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ALMA — The easy way to support local non-profits
ALMA is making philanthropy easy for everyone. We curate funds of the top nonprofits so you can invest in causes you care about. Plus, find volunteering opportunities and events.
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Gustaf Alströmer
This is very cool. Congrats on the launch Michelle & Dan
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Exciting stuff!! Can't wait for you to land in LA.
A few quick questions (though I could have admittedly missed where you covered these in the app/site):
- can you elaborate on the value of the "fund" structure from the giver as well as the charity perspective? is the thinking that these issues are best tackled comprehensively and there are rarely individual organizations solving these problems holistically so though fewer dollars go to each organization vs. a single gift to one, the impact is greater?
- how are donations made to the fund distributed to the underlying charities? equally? based on perceived need? size of budget?
- if I had a strong connection/interest to an individual charity in the fund, is it possible for me to give just to them or direct the majority or all of my contributions to the fund to that organization?
- will there be options to make a one-off donation vs. recurring monthly? additionally, if I have an employer who matches charitable giving, will there be a feature in the future to take advantage of this?
- what's your process going to be for bringing on new locations and is there an opportunity for the Alma community to participate in that lead gen?
- come tax time, is the fund structured as its own entity (501c3 or similar) and the gift is recorded as being given to it or are all of the gifts recorded as being given directly to the charities themselves? if the latter, what kind of format would I expect to receive this detail in to make it easy on filing (since I'll have # of months * # of charities transactions)? and any expectations that there might be an easy way to import into a tool like ItsDeductible.com (TurboTax's donation tracker)?
Not a question but a shout out - there are not enough products bringing the wizarding world into their experiences. Thanks for doing your part :)!
@david_werner Thanks David! Great feedback.
Value of a fund: we repeatedly heard that it's easy for people to identify a cause they care about, e.g. "I want to help the homeless", but find it hard to pick just a single solution, e.g. "I care more about family homelessness than youth homelessness". The fund structure allows donors to support a range of solutions that holistically tackle the issue. It's like an mutual fund for charitable giving.
Distribution of donations: as a donor, your donations are distributed round robin style - so one month your $10 donation goes to Larkin Street Youth, and next month your $10 goes to Raphael House, etc. Right now, the total pool of donations is distributed equally to the featured nonprofits in a fund.
Donate to individual charities: this might be an option we add later! For now, it's just fund-based giving. Are there particular charities you’re passionate about?
One-off donations: we're biased towards restricting to recurring monthly donations only, as it's much better for the nonprofits. It gives the organizations predictable revenue they can plan against, and allows them to spend less time fundraising. Maybe consider giving a small amount each month, starting at $10, rather than a larger amount today. You can change or cancel your donation at anytime.
Employer matching: yep, that's on our roadmap! Stay tuned.
New geographies: great question. We're starting in major markets like SF, DC, NYC, LA where residents tend to less (as % of income) than peers. Though admittedly, we should spend more time thinking about how to get the community involved in expansion. Do I hear a vote for LA? :)
Tax time: Your donations are sent directly to the nonprofits, and ALMA will prepare an end-of-year summary that includes all your tax receipts from over the year. And yep, definitely exploring how allow for easy impact into tools like ItsDeductible.
Thanks again for the thoughtful questions!
Love the idea of "funds" of philanthropic organizations. It's genius!
I only wish the company was more transparent about the selection process, so that one could feel more aligned and have more confidence in their support.
@almingione Thanks Alessandro! Great feedback, we're going to be publishing the framework we use to evaluate very soon. We've been solidifying it and tightening it up over the past few weeks.
👋 Hi PH! I'm very excited to share ALMA with you!
ALMA is a simple way for people to connect with causes they care about. Everyone has a cause they want to support, but finding and researching great charities can be a hassle.
Here's how ALMA works:
🏆 Pick a cause
Maybe it's helping the homeless, protecting the environment, or creating a more equal workplace for women. For each cause, ALMA works with experts to identify the top nonprofits making an impact.
💸 ALMA Funds
ALMA creates a fund of the nonprofits for each cause, allowing you to support the range of solutions from all the featured nonprofits. You can subscribe to a fund with a monthly donation starting at $10/m.
💌 Get connected
You'll get a monthly report of the impact of your donations, plus news, volunteering, and more. We're also launching ALMA exclusive events to bring together our community of donors and nonprofits.
Check out https://alma.app for more info. I'd be happy to answer any questions!
Love this for 2 reasons, Alma is my mother's name and second, it's actually a neat product!
