Often, when a corporation grows and becomes successful, it creates a private foundation to “do good.” At Network for Good, we did it backward. What started as a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping small nonprofits connect with donors soon became so successful that we created a company to scale our impact and help small nonprofits unleash generosity on a massive scale.
In 2001, leaders at AOL, Cisco, and Yahoo! came together with a mission to make it as easy to give online as it is to shop online. In those early days of e-commerce, they founded Network for Good, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping other nonprofits get noticed through an online marketplace.
Bill Strathmann joined as our CEO in 2004, and though we had already distributed tens of millions of dollars each year to worthwhile causes through our online giving portal, he and the board envisioned Network for Good distributing billions.
But online giving pages were just the beginning. Small nonprofits needed more than just access to better tools; they needed guidance to help them navigate the new world of online giving. To this end, we launched free training to help thousands of nonprofit leaders become better fundraisers.
Over time, our online giving pages grew to fund the missions of over 100,000 small nonprofits, while industry-leading free resources made the Network for Good name known and respected among fundraisers. We’d been operating as a nonprofit with about 40 employees and had achieved a lot, but were yearning to do more good faster.
So, in 2013, we spun out of our nonprofit parent and Network for Good was reborn.
The original nonprofit continues to operate as a 501(c)(3) sponsor of donor-advised funds, while Network for Good went on to raise $20M in investment capital and launch our simple, smart fundraising software. Thanks to our history working with and for small nonprofits, we knew just what they need in order to grow. So, we built our software with a strategic emphasis on features that would enable strong donor relationships: personalized communication tools, intuitive donor management, and beautiful online fundraising experiences.
In recent years, we’ve moved the nonprofit sector forward with innovative features made for small nonprofits, like video messaging and giving pages built on best practices. To help more nonprofit startups get off the ground, we created Jumpstart, an immersive fundraising program that helps grantmakers increase community impact. We also built our Personal Fundraising Coach program to empower more confident fundraisers and create sustainable nonprofits.
Meanwhile, the nonprofit Network for Good continues to power online giving as a donor-advised fund sponsor, and by partnering with Facebook, Google, and others to enable donors to recommend grants to their favorite nonprofits.
Today, Network for Good has helped over 350,000 nonprofit organizations raise more than $3.75 billion dollars from millions of donors.