RaisedBy.Us, an organization that facilitates charitable giving at startups, has added three entrepreneurs and investors to its board of directors — Thrillist CEO Ben Lerer (pictured above), VaynerMedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk and Bonobos CEO Andy Dunn.
The nonprofit works with startups so their employees can donate a set amount of each paycheck to the charity of their choice. (The system is powered by Bright Funds, which offers tools for employee giving.)
RaisedBy.Us also offers guidelines on how to perform diligence on an organization, and it trains “ambassadors” who can help lead education, events and outreach in their own companies. It has already facilitated more than $600,000 in donations from New York-based companies, including Shutterstock, Sailthru, Contently and Mic, and it projects it will reach $1 million in donations by mid-2017.
“RaisedBy.Us is such an awesome organization because not only does it make donating super simple and efficient — but more importantly, it’s creating a culture of giving within our ecosystem,” said Lerer (who actually joined six months ago) in the board announcement. “The hope is that with the addition of Gary and Andy, word can spread even further and RaisedBy.Us can become an obligatory service that all companies offer their employees, in New York and beyond.”