1% For the Planet Member
We're super excited to announce that we've officially become a 1% For The Planet Member, which means we've now committed to donating 1% of our revenue to causes that support the environment. This roughly equates to double (or more) our former giving policy of donating 5% of our profit each year. So we're doubling down on our impact, in at least this one way.
We're also honored to have been asked to sit on the 1% For The Planet Steering Committee for the Seattle area and have already attended two meetings where we get to share advice and best practices with amazing companies like Patagonia, Miir, and Bluewater Organic Distilling.
We imagine you might have a few questions on how this all works. We certainly did. So below we have answers to a few big questions we had and we encourage you to visit the 1% For The Planet website to learn more about becoming a giving member, registering your non-profit to receive donations, or even donating to 1% to help keep the program thriving.
How Do We Choose Charities?
While we'll still have our employees choose which organizations we donate to, we'll now also have 1% For The Planet help us select a handful of organizations to choose from that fit our company mission of making a positive impact on the economy, ethics, and environment. Since all of the non-profits that 1% supports focus on the environment, we've asked them to help identify organizations that also impact ethics and the economy—ideally through helping underserved communities. We'll update you on which charities we chose each year when we post our giving report here on the blog. And chances are, we'll probably choose the occasional charity outside of 1%'s network and donate to them anyway, even though it won't count toward our 1% giving.
How Do We Know How Much to Give?
The amount we give will be determined on our annual revenue for that year, which means we'll donate 1% of all the money that comes into Modern Species from the services and products we sell to our clients. This is not based on our profit (the money left after we pay our staff, suppliers, rent, etc), which is how we used to calculate our giving. So with this new model we'll have to donate money regardless of whether or not we've actually made any money (profit) at the end of the year. In other words, we're upping our game to put giving ahead of profits, instead of donating based on profits. This also means we're donating roughly twice as much as we normally have.
What Counts Toward Our Giving?
With 1% For The Planet our total giving is calculated based on: cash donations to non-profits registered with 1%; any donated services provided to non-profits registered with 1%; any membership dues for organizations recognized by 1% (like B Corp, 1%, Organic Trade Association, etc); and any advertising expenses that go toward promoting the charities we've donated to that year. At least 50% of our giving needs to be through monetary donations, 25% can be in-kind donations (services, goods, etc), and 25% can be advertising costs approved by 1% For The Planet.
There's a lot more to all of this, of course, and we'll share more updates along the way. For now feel free to reach out to us@modernspecies.com if you have any questions and we'll be happy to update this post with more information.