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SunTrust Bank and BB&T Corporation (one of the largest banking corporations in the United States) completed a massive merger to form Truist on Dec. 9, 2019. This merger brought with it the need to meld both philanthropic agendas of the two banks, and within the same month, the Truist Foundation was born. Then came the global COVID-19 pandemic.

“The financial inequities that faced historically excluded communities were laid bare by the pandemic. We knew that it was crucial for us as an institution to be part of the catalyst to help build that generational wealth and do the hard work of advancing an economy that better serves everyone,” said Lynette Bell, president of the Truist Foundation. “So as the philanthropic arm of a financial services institution, we recognized that it was our responsibility to take part in that difficult work – and we wanted to sharpen our grantmaking in that process.”

Despite being a worldwide trillion-dollar industry, philanthropy doesn't garner the same media coverage as say, the technology sector. But with so many new billionaires entering the funding space, and billionaires renewing their focus on environmental and societal causes, you’d think we’d be seeing more mass media news coverage. So where are the hard-hitting, deep-dive industry articles and why might they be difficult to come by outside of trusted philanthropy trade publications?

Enter Teddy Schleifer, Founding Partner of the new media company, Puck. Prior to Puck, Teddy covered money, influence, and billionaire philanthropy for Recode, which is owned by Vox. At Recode Teddy delved into crypto giving, Elon Musk’s charity sending sprees, Jeff Bezos philanthropic, and everything in between. But more importantly, his coverage isn’t just about the gifts, but the motive behind it, and the quiet power that drives one of the world’s largest economic powerhouses.

Today, there are a lot of ways to approach philanthropy. You have the traditional models: your generational family foundations, private funders, and nonprofits. Then you have the newer models of giving circles, social impact groups, corporate giving, and crowdfunding. And somewhere between all that sits B1G1: Business for Good.

B1G1 is the brainchild of Masami Sato. It’s a global giving movement centered around the buy one give one model. The organization connects purpose driven businesses that want to make a difference with meaningful giving activities around the world. So that every time consumers make a purchase in their day-to-day lives, a brand donates a product or portion of proceeds to important world causes. The membership community currently comprises of +2,500 businesses who have collectively donated over $240 million to date.

At Untapped Philanthropy we spend a lot of time analyzing the Tech for Good industry, the funder experience, and exploring how funders can democratize philanthropy in order to build a philanthropic collective that better serves our communities. For this special episode of the podcast, we turn our gaze to nonprofits and one of its industry experts.

It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic led to an outpouring of funder support. Major funders worldwide quickly loosened their grant restrictions, eased reporting requirements, and leveraged new technology tools and platforms to give more freely in the hopes of sparing their grantees from impending financial catastrophe.

This week Fluxx co-founder and host of the Untapped Philanthropy podcast, Kerrin Mitchell, sits down with funder technologist, futurist, (and former Fluxxer) Sam Caplan, to explore the accelerated change of funders and technology. Together they examine the role technology must play in building more equitable giving communities and discuss the role technologists play in driving change.

Fluxx is back with another scintillating episode of Untapped Philanthropy! This week we’re thrilled to feature an author, advisor, consultant, and philanthropy coach who is just as obsessed with the future of philanthropy as we are, and works to help funders make future-forward decisions for their work. 

Keep reading for more information about the episode, or give it a listen now using the link above. 

At Fluxx we’re in the business of building technology that serves the social sector, which means we’re always having critical conversations about social sector strategies. Which is why we’re thrilled to focus this month’s Untapped Philanthropy podcast episode on how we as a community can leverage technology to facilitate strategic thinking and in turn – a better grantee experience. So let’s dive in.