99. Disrupting the Crowdfunding Sector for Good - Max Friedman

Max Friedman, Givebutter / We Are For Good Podcast

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Overview

Meet Max. You may know him best as the CEO of Givebutter, an online fundraising platform that powers more than $100M in donations annually for thousands of nonprofit organizations. But this seriously humble visionary is giving us a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the company's founding story that began in a college dorm room and has grown to become the #1 rated nonprofit fundraising platform in the world. If you've ever wondered how to leverage the power of crowd funding and mobilize your rabid fans, then this episode is for you. Beware: brace yourself for some seriously awesome butter puns.

Today’s Guest

Max Friedman, Co-Founder and CEO of Givebutter

“I’m not working for a nonprofit in the way that a lot of our users are, but when I think of how I relate to that user empathy, it’s all about being a change maker. This is my change. I’m able to provide a platform that helps them help people.”

— Max Friedman, Co-Founder and CEO of Givebutter

Episode Transcript

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Episode Highlights

How the (Give) Butter gets churned: the story and founding of Givebutter 3:25
Leveraging impact for good - 7:26
What makes Givebutter different? - 10:08
Donor relations is key - 15:17
Givebutter client success stories - 20:24
The power of crowdfunding - 25:24
Max’s One Moment in Philanthropy - 30:11
Big dreams for Givebutter - 33:04
Max’s One Good Thing: implement inbox zero. - 36:27

Powerful Quotes:

“I definitely was sort of searching for Where can I make my impact? How can I use these skills that I've learned in coding and technology and that passion for entrepreneurship and do good?” - Max

“I love that you started in the college space because I actually believe that there are so many college-age students who are trying to find themselves and trying to discover who they are and what they want to do with their life.” - Becky

“That's been interesting to see that progression as like going from 80% of our user base, being students to that totally shifting and being much more on the nonprofit, traditional nonprofit side institution or actual incorporated nonprofits, not just the general group fundraising.” - Max

“The way that you've optimized and improved so that you're just listening, and you're being responsive to those needs.” - Jon

“We really think about two things that give one or more than anything else. They're very simple. People product is like something that we repeat all the time.” - Max

“A lot of the platforms in our space have sort of other goals, they focus on dollars data on sales. We very much subscribed to this movement in the tech space of products led growth, and a lot of that comes back to listening to your customers, building to their needs, not subscribing them, forcing them into annual contracts and hiding your pricing. Anyone that signs up for GiveButter can just come to the front door, and we'll welcome you in open arms. You can try out the product and see if it works for you.” - Max

“Giving is something that should bring people together and build community.” -Max

“That is why we're all kind of pulling into community is because we want to we want to have fun with each other. We want to have a great time while we're doing good.” - Becky

“The thing that (they) didn't do, though, that I think is really important is they sort of forced a model on their community, they said, we're going to keep processing fees hidden.” - Max

“For GiveButter, what we do is we give, everyone has control, they're in the driver's seat, you can hide platform process, by processing fees, you can show processing fees, you can even require that donors cover a processing fee, and if you don't like the tip option, you can turn that off, too.” - Max

“Can we do this sort of experimental model that works relies on generosit? We don't have any way to monetize other than if people need these tips, and it worked out.” - Max

“One of the cool things about Givebutter is that we got this really great supporter feed where people can leave gifs and drawings when they donate and photos and messages of support, and emojis and all the things that you'd expect or want when you want to share, you know, share with others what you care about in this in this cost. I think that was a huge part of their success was seeing seeing that sort of social community online of who you're engaging with and participating with.” - Max

“What I love about that is a nonprofit, like Human Education, can centralize their peer to peer fundraising, their donation forums, their event, ticketing, their virtual events, all the stuff that you want to do to engage your donors online and ask or just at least generate awareness for whatever projects and campaigns your mission that you're trying to accomplish, GiveButter can put that all under one roof.” - Max

“If you're giving, you're donating, you're you're you're supporting that mission and you care about it.” -Max

“I think it's by prioritizing the people in your community, bringing them together, whether that's part of the campaign or just highlighting those stories, is something I think people don't focus on enough or approach enough.” - Max

“Seeing that, like in my own community, the sort of call it like that action oriented fundraising of stepping up and finding ways to provide for those who really needed it in Austin and in Texas was was really cool to see.” - Max’s One Philanthropic Moment

“The best thing I can do to sort of support the company is to just like, open up my arms and just welcoming amazing people who then go and make it better their own and I can help them.” - Max

“The fact that you're keeping like the people at the very center of it tells me exactly why you guys are so successful.” - Becky

“We can't be in the grind of just churning out our outputs, you know, we need to take time to be creative to remember our why to remember who we're doing it for.'“ - Becky

“Inbox Zero has totally changed my like approach to work into email, where everything is more like I kind of control my destiny when it comes to email. It's not like notification respond and at some undetermined time.” - Max’s One Good Thing

Washington Post Article mentioned in the episode