give 1% of their annual sales to environmental nonprofits each year.

Chris Ronzio (09:31):

Wow. Anybody that joins as a member is committing to pledge 1% of their sales to any environmental cause that fits with them or are there a bunch of different choices?

Kate Williams (09:42):

Yeah. This is more the going-up-the-stairs pitch, just to share a little bit more. We engage the business members and they make that annual commitment. It's initially a pledge, but it's actually an annual commitment. We certify that this happens every year, which is super powerful, because this is giving that's happening annually. Then we also vet and work with nonprofit partners, so the giving needs to go to these approved nonprofit partners.

That's a real value-add that we offer because it can be quite challenging to figure out who to give to, what change do I want to drive? Who are the nonprofits that should receive my money that I feel confident about? All of those questions we help to solve for that.

Chris Ronzio (10:23):

Got it. I've never heard anyone call that the going-up-the-stairs pitch, but I'm definitely going to say that in the future, so thank you. We're going to spend most of the time talking in this podcast about just how philanthropic giving, how these types of commitments can help better align your business with your customer base. It's something that I think you see sometimes the headlines pop up with certain B corporations or companies that have unique models that have giving built in.

But the way that you all approach this I think is a very accessible way to build giving into any business model. Yeah. I guess the first thing I would say is how have you seen in your experience across your membership, the philanthropic giving really just levels up the relationship with someone's customers?

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The Impact Of Business Giving & Alignment With Customer Values

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Kate Williams (11:16):

Really, really great question because customers are... And the data supports this, lots of different data supports this. Customers are really interested in businesses that are using their business to drive change, businesses that are putting solar panels on their warehouses, that are cleaning up their supply chain, all of that is super important, and difficult to communicate sometimes.

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What we have learned through our work with our business members over the last 20 years is that one of the really powerful points of giving is that it's a great bridge to communicate an environmental commitment to customers. What customers, what people, because that's really what customers are, is people, often want, they want data, but they also want and need stories to help them make sense of that data, to help them incorporate it into their understanding.

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Also, people make emotional decisions too. Giving... And I want to say more about the power of giving beyond just storytelling, but giving is a really important way in which stories and real authentic communication about an environmental commitment can be in the wheelhouse of any business when they do it. The other thing I do want to say about giving is it's not just a storytelling tool, it's a way that businesses can expand their scope of impact.

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That's pretty fundamental to what we believe at 1% for the Planet. Businesses operate in an environment where they're working within the market, which has a lot of space, but it's still bounded. They're working within the market to do what they do. To create their product or their service, to generate a profit, to generate resources, to do business.

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Nonprofits operate where there isn't a market, where there isn't maybe a market yet, or there may never be a market and they are operating in order to drive impact and to plow any resources back into driving positive impact in whatever way their mission directs. When a business gives to a nonprofit, they're immediately expanding the scope in which they are driving impact. Within their business, they may invest in solar panels or clean up their supply chain, and that's awesome.

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That's all within the market and we need every business to do that. We also need and want businesses to step outside of that space to drive even more change through this nonprofit sector that's operating where there is no market, and as an added bonus, they get the ability to really deepen their connection with customers because of the stories of that on-the-ground impact.

Chris Ronzio (13:55):

Yeah. One of the things that we've been talking about, I guess, to use an analogy in our product, is when people put data into the product, we want to multiply the output of whatever they put in. They give us a little bit and we seemingly multiply it to create more. I think that's what giving to a nonprofit from a business looks like, is you're multiplying impact by having this whole separate organization that's a hundred percent focused on this other thing, create more than you could with those same resources. Am I saying that well?

Kate Williams (14:26):

Yeah, absolutely. I would just add too, that what you're doing too is again, you're taking those resources in the sphere in which you can generate them and saying, "We're going to expand our impact by putting them into this other sphere or other sector." I was going to say the other thing too, that we really believe when you think about it this way, you shift how you think about philanthropy.

A lot of times people hear philanthropy and they think of galas or traditional, sometimes boring ways of approaching, having some money left over at the end of the year and making that decision game time based on what you have in the bank. What we're saying is no, no, no, build it into your operating model, build it into your strategy, build it into your brand. Then really think of it differently as not just a nice-to-have at the end of the year, but as something that's core to how you deliver a good product, good service, relate to your customers, build your whole strategy.

Then you can then talk about it like, okay, you pay your rent, you pay your employees and you wouldn't think of not doing those things. You couldn't run a business if you didn't, and you pay for the impact that you are having and you pay for creating a thriving future so that businesses and communities can continue to thrive so it moves into the center of the operations of the business.

Chris Ronzio (15:49):

Just part of the DNA. Part of what we do. How could a company decide what impact they want to make? I imagine that when you've got businesses, especially established businesses, you've got a lot of different personalities and a lot of different people. Any tips on how to hone in on what impact we want to make as a business?

Kate Williams (16:06):

Yes. Really, really good question. Definitely put your finger on. It's something that is challenging, because I think a lot of times people think, "Oh, I wish I could give more." Then when they decide to, they realize, "Oh, it's really hard to figure out how to do it in a way that aligns with what I want to do." That is one of the things that we work with our businesses on, is we have questions that we're able to ask about, do you want to give locally?

Do you want the giving to be where your employees are based? Do you want the giving to be where your supply chain is operating? How closely do you want it aligned with your products? Like if you make sandals, do you want it to be ocean-focused? As a really simple example. We have a lot of questions and experience helping businesses to think through what is that storytelling that they want to leverage?

What is that on-the-ground impact that is most aligned? Either with their heart, in some cases a founder's like, "This really matters to me. I happen to be doing this business, but this is the change I want to drive." More often, there's their way in which it's really aligning with pillars of communication that the company is established.

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The ROI Of Business Giving

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Chris Ronzio (17:16):

That makes sense. I like those filters of, is it geography? Is it the type of work that we're doing? That's a smart way to approach it. I think one of the things that... I'm not sure if I'm going to ask this question in the right way, but when you make a commitment to give a percentage of profits or percentage of revenue, and it feels like this thing that you want to have some kind of ROI in the business, how do you decide between overpromoting this or you're doing it for the right reasons?

Kate Williams (17:46):

I think what we try and communicate and what we believe is, it's not either or. It doesn't need to be seen as a trade-off. Am I doing this because it is the right thing to do or am I doing this because it's good for my business? We believe that the more you can conflate those two, the better you will really lean into integrating it into your business.

For example, we talk openly about like, here's the data on what consumers are looking for, so here's why 1% for the Planet can be a really good business decision to make this commitment. We have some great examples from business members who have said, "Yeah, it was the best financial decision I made and here's how I have grown."

And others who say like, "I totally did it just because it felt like the right thing to do and I felt guilty that I wasn't doing more and it's cool that it's a positive part of my business." It depends somewhat on who's doing it, but we really encourage people like, you don't have to choose. It can feel good and be the right thing and it can be good for business. That's the win-win because that's how we keep doing things.

Chris Ronzio (18:54):

It can also be a great way to attract employees that really care about that thing too, right? Because it's not just for your customers. It's great internal marketing. I remember working with a business that had this little internal ticker of how much they had donated to this certain cause and as that went across the million dollar mark or the $2 million mark, it was something that was really celebrated internally. It's definitely a recruiting advantage, I think too.

Kate Williams (19:18):

Absolutely. That's a really excellent point. It's a recruiting advantage and in this day and age retention advantage. We have some really awesome examples from our network. There's one company in particular that comes to mind. They do a really great thing, which is super simple, little twist, but it makes a big difference. They talk about their success, not in terms of their sales amount, but in terms of their giving amount, which is the same thing.

It's just a percentage of the sales, but they just flip the narrative and that makes a huge difference because then what you're celebrating as a company in terms of your KPIs is, here's the impact we drove through all the work that we did to generate those increased sales, which is super motivating. Sometimes just talking about the sales numbers may not have... Again, that storytelling with consumers, it's similar. Just you have that motivation tied to driving change in the world.

Chris Ronzio (20:13):

Yeah. I've also seen some companies that put a little twist on it and instead of talking about the dollars that they've donated or something like that, it's like we've saved enough energy to power a million light bulbs for a year or something. It's this thing you can't even really comprehend. It just feels big.

Kate Williams (20:32):

Yeah. I think that's a great point because the other part of the work that we do is with our nonprofit partners. One of the things we ask them is, what are the different ways that you can share the impact that you accomplish as a result of the funding that you receive? Because then it can be really powerful to tell those stories about people served or engaged or trees planted or many different types of metrics. Metrics, tons of carbon removed from the atmosphere, things like that.

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Should Every Business Give To Non Profits?

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Chris Ronzio (21:04):

I've got a tough question for you and that's, is this something every business should do? Are there exceptions of when maybe you're too early or you're not profitable or something like that where you should focus on a sustainable business first or is this something everyone should be doing from the beginning?

Kate Williams (21:22):

We think that everyone should do it and here's why. Of course at one level that's like, of course I would say that, but we really do believe that because what we have seen, and this is... So experience from the field is that the pre-revenue startup companies that build it in, they build it in. It just becomes part of how you operate. Again, in the same way that you consider what you're going to pay as salaries, but you're going to pay your staff.

It's not going to occur to you not to pay staff. In the same way, when you build it in early, it begins to be inconceivable that you wouldn't add this give-back that drives powerful impact to create the future that we want to be part of. Building it in when you start is awesome, even if you're still getting to the point of generating revenue, or coming in late. We have many companies join when they're really well established and quite large.

It's like, okay, this is something we have to do. We're either a leader in our field or we have the bandwidth now to think about this or it's just like, we got to do this. I think we have companies that come to us through all different pathways and for all different reasons and there's a lot of power in doing that.
Again, really seeing how for all of us to create a thriving future for planet and people, which is our purpose, that's why 1% for the Planet exists, we need for companies and consumers with them to see the power of incorporating this way of thinking and acting into the DNA.

Chris Ronzio (22:58):

Where did 1% come from? What's the idea there?

Kate Williams (23:02):

Yeah. Our founder is Yvon Chouinard and his buddy, Craig Matthews, who the story goes that they founded it on the banks of the Madison River when they were fishing and they realized like, "If we want places like this to sell our products and do our thing, we need to have our companies be part of the solution." That's essentially the founding story. As part of that, they landed on 1% as it's not a magic number, but it's a big number.

1% of sales is a big number. Anyone who is running a business knows that. Especially in small-margin industries, that can be a good chunk of your profit. It's like, it is not nothing, so real number and attainable number, so not out of reach so that people just walk away and you can wrap your head around it.

From a consumer and business standpoint, you can wrap your head around 1% as opposed to like 2.3% or some other random number that could have a basis in data, but that doesn't really work. For all those reasons. We have many members who give more than that. We always certify the 1%, but companies can certainly choose to do more than that and to talk about that.

Chris Ronzio (24:16):

Yeah. It's definitely more marketable than 2.3%.

Kate Williams (24:19):

Exactly.

Chris Ronzio (24:21):

We did something similar, but I give 1% of the whole company's equity to fund youth entrepreneurship programs locally in the geography that we're in and so it's just another way of giving back. But I really like the tangible nature of just 1% of your sales and it's just something you certify every year.

Kate Williams (24:41):

Absolutely. I think part of that, it's a discipline too, and that's another reason just back to your question around when should companies adopt it? A company that has this built in, it's an indicator of financial discipline in addition to all the impact that we're talking about. I also believe that it sends a really strong signal to potential investors and others that we're thinking hard and planning hard and orienting ourselves to be able to build a business that thrives in the business sector, but also thrives in the impact sector.

Chris Ronzio (25:17):

Yeah. No. I love that. Okay. I'm curious. This is a tough, I guess, market, a tough time that we're going through and the environment I keep seeing headlines about this being such an important time to make some of these decisions and so I can't not ask you about, what do businesses need to know on why this is an important thing to invest in right now?

Kate Williams (25:42):

Well, I mean, I think that the headlines and the articles are pretty clear. We have a situation in which climate change impacts and dynamics are accelerating, and so taking action now... A lot of people talk about taking action yesterday, but that's not super motivating. There's not a whole lot we can do about that. We're all about positive urgency. Taking action now is necessary.

Part of what 1% for the Planet represents is, again, we're not a pledge for future action. We're a pledge for doing work right now. The other way we think about it is that the time to invest is now because we want to create and sustain a planet that will be a place that we want to thrive in moving forward. Taking action now to conserve places, to clean up oceans, to make things better, all of that.

We have an opportunity now to make some of those changes so that as we hopefully continue to move toward a cleaner future, we've done the work now to create the basis for a biodiverse healthy planet on which we all want to keep thriving. I think there's a lot of good reasons for acting now, even if sometimes people are like, "Well, but what does this do?" I think about the... What's his name? General McChrystal, am I getting his name right?

Stanley McChrystal, who has his views on when people are in combat, you're going to be paralyzed if you try to drive uncertainty down to zero. We're not in combat, but we are in a case where of course we want to get good data and good science, but if we keep trying to drive uncertainty down to zero before we act, we're going to miss the opportunity to drive change.

We're all about saying, "Hey, yep, there may be some uncertainty that we're still operating in, but it's unequivocally better to work toward a cleaner, healthier planet for the species, for people, for everyone and so get on board and start taking action."

Chris Ronzio (27:55):

Get on board. I live in the Southwest of the U.S. in Arizona, and I was driving up to Utah and seeing the water levels being so low in the lakes. It's just such an obvious reminder that things have changed over the last couple of decades and so I think it's right that we need to do something now about that.

Kate Williams (28:17):

Also just from a human level, I think when we see things like that... And I think probably almost everyone listening can probably point to something, whether it's water levels, floods, fires, it's kind of apocalyptic experiences in some ways, and it's hard to not know what to do. That's one of the things that we really believe is also powerful about 1% for the Planet is like, is 1% going to save the world? No.

But is 1% the way that we can say, "Hey, I'm going to do my 1%. You're going to do your 1%. I'm going to try and buy 1% products. I'm going to try and drive more impacts." That's how we create a global movement. We do think about the specific dollar impact that we're driving. That's what we measure, is the number of dollars we're getting out to environmental nonprofits, which by the way, this year we're at about 60 million in certified giving.

That's an annual certification. This is real numbers. We also think about the global awareness and movement because that's the other thing we see, is consumers who start to be aware of these products, they buy more, that drives more impact, and it always sparks other changes. We see that within our business network too. There's almost not a single business that's just doing 1%. Once they get in the network, it's part of a journey.

They're doing their 1%, but they're also learning there's a lot of positive peer pressure to what's your packaging? How much plastic you got there? What does your supply chain look like? Hey, how did you solve for this? We see so much of that positive change. It's an inspiration for further action.

Chris Ronzio (29:58):

To the skeptics who are not wanting to give philanthropically, you mentioned at the beginning that there is even data that supports that customers buy more from companies that have this sort of mission. Any facts that you would share with anybody listening to get them over the edge?

Kate Williams (30:13):

Sure. We love the skeptics, and I will say right up front that it's more correlation than causation. It's hard to distill out what one factor drives, but we have a good example from one of our members, Finlandia Vodka. They did an activation with their 1% commitment in a couple of markets. They have a bunch of different markets on the East Coast and they were doing an activation with point of sale, really clear information about the fact that 1% of sales of their vodka was going back to oyster restoration projects to clean the bay.

This is in New York Harbor and the Chesapeake Bay that they were activating around this. They had some great bar top examples, so people could be eating raw oysters and drinking vodka and see this direct connection. In other markets where people were doing the same thing, eating raw oysters and drinking their vodka, they did not have this activation it just so happens.

At the end of the year in those markets where they were activating, they saw a 7% increase in sales. In the markets where they were not activating, they saw a 2% decrease. Again, correlation, not causation, but we did have this market-to-market comparison, which that's some good data.

Chris Ronzio (31:35):

There it is. Kate has guaranteed 7% increase in sales. I'm just kidding. I think it's obvious, when you can tell a story like that and make a connection, then when the consumer is faced with that choice, and this one has a reason, you're going to pick the one with the reason, instead of just the prettier label, I guess, and which would be maybe my default way of choosing a vodka.

Kate Williams (31:59):

Yes, I agree. The reason too... I mean, another word for reason or an equivalent word is purpose, and there is also good macro data on purpose-driven companies outperforming the general market. That's been true even in recessions. For the skeptics out there, I encourage you to do a little research on that because there is some good, again, macro data looking at purpose-driven companies as a whole and how they perform relative to the market as a whole.

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1% For The Planet's Founding Story

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Chris Ronzio (32:35):

Yeah. That's great. Okay. This marks, I think, the 20-year anniversary of 1% for the Planet, is that right?

Kate Williams (32:41):

Yes, it is. Yeah.

Chris Ronzio (32:42):

Wow. 20 years. As you think back from as long as you've been there, or when it first started, do you feel like the mission is the same from the very beginning as it is today, or has it evolved?

Kate Williams (32:55):

The mission has been very durable. It's pretty much the same. The world has changed a lot, so we, just in doing some research for ourselves, we're just like, well, let's remember what it was like in 2020... or in 2002. Just as reference, Facebook didn't exist yet, iPhone had not been launched yet. I'll just leave those two. That's pretty significant. The internet was a totally different beast then. I mean, it was much different.

The conditions and the actual operations of figuring out nonprofits was very different. We've had to evolve how we communicate and how we provide information. There's a lot of opportunity in that and there's also some different... It's easier to search for a nonprofit now, but can you vet that nonprofit and understand that nonprofit?

We've definitely had to evolve in really great ways, but our mission has really stayed the same, which is to build this movement of companies who are making it core to their operations that they drive impact through giving.

Chris Ronzio (34:09):

What's next for you and the team and the organization?

Kate Williams (34:13):

Yeah. I mean, never a dull moment. We maybe have a durable mission, but we're always thinking about... Our question is, how do we drive more impact faster? The beauty of 1% is that it's incremental in that you can do your 1%. I can do my 1%. It all adds up and we create this growing movement of 1% giving, but it's always 1% by 1%. We've been thinking about, how can we make that exponential? Up that curve?

One of the things, we've doubled down on just growing our member network. We have seen really significant growth over the last couple of years and we're psyched to see that. We're having more businesses join. We're having more bigger businesses join, so that's like a bigger 1%. That's awesome. We also have launched for the first time a new program, which is called our Planet Impact Fund. It's in partnership with the National Philanthropic Trust and CapShift.

Basically what it is, is it's a way that any donor, so member or non-member, can give to this fund and it's comparable to a donor-advised fund, for those of you who are familiar with that. If you're not, the way it works is you give to this fund, it's a charitable donation. When you make the donation, it drops into investment pool and those dollars are invested for impact. That's where CapShift is our investment advisor and does that work.

Those dollars grow as they drive impact. Then annually, we give at least 10% to nonprofits from that fund. What we're doing is we're creating this way in which we're leveraging environmental philanthropy. That's what we're good at. That's what we know, but now we're adding in this way that members and non-members can grow this fund and we can drive impact at the investment level through initially public and then as we grow, we'll do private investments as well, because that's where we can really up the impact on that side.

This is all with philanthropic dollars. Then we will also give to nonprofits because we have a commitment to, and a belief in the need for annual impact on the ground through nonprofits. The Planet Impact Fund is a really exciting way that we think we can accelerate and create that exponential curve in terms of impact and giving.

Chris Ronzio (36:35):

Well, thank you for everything that you're doing. Whenever I talk to someone like you that's in this space, I just feel like, what am I doing with my life? I think that particularly 1% for the Planet is a nice bridge between what corporations are doing in their spaces to be able to still make an impact and know that we're leaving behind a better planet than we inherited. I appreciate all the work that you're doing.
Any final lesson or takeaway that you want to make sure everyone listening leaves with?

Kate Williams (37:07):

I guess I would say two things. One, just to your last point, I mean, I think the power of 1% is that wherever you're sitting and whatever business you're in, and we need our businesses to provide a lot of those products and services that keep us going, so wherever you're sitting though, you can be part of this movement. To your point, you really can be driving impact no matter what your business is and that's powerful.

Then the other thing that I would just encourage people to do is to think through that. We really invite you to consider how would you want to be involved? What is the 1% step you want to take? Because it's there for you we and would love to talk to you.

Chris Ronzio (37:50):

Where can people get in touch with you if they'd like to learn more?

Kate Williams (37:52):

Super easy, onepercentfortheplanet.org, all spelled out. Personally, I'm on LinkedIn, so I invite people to connect with me there. I love talking to and connecting with people on LinkedIn. Just Kate Williams, 1% for the Planet, you'll find me. We have a very simple join form on our website. You'll see it at the top of the page. You can click through and take action immediately and get into conversation with my awesome team about how to become a member.

Chris Ronzio (38:23):

Amazing. Well, thank you so much. Kate Williams, everyone. Such a cool cause, such a great concept, so approachable for businesses that want to make an impact with whatever you're doing. Like Kate said, whatever industry that you're in, customers do want to make a difference and our businesses are one of the ways that they can make a difference.

Shopping with a business that they know has some environmental impact or other impact is one of the ways that customers can spend their dollars and can direct their dollars toward the things that they care about. If you're looking to stand out, if you want to add some incentives for customers to purchase with you, this is one way to do it.

I encourage you to go over to 1% for the Planet, learn more and definitely do something, because whether it's this or some other cause, now is the time to act. Kate, thank you again so much for being here.

Kate Williams (39:11):

Thank you. I appreciate it.