How Entrepreneurs Like Ray Kurzweil and Michael Ferro Maximize Their Charitable Donation Impact
By: Robin Farmanfarmaian
Tags: Donations, Ray Kurzweil, Philanthropy, Entrepreneur, Michael Ferro

We’re in the Holiday Giving Season, a time when many of us like to support the charities and issues we care about.

Sometimes the hardest part is choosing the beneficiary organizations that will make the biggest impact. We all want to make sure our donation dollars and time are being used in the best ways possible. This is especially important during a pandemic, when so many more people need some extra help.

I interviewed 3 people who leverage interesting ways to maximize the impact from charitable giving. The end result is they are able to make an even more significant difference in those communities and issues they care about the most.

Matching Gifts

Charitable giving can be a big employee morale booster and team builder. By adding matching funds to an employee’s personal donation, an organization can enhance employee morale even more. The best part is that the employee chooses the charitable recipient, allowing them to make an even bigger personal impact.

Many corporations have matching programs, and some will match thousands of dollars per employee. There are companies that compile lists of what corporations will match employee donations, and how much — so you can check your employer out. According to Double Your Donation, the amounts can change year to year, but currently Google matches up to $10,000, Bank of America up to $6,000, GE up to $5,000, and General Mills up to $15,000. Donation matches are on a per year, per employee basis.

In my world of technology — futurist, inventor and best-selling author Dr. Ray Kurzweil is a legend. While Ray works for Google now, he is an entrepreneur through and through. Fun fact — Google is the first company he’s worked for that he didn’t start himself. He likes to joke he got his first job in his 60's!

Ray has been donating to The National Federation of the Blind for around 30 years. This is near and dear to his heart, as in 1975 he invented the first reading machine for the blind. Since that time, he’s helped bring the cost down from a $20,000 machine to the current free app. Now that Ray is working for Google (Alphabet), his donations for the Blind have increased. For the past 8 years, the company has matched Ray’s donations, up to Google’s annual matching limit.

In this case, Ray’s current employer is supporting something he cares deeply about, which in turn helps more people. This creates goodwill all around, and can inspire loyalty and team spirit in the employees. You can check out some of the top matching gift programs in this article on Mobile Cause.

Futurist, Inventor and Author Dr. Ray Kurzweil; Healthcare Tech Entrepreneur Michael Ferro

Community Foundations

Many people like to help out their own community, but it can be confusing to figure out what organizations and causes to support that can make the most impact.

If you want to help out in your own community, Community Foundations are a great option. These foundations are public charities that provide benefits to a specific geographic location local to the foundation. According to The Council on Foundations, there are over 750 in the US, and they typically focus on issues like healthcare, disaster relief, and education. Another main benefit of Community Foundations is that they manage donations, so that the benefactor just needs to write the check and describe the types of issues they’d like to support, such as healthcare or aspiring college students. The Community Foundation knows all the areas in their community that need help, and know where to allocate their benfecator’s donations for the most impact.

Healthcare Tech Entrepreneur Michael Ferro donates to many nonprofits and foundations every year, including the Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA). Michael’s donation funds multiple grants for the use of Artificial Intelligence in healthcare — one of Michael’s main areas of expertise. Some of the MRA grants fund scientist Joann Elmore, MD, MPH — her team is working on detecting melanoma through the use of an AI based diagnostic system.

Since Michael also likes to support his surrounding community, he also donates annually to his local Community Foundation. This year, he’s asked the Palm Beach Community Foundation to direct his funds towards multiple student educational scholarships and COVID-19 relief in the Greater Miami Area in Florida. He trusts the foundation to find the best way his donation dollars can make a big impact on his local community, and in the areas he cares the most about, like healthcare and education.

Donations for Startup Investing

This donation vehicle is a cool idea — a nonprofit venture capital fund where the actual fund is made up of donations.

On a recent video call with Jonathan M. Fritz, the Chief Innovation Officer of CHIME, Jonathan mentioned he also sits on the Investment Committee of BrightStar Wisconsin. BrightStar Wisconsin is a 501(c)(3) that exists to create jobs and economic prosperity for the local community — by investing in startups. The capital comes from donations, and when there is an exit, that money goes right back into the fund. This nonprofit fund helps create local jobs by creating new local businesses.

BrightStar Wisconsin also holds startup pitches, and has a large group of co-investors made up of many angels and venture groups. In fact, multiple angel groups have formed in response to BrightStar! While their investment criteria is to benefit the local community, they also focus on investing in those startups that have the long term potential to also go national. As of 2019, BrightStar had invested $7.5M into 52 early stage Wisconsin startups including ImageMoverMD, a medical image software company that is expected to create 28 jobs in 3 years.

There are many ways to donate your time and money, and with a few tricks, you can also maximize your impact.

What causes do you care about the most?