Quantifiable References on Social Impact Infrastructure Organizations
Introduction
While social impact infrastructure organizations (SIIOs) work to accelerate the impact of the philanthropy, nonprofit, and civil society sectors, we know of no summary that provides a detailed quantitative summary of their accomplishments. While the data below is far from comprehensive, it will hopefully give readers a greater appreciation for the considerable monetary contributions a small portion of SIIOs have made to improve the social sector.
Some SIIOs expand the pie of regenerative resources available to us now and moving forward. For example, consider those focused on capturing some portion of the unprecedented wealth transfer of trillions of dollars that will take place by the end of the decade. Others increase global giving and the mobilization of extensive human resources, along with numerous other benefits listed below.
High-level Quantifiable Outcomes from Social Impact Infrastructure Organizations
- The Giving Pledge collected more than 230 billionaires’ pledges to give away most of their wealth in their lifetimes or in their Wills. Pledges are estimated to total US $600 billion.
- The National Council on Nonprofits has secured $50 billion
- from Congress in forgivable PPP loans for nonprofits and helped more than 100,000 organizations access these loans.
- GoFundMe has raised more than $15 billion since its inception.
- TechSoup facilitated the delivery of more than $15 billion in free or discounted technical products, services, and education to hundreds of thousands of nonprofits in 236 countries.
- The GivingTuesday campaign raised $2.47 billion in 2020, 7 billion in 2021, and 3.1 billionin 2022 in the U.S. alone, totaling $8.27 billion. The average annual growth over three years exceeded $300 million. (However, results in 2023 also hovered at 3.1 billion, bringing the total results to $11.37 billion and a lesser yearly average of $210 million per year.)
- Founders Pledge has accumulated approximately $9.32 billion in pledges.
- Philanthropy Together and Grapevine are central actors in creating giving circles that have given away $1.29 billion.
- Generation Pledge has accumulated $800 million in pledges.
- Points of Light recruits volunteers whose efforts are valued at $482 million annually.
- Taproot Foundation provided 19,000 nonprofits with a $300,000 million value of pro-bono services.
- The United Philanthropy Forum leveraged $250 million in government and philanthropic investment in the 2010 census that could be attributed directly to the work of our initiative.
- VolunteerMatch has recruited 17.5 million volunteers.
We acknowledge that numbers do not paint full pictures. For example, many might question the flow of “philanthropic wealth,” how much the public would have donated without the intermediaries listed above, and what percentage of pledged money will be collected. However, we trust that some will agree that the statistics provided here – which only represent a small percentage of regenerative resources provided by SIIOs – are nonetheless extensive and deserve a deeper investigation.
Conclusions
It is critical to underscore that the statistics presented capture only a fraction of the contributions SIIOs make. Much of their impact, especially indirect benefits, remains challenging to quantify. For example, countless grantmakers and nonprofits use Candid, which unquestionably unlocks a significant pool of charitable capital. But we do not know how much. Similarly, platforms like Charity Navigator, Giving Compass, and GiveWell build public trust, but we can’t quantify the specific benefits trust-building produces. The National Council on Foundations, the National Council of Nonprofits, and others protect us from the enactment of harmful legislation and create enabling environments for the social sector. But the extent of their contributions again remains challenging to quantify. The same holds for countless research hours followed by publications by esteemed journals such as the Social Science Innovation Review, Chronicles of Philanthropy, and the Nonprofit Times. Conditions would be considerably different without research and publications, but how so is anyone’s speculation.
Regardless of challenges specific to accurately measuring results, we hope this paper will increase the dialogue on how we can expand the pie so many more of us can have the resources needed to improve social and environmental conditions. We hope to inspire more conversations and actions leading to leveraging a broad, cross-cutting change. We need to unlock much larger pools of global giving and highly skilled pro-bono assistance to deserving nonprofits. Now is the time to focus on capturing the unprecedented wealth transfer expected to occur by the end of the decade. We also suggest that with strategic thinking and collective action, we can facilitate the giving of extensive regenerative resources ethically, equitably, and effectively.