A huge bonus springing from the BBB’s Wise Giving Alliance’s Heart of Giving Podcast are the windows host Art Taylor opens onto the personalities and motivation of folks who do the work, provide the charitable services, and come up with innovations worth exploring in our sector.

Such was last week’s podcast featuring Dominic Kalms, the CEO and Co-Founder of a fascinating new company– B Generous –,  with the mission of  increasing both the volume and amounts of money donated to charity by lending money who already want to give and, hopefully, motivating them to give more than usual.PB Generous, which claims to be “the first-ever philanthropic credit product for consumers’, is modeled after the “Buy Now Pay Later” approaches that have grown rapidly around consumer purchases on credit. Think Affirm, Klarna, AfterPay for nonprofits—but without interest charged to the donor.

Here’s a summary of how B Generous works:

• Donors finance their contribution. Hopefully, the ability to finance will inspire a larger-than-normal size gift. (B Generous has   research showing 70% of donors wish they could give more and 83% of donors who saw the video below said they’d double the size of their gift if paid over time.)
• The financing is interest and fee free to the donor over a period of time. The donor doesn’t have to pay anything at the time of donation and can choose to pay over a period of 3, 6, or 9 months.)
• Donors to charitable organizations get a full tax deduction right away.
• The charity receives the donation immediately, less the B Generous fee that ranges from 8%-16% of the donation amount.
• The nonprofit gets all donor and transaction data. The fee charged to the nonprofit covers the cost of the tech platform and any associated costs.

Here’s a brief company video with a top line description of B Generous from the donor’s perspective:

[Editor’s Note:  According to BGenerous, 83% of the 1000 donors who watched that video said they would double the size of their gift if they could pay it over time.]

And this top line view from the nonprofit’s perspective:

Questions, Thoughts, Opportunities

Intrigued, I followed up with Dominic Kalms, the Co-Founder, for more details.

Agitator:  How does B Generous make money?

B Generous:  “It was important to us from the start that the product be completely free for donors. This means no fees, transaction costs, and no interest…ever.

“However, we are a business, and we need to pay our employees a fair wage and keep the lights on. The way we make money is simple: when a nonprofit signs up on B Generous they elect to cover the program fees associated with using Donate Now, Pay Later™. This means there are no subscription fees, SaaS fees, fixed or hidden costs for the nonprofit, and the nonprofit only pays a small “success fee” on each completed Donate Now, Pay Later™ transaction.

 “But we were still not satisfied, so we added another feature to our product which allows donors to cover a portion of these fees on behalf of the nonprofit. As donors go through the Donate Now, Pay Later™ flow they will be asked if they’d like cover a portion of the program fees, the good news is, we’ve observed rather high opt in rates for that.”

Agitator:  Where does B Generous get the funds for financing donations?

B Generous:  “We have just raised a $10M venture capital round from some of the top VCs in Silicon Valley and New York, and we have signed two Lending Agreements with two Banks for a total of $120M in gross loan volume to power the Donate Now, Pay Later product. “

Agitator:  How many nonprofits are currently using B Generous ?

B Generous: “We have 150 nonprofits testing it now in a closed environment. Some of the largest nonprofits in the world are testing it right now actually. We’ll have some results and findings to announce in a couple of weeks.”  [ Agitator note: We’ll follow up and report what the tests reveal.]

Agitator: Because B Generous is offering the donor credit, and that credit must be approved, any delay in the approval process might cut down on impulse or motivation.  Is there a delay in checking creditworthiness and is this a potential problem?

B Generous:  “No.  It takes about 3 seconds to come back to the donor with a decision. The donor puts in the amount that they want to donate. At that time, they are offered opportunities to split the donation up over a certain number of payments.

The system than runs a soft credit check that, as I said, takes about three seconds to come back with a decision. At that point, the money is sent from B Generous to the nonprofit, the donor gets the full tax deduction, and the donor doesn’t pay any money out of their pocket at that moment. Instead,  that they get to pay over the time period  they select completely for free. So, if they’ve chosen to pay over three, six or nine months, they can execute their choice completely free.”

Agitator:  I’m sure our readers will have lots of questions and want to know some technical ins and outs, so how do we learn more?

B Generous:  I suggest they contact Dave Marcacci ( dave@bgenerous.com) who will not only answer questions but help organizations how they might put this innovation to work. Or, you can go to BGenerous.com and put your information on their contact form and they’ll be in touch.

Some Agitator Thoughts

Here at Agitator Global HQ, we’re always thrilled to explore and test promising new approaches.  As we kicked some ideas around here are a couple of approaches we’ll test with B Generous.

• Bigger Gift for Greater and Timely Need. Seems the idea of giving MORE NOW may be a good one.  In great emergencies (Ukraine, hurricanes, legal defense, abortion bans) when funds are most urgently needed, many folks would like to give more but fear that would strain this month’s budget.  Explaining how they could meet their needs to help in a bigger way immediately may do the trick.
• Upgrading to Mid-Level,  Named Funds or Special Occasion Funds.   On occasion some folks would love to give more to do their part in launching or  to meet the goal of a particular fund or gift club.   B Generous allows them to do that immediately (and pay the commitments off over 9 months).  AND—most importantly—the organization gets the full amount of my donation right away (minus whatever success fee the nonprofit pays)

• Matching Gift Challenges. Assuming you’re interested in helping with a legitimate matching gift challenge (I’m not talking about “your-donation-matched -17-by- midnight” scam) here’s a good way to do it.  You help the organization meet the challenge match and the organization meets the donor’s challenge.  Win. Win.

• Same considerations with Sustainer and F2F. Is B Generous of use – both for cash flow and bottom-line effect—in installment giving where the upfront costs of acquisition are high, and the nonprofit must wait 12 or more months to recoup the investment? Plus, no risk of pledge defaults and delinquencies.  It should be tried.

ALL OF THIS EXPLORATION IS WORTH THE EFFORT AND THEN SOME IF THE EARLY RESEARCH BY B GENEROUS PROVES TO SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE AVERAGE GIFTS, ELIMINATES PLEDGE DEFAULTS, AND DEPOSITS THE MONEY IN THE NONPROFIT IMMEDIATELY.

NOW FOR THE BEAN COUNTERS….

No doubt with those who read that B Generous charges a success fee of between 8% and 16% are saying, “That’s crazy.  I only pay 3% or 2% or 6% to my CRM and payment processor.”

Get out the back of the envelope, ask and answer some basic questions.  Assuming my organization pays an 8% fee ($9.60)  for a $120 Sustainer.  I’d get $110.40 immediately. There’d be no risk of delinquency or default and no cost to my organization.  I’d get all the donor data.  In short, do the math and then decide if you should explore.

Seems to me that as our sector struggles with various issues ranging from the involvement of younger donors, to holding on to and upgrading donors in an uncertain economic climate that it’s time we all be generous with our time and grain and do some out-of-the-box thinking.

As you think about this, please share your thoughts, questions, concerns, and ideas of how you’d apply Be Generous.

Roger

P.S.  Again, our thanks to Art Taylor and the Heart of Giving Podcast.  You can subscribe free of charge on your favorite platform and urge your friends, colleagues, and board members to do the same.On Apple .On Spotify. On Google. OnYoutube