Are you looking to get ready, be prepared and transform your financial future? Then you've come to the right place. This is the Get Ready Money Podcast with Tony Stewart, where Tony has insightful conversations with financial experts who are changing the way we think about money. Watch up on the latest financial trends and hear practical advice from Tony and his expert guests so you can build healthy habits that work. Be empowered with tips for implementing small changes that can have a big impact on your financial future. So sit back and get ready to hear from today's guest.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Get Ready Money Podcast changing the way we think about money. I'm pleased to be joined today by Emily Rasmussen. Emily is the CEO and founder of Grapevine. In this episode, we'll be discussing Emily's thoughts and how we change the way we think about money and charitable. Giving Emily welcome to the Get Ready Money Podcast.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, tony, it's great to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, excited to have you. So you know, let's get into it. You know this is a question I always ask everybody. Tell us about yourself, what is your origin story?
Speaker 3:Oh dear my origin story. Well, depending upon how far back we go, we all started our start in college, which was I went to undergrad to explore international affairs after pursuing, for a short period, a professional career in ballet dancing, and while in college I was very interested in international relations and economic development and spent some time at the UN and ultimately got involved in the microfinance space. So I ended up moving to India for a couple of years and helped to build a microfinance program there, and then joined a firm in New York that was building microfinance programs in countries around the world. So had a really wonderful experience there, getting to learn about and connect with all sorts of different communities and essentially help build out models where small dollar amounts were given to communities and really for them to decide what to do with it, where to invest it, how to make the most impact with it, and so that's really where I developed my interest in building thriving, healthy communities and using resources, funds in order to help do that, really in collaboration with communities, and so it was around that time that I also started to become interested in crowdfunding.
Speaker 3:Kickstarter was just launching, kiva was taking off, and I felt like this was such an exciting way for us to help unlock more resources from communities around the world for communities around the world. But I wasn't exactly sure what that looked like. I didn't have a tech background and so I went to business school for a couple of years to explore that and had some great experiences, got to consult for Kickstarter and launch a crowdfunding platform, and ultimately I just felt like there was an opportunity to move beyond the transactional crowdfunding campaign to something more community based and more recurring and collaborative. And so, after a few years in the nonprofit sector, I started what is now grapevine, the only platform dedicated to giving circles where people come together to pool their donations and collaborate to decide what to support as a collective.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. That's quite the story and you know, I mean I love the concept of the giving circle. Maybe you could go a little more in depth about what is a giving circle and how it works.
Speaker 3:Sure, yeah, a giving circle is really a concept where a group of people come together either to deepen an existing connection right, maybe it's a group of friends or a family group, a book club, something like that or a group of people that want to meet for the first time. Whatever it is, it's about community coming together to pool their donations and then collaborate to decide what organizations or projects, initiatives they want to support as a collective. There are many different models. There are very small giving circles, much larger ones. There are location specific giving circles giving back to the Los Angeles area, for example or cause specific ones giving to support healthy oceans, for example. So there's a broad range, but the most common model that we know of is one that's location specific and tends to follow the same format, where 100 people come together and everyone donates $100 into the pool. So now the group has a $10,000 check to give away. Members of the group can nominate different nonprofits. So it's a great way to surface organizations that you know are doing great work, or to discover organizations which, through this community model, tends to highlight smaller, more grassroots, more diverse organizations. And ultimately, the community then considers three finalists and votes on which one they want to receive their $10,000 check. They then distribute that check to that organization and then they do it all again three months later. So this is a quarterly model. So that is just one example.
Speaker 3:Like I said, it really can vary, but this is a whole grassroots movement that started here in the US in the early 80s and it was primarily women coming together who initially started it and women who weren't in the highest net worth bracket, you know, but might be in the mass affluent bracket, who had $100 a quarter or maybe $1,000 or $5,000 a year to give and wanted to work together to make a bigger difference collectively. So that's where it started and it's just continued to grow. Our latest numbers on the movement are from about five years ago now, but they showed that Giving Circles had moved almost $1.3 billion to nonprofits across the country and engaged 150,000 people or more. So certainly a model that we're seeing is resonating with a lot of people across the country and increasingly growing and expanding in terms of the types of people who are getting involved.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic, and for those of you who are watching and listening, who have your own podcasts, I'll put out a pitch right now. I'm honored to be a founding member and leader for the Podcasters for Good, so please reach out to me if you'd like to join our Giving Circle. We're just getting started, but we have big things planned, so please reach out to me. So, emily, thanks for letting me put in a pitch right here. So you know, as we talk about Giving Circles, I think one of the things that I'm excited about is how they're changing the way we're thinking about charitable giving. What do you see Giving Circles changing the way we think about money and philanthropy?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a great question, Tony. I think it's really interesting. Actually, I mean, there are a few different angles that I could take here, but I think one of the things that's interesting to me about it is that it helps us realize that when we collaborate we can have a greater impact, right? So when we give $100, it might feel like a drop in the bucket, and I think there are a lot of people, what we call everyday philanthropists, people who are, again, not the highest net worth, the ultra high net worth, high net worth individuals, but everyday people who might have $100, $1,000, $10 to give here and there. It's easy for us to feel like we can't make a difference with our money and so what's the point? Right? But I think, with the Giving Circle model, when you see the power of 100 people giving their money collectively, that turns into $110,000 check and that's something really meaningful, especially when we're looking at where that money goes.
Speaker 3:We often talk about giving circles being a powerful force for diversifying and democratizing philanthropy, because it's engaging a broader range of people and giving back, which also, we know feeds into where that money goes. We know that who gives matters when we look at what types of causes and communities are prioritized. So it's definitely important, and I think not only because of the money that it's unlocking and the way in which bunching or pooling that money together can make a bigger impact, but then also where it's ultimately going. So I think that's one thing. I do think giving circles are changing people's perspective on how and whether they can actually make a difference with their money. I think the other thing is is that it changes your perspective on your agency right. So now you get to be part of a collective and, helping to move a $10,000 gift, you get to help inform where that money goes, and so I think that's also a very powerful way in which this is shifting our perspective on money and our ability to make a difference with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love it, and one of the things you and I have talked about and we were talking about this pre-show is that the prospect of it really being a powerful tool for smaller nonprofits that don't have a dedicated development fund-raising staff, where they can go out and get their community involved in a giving circle to support them. So I love it. I think that it really is going to change the face of charitable giving and, as you said, it's helped people to understand that if you give $10, if you give $100, that that can still make a difference and that pooling your donations can make an even bigger difference. So I think this is fantastic stuff. So let's switch gears for a minute and get into the Get Ready questions. The first one is what is one simple thing you can do each year to set yourself up for financial success?
Speaker 3:Wow, I'm more focused on giving money away, getting money out into communities, than that's good you know.
Speaker 3:So these questions I found a little bit a good challenge for me to think about.
Speaker 3:But, as I was reflecting on this question, one thing that I've always believed in is just investing in yourself and investing in your skills, and I think, now more than ever, right, everything is changing so quickly and just a formal education is wonderful, but beyond that, that, continuing education, continuing learning and developing your skills, I think is very important. So I would say that investing, continuing to upgrade your skills I think there are ways that you can do that and get your tax deductions for those investments while also expanding your knowledge through simple things Now, like online certificate programs, e-learning programs. It's also available, and I was recently exploring some machine learning and AI programs myself, just with all of the advances there and how to think about that as a business leader and incorporating that into our strategy and thinking, and just amazed by the opportunities from providers like MIT and Google and LinkedIn. So I would definitely recommend that as something that, at least for me, I think of and try to do, maybe not on an annual basis, but certainly continuously as I'm able.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I think that's fantastic advice for everybody out there is because, as you're going through your career is there's only two ways that you can increase your cash flow is that's either decreasing your expenses or increasing your income, and most personal finance gurus focus on decreasing your expenses, but there's a limit to where you go. So increasing your income, I think, should be a bigger focus for people and, as you point out, is increasing your skillset is going to help you increase your income. So I think that's super powerful advice for people to keep in mind is that when you think about money, there's indirect impact and direct impact and that's why I was excited to have you as a guest on the show is that a lot of what you do will have an indirect impact on people's financial lives, but still a meaningful impact. So that's really a task advice. So you know. The next question is what is one habit that people can change when it comes to their money?
Speaker 3:So, again, I think a lot about money and the kind of impacts that it can create in our communities, and so I work with a lot of donors, I talk to a lot of donors, and so one of the things that I often see that in that space, as people are thinking about their money and the impact they can have, is they tend to not think about it so much until there's that moment, right, that nudges them to do so, and in the giving space, that tends to be at the end of the year, right. So you're doing your taxes, you're itemizing and it makes sense for you to incorporate your donations. So you have, you know, you're planning around your charitable tax receding and everything done for that at the end of the year, and so I think that is smart and there's a lot of good reasons to think about giving in a particular year, and there are some great strategies around that as well that enable people especially now, with the standard deduction being so much higher, I think you know it makes a lot of sense to think about bunching your giving. And maybe you don't itemize every year, but you do every couple of few years, and when you give in that way, maybe you give in one large amount to a donor advice fund, for example. You know I would I always encourage people to look at that model. It's an easier, lighter weight model than a typical foundation model and we can talk more about that.
Speaker 3:But anyway, even if you're giving based on those tax reasons and financial planning which makes sense and is smart, I think decoupling that from how you think about distributing that money to the nonprofits and how you think about your impact over time is an important thing to do. And with resources like foundations and DAFs we now have the ability to kind of decouple those two decision points around you know when we're giving and our tax write-offs and all of that, and then thinking about actually getting money out into the community in a recurring way where we can build impact over time and have more consistent flow of funds out into communities. So I think that's what I would. I would challenge people with this to think about decoupling those things and, on the impact side, think about giving in a way that goes beyond just end of year giving when you're actually getting that money into the community.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's great advice. Could you give us a quick definition of what a donor advice fund, daf is?
Speaker 3:Sure, yeah, happy to. So a donor advice fund or DAF account is essentially like a charitable giving savings account for donors. So traditionally you can think of a foundation right when, when you have a certain amount of resources you might wanna donate in a given year, you set up your own 501c3 private foundation and you deposit that money into the foundation and then you can dole that money out over time. And there are certain you know set up costs I think at least 15 to 20K probably just to set up an organization like that, and then annual disbursement requirements 5% plus to get that money out into the community.
Speaker 3:A donor advice fund gives you that same kind of benefit of being able to make one big deposit into a charitable entity in a given year. Except instead of you having to set up your own charitable entity, it's essentially like a sponsored bank account by another charitable entity. So Fidelity charitable, schwab charitable, vanguard charitable, most community foundations all of these are donor advice fund sponsors that will accept your donations into your charitable savings account, give you that immediate tax receipt in that calendar year when you make that contribution in, but then you maintain control to advise them on which organizations you want that money sent to over time and there are no annual payouts or any of that that you have to worry about or set up fees like I mentioned. So it's a lighter weight, easier way for you to essentially have the same kind of charitable pool for you to work with.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic. That is super helpful. Do you happen to know the minimum to establish a DAF?
Speaker 3:That's a great question because DAFs were initially more targeted toward the higher net worth donors but as a more flexible model, there are a lot of DAFs initially, that were set up where you had to.
Speaker 3:A DAF sponsor would require someone to set up a new account with maybe $100,000.
Speaker 3:Minimum are.
Speaker 3:I believe Vanguard, for example, is $25,000 to start a new charitable account.
Speaker 3:However, over time over the last 10 years, as these have continued to grow in popularity, that minimum has been going down, and so Fidelity Charitable, for example, used to have a $5,000 minimum and then they got rid of that minimum, I believe a couple of few years ago, and so now anyone can essentially start their own DAF with maybe just $5 or $10, like you would with a savings account in a lot of places, and then some of these organizations or I believe most of them will have some minimum amount that you need to actually recommend that is directed to a nonprofit. So it might be $50 or $100 per donation at a minimum to actually send that money out over time as well. While that money is sitting in that account, I also want to note that it can also earn interest. It can be invested and, depending upon the sponsor you work with, you might have different investment options for those funds, but it's another way where you can continue to build value with those funds sitting there before you actually get them out into the community.
Speaker 2:Well, that's fantastic and that's great to know, and I think the important thing for people who are watching and listening if you're an advisor, that you could make more use of this for your clients with these lower minimums. If you are a consumer, is that you could potentially establish a DAF, as Emily mentioned. Check out Schwab Fidelity. This is not an endorsement of any of these entities, but the other thing that you may want to think about and this is definitely not financial advice, but check with them if you can roll over the balance of a large IRA that you're not taking minimum distributions on, is you may be able to work with these entities on some planning techniques that could benefit you in many ways but, at the end of the day, really help support those organizations that you care about in a meaningful way. So that's fantastic. So, Emily, the next question is what money myth are you trying to break?
Speaker 3:What money myth you know, I think there's a lot.
Speaker 3:Again in my space, in the philanthropy world, a lot of people tend to think about this phase of their life where they make money, and then they get to the phase of their life where they give money away, and I think you know, to me that's a myth that needs to be broken, and I think there's a movement really toward what we call giving while living, as opposed to setting up some endowment that's going to continue to dole out money over time after we pass.
Speaker 3:So not only giving while living, though, but also giving throughout your life, and that's starting from the very earliest days, while you're still building your knowledge and building your career. We talk about money and the compounded interest you know and building money over time, but I think there's compounded impact as well when you start to give earlier, and not only because you're getting that money out into the community earlier and that can have ripple effects of impact, but also just your own experience getting started, just making that first $100 donation or joining a giving circle like the ones we support on Great Fine, where you can be part of a bigger contribution, even if your part is a smaller amount, where you get to learn, you get exposed to different types of organizations and causes and ways of thinking about impact, so that over time you can continue to develop and when you have more and more resources, you'll have more clarity for yourself on what you want to do with those funds and how you can be most effective with them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I think that's fantastic advice and then you get to see your money at work. But, as you point out, is it develops a habit of giving. I know with my son is that probably when he was in eighth grade, is he became a walk leader with JD or F for their one walk?
Speaker 2:And it really changed his thoughts on what is charitable giving and the importance of supporting nonprofit. He gives a little bit of money to JD or F and some of his other favorite nonprofits, but he went on as a senior to lead a walk-a-thon for school. So even starting at that early age getting your teens involved in charitable giving there's no way it's too young to get kids involved so they build up a habit of charitable giving, of service, and if you can't give money, give time. Nonprofits can always use both. So that's the thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah well, and I was just going to add to that, Tony, that I think that's absolutely right Give money or give time, and also we talk about the five T's. So time is one of them, treasure or money is another one, but also testimony. There are other ways ties. So you're talent, so you can volunteer, you can donate your skills, you can give your network, essentially your ties, introduce organizations to others. That could add value and testimony, even just raising awareness, helping these organizations to raise awareness about the importance of the work that they're doing and their cause.
Speaker 3:And especially when we think about building our careers and we progress in our own influence, there are opportunities, more and more so in the company space as well. A lot of companies are thinking about how they can support their employees to be on nonprofit boards, to give back, whether it's donation, matching programs or sponsorship. So there are lots of other opportunities I think that we come across throughout our lifetimes where we have the ability to kind of galvanize more resources and value for organizations. That goes far beyond just giving our own funds at the end of our career. So starting early, that's great, and so many things will come up along the way that you can't even foresee.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fantastic and this is another shout out to people in my audience If you do have specific skills, if you're in marketing, nonprofits are always looking for help with people who have marketing skills. I know that with my personal finance skills that boards have always been very happy to have people on there who have investment skills or insurance skills, whatever to help run the day-to-day operation of a nonprofit. So if you have skills and you don't have the money and you don't have the time, you can still. Well, it takes a little bit of time to donate your skills, but there are many ways you can get out there and support nonprofits. So, emily, let's break out the time machine for a minute. What advice would you give your younger self if you could go back in time, knowing what you know now about money?
Speaker 3:This is such a good question.
Speaker 3:I was thinking about this one earlier as well, and I think there are a number of things that I could go back and give myself some advice on, but one thing that comes to mind that I'll share is just kind of reevaluating some of the things at least for me that I experienced or was taught growing up, which was kind of money, was a bit of a taboo subject.
Speaker 3:It was one of those things you didn't talk about and it was kind of rude to talk about it and it made it somewhat of an uncomfortable topic, and I just think that changing that and opening up to being something that we can talk about, we can openly talk about, enables us to think about it more strategically, learn from each other and shift some of the power dynamics around money. I think I didn't really understand that and get into maybe a community or a space where talking about money was so open until I went to business school and it just became, you know, and money is a tool. Money is something that we shouldn't shy away from and I think talking about it really helps people to better understand it and their relationship to it. So I think that would be the one thing that I'd share today, and just making it something that isn't taboo and something we can talk openly about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's powerful advice. There's so many things you said in there that we could talk about. I agree with you completely Is that you need to look at your money as a tool and investment products and services are finding the right tools to meet your goals. And do you have the right tool to meet a specific goal? If you want financial independence, do you have the right tools, Be that a 401k, be that an IRA, whatever. Find the right tools and be willing to talk to people about it. That doesn't mean you have to just talk to anybody about your personal finances, but have an accountability partner. Talk to your spouse that it's OK to talk about money, but I know what you mean. In our house we didn't talk about it, especially with my parents.
Speaker 3:Yeah, same. And I think there's on the individual side, the personal financial planning side of things. And then beyond that, I see that a lot with my work where people want to start nonprofits, want to get involved, but then they don't want to talk about the money that it takes to fund that and I think there's a hesitation to ask people to contribute financially to fund work because of some of these ways in which we were brought up and hesitation to talk about money. So I think it has ripple effects when we think about just being able to talk openly about it in a number of settings.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome advice. So, to wrap up, what is your number one tip on changing the way we think about money?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, maybe it's a bit of an extension of what we're just talking about, which is really just thinking of it as a tool, thinking of it, as you know, an investment. Or, in my space and in the philanthropy space, money is, you know, fuel for social change, for impact. Some people in our sector talk about money as medicine, as we look at some of the social justice movements, and I think, yeah, I think, if you think about it in those ways and maybe some of those resonate more with you than others and there are many different ways to think about it but, yeah, I would just think about money as a tool for whatever it is that you care about, what you're trying to accomplish. Not revelatory advice at all, but it's definitely helped me in thinking about money more strategically and in building the kind of life that I want and the kind of impact that I want to have, in making that direct connection, thinking about it that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's fantastic, you know. To go back to, you know talking about giving circles and grapevine is, you know, don't underestimate how much difference a gift of $100, $500 can make to a small nonprofit. It can really make the difference between them meeting their budget for the month or struggling to keep the doors open and provide their valuable services. So you know this type of did you have a lot of power as a donor to really help nonprofits complete their mission and for you to support nonprofits that meet your goals. You know whatever they are, you know whatever type of you know, as you mentioned, whether it's an economic justice, whether it's a social justice, whether it's. You know with me is, my son has type one diabetes, so we support a lot of organizations that do work in the type one diabetes arena. So that's what we're passionate about, so I love it.
Speaker 3:Yeah well, thank you so much and I do think to beyond, you know, your $50, your $500,. I always encourage people, too, to continue to give in those ways it is so meaningful and continue to think about the broader influence that you have and how you can collaborate with others. And you know, I think there's a really wonderful community driven movement around this kind of collective giving that's happening, and whether that's a family coming together and pooling their donations to give back together and work together and support each other and the causes that they care about, or it's joining a larger giving circle, you know, or just being part of the bigger citywide campaign, whatever it is, I think that giving is a really wonderful thing to do in community, and so always encourage people to seek out those opportunities too, and that can make those $5,500 donations even that much more meaningful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great advice. So, Emily, where can people learn more about you? Where can they connect with you? Where can they learn about grapevine?
Speaker 3:Yes, thank you, tony. So grapevineorg you can find us there and at grapevine giving. You can find us on most social platforms and really, you know, please do reach out. We are the only platform dedicated to this kind of collaborative giving model, and, whether you're interested in finding and joining a giving circle near you we have over 900 groups on the platform and tens of thousands of donors in them across the country, giving back to different communities and causes We'd love to help you find a group that resonates. Or, if you're interested in starting your own, maybe for your own community or a cause you care about, maybe just for your friend and family group we'd love to help you start a giving circle as well. So, please reach out, and we in our broader community would love to hear from you and get you involved.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic and, of course, to everybody watching and listening. As always, there will be links to Emily's social media profiles, to grapevine social media profiles, and if you are a podcaster, please reach out to me to talk about podcasters for good and I will commit here on this podcast episode. I am starting a group on grapevine for financial literacy, so by the time this podcast gets open, it's a commitment for me to actually get the group up and running. So when you're watching and listening to this episode, if you have an interest in changing the way people think about money, please reach out to me to join that group on grapevine. So, emily, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 3:Oh, thank you, Tony. It's such a pleasure. Appreciate it and thank you for being part of our giving circle community on grapevine. It's wonderful to have you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, excited to be part of it and thank you everyone, as always, for tuning in to the Get Riding Money podcast with Tony Stewart. Bye.