“We very often fail to think as carefully about helping others as we could, mistakenly believing that
applying data and rationality to a charitable endeavor robs the act of virtue.”
-William MacAskill, Doing Good Better
Good companies are good citizens. They ask how they are uniquely positioned to serve the community around them. Then they mobilize whatever that is for the benefit of others.
But not all good companies make the impact they intend. Without an understanding of community priorities or needs-assessment data, even well-meaning philanthropists fail to hit their intended target.
Therefore, the Get Comfortable campaign works to absorb the complexity of social innovation in order to make serving simple: to concentrate the generosity of many around those doing the most pressing work.
The win? Generous businesses can feel confident their philanthropic dollars are channeled toward our city’s greatest disparities, and the agencies doing the heavy lifting can go further faster.
4 years and $1 million later, we are beginning to see the data points shift in the right direction. DIY philanthropy is admirable—crucial, even—but aligning the strategies of local organizations is better.
Click here to read the Get Comfortable Athens program brief, which provides a historical program overview as well as highlighting 2020 revisions.
If you represent a local nonprofit agency seeking 2020 Get Comfortable funding, the 2020 Request For Proposals (RFP) closed on October 20, 2019. Agency partner selections were announced November 14, and the 2020 program officially launched on February 5, 2020 at our downtown Tasting Room.
Please contact us at [email protected] if you have any questions, or wish to get involved. Businesses interested in learning more can click here.
