#10/25 I am becoming an Impact Influencer

Dear Readers,

“We have received donations, press inquiries, and actually more inquiries from women because more other orgs have recommended us. Well, we are now filming a 37Grad documentary … on ZDF. Really crazy. Are you actually really aware of the power and strength you have there? This is truly amazing. Thank you for that!”

Miriam, who helps women affected by violence in Schleswig-Holstein, wrote this to me a few days ago. The trigger was a mention in my newsletter #8 and in the list of organizations in her field, which I support with my small FO Foundation.

Crazy is the right word. I am also surprised at how quickly this works. So much so that I now have a new career goal:

I am becoming an Impact Influencer.

In this newsletter: How it works, how I use bcause for it, how you can too, and who my big role model as an Impact Influencer is.

And I am very much looking forward to welcoming as many of you as possible to my first online event on the current focus topic. Representatives of the organizations on my current list will present their work there. It will be moving.

Yours, Felix

PS: If you want to help me with this impact, use your networks! A “like” for my TED Talk already helps. Even more so a post about it or about my list. And: tomorrow my first column “The Silence of the Rich” will appear in the Handelsblatt. From now on, I will be sharing figures and stories there every month under the title “The New Giving”. I look forward to your feedback!

A number that sticks in your mind: 80%

Many factors influence whether, where, and how much a person gives. But which factor is at the very top of the list?

Peer influence - the example of people who are seen as similar. Or whom you would like to be more similar to ;-)

A few years ago, I was part of a group of experts from around the world invited by the Gates Foundation to activate more philanthropy. At the height of the Corona crisis, we gathered the strategies that win over new major donors. Everyone agreed from their own experience: even though many say they want to make data-based decisions, it was not the long impact reports or even scientific evaluations that made the difference. The shared estimate: 80% of the “trigger moment” comes from people in the immediate circle.

I see a great opportunity in this, because it also means that we can all move money largely independently of our own financial means: the money of people around us. And in the social media era, that is a very, very large number.

Last year, TED founder Chris Anderson inspiringly traced this effect with many examples in his book “Infectious Generosity”. I gave the book to all my colleagues at bcause to read over the summer. Because it rhymes with our experiences in the first two years of bcause.

With these insights, we are currently developing our platform from the ground up - as an Impact Influencing platform. Our vision: we make giving and impact investing not only as easy as a neo-trading or banking app, but also as inspiring and social as Instagram or Spotify.

How this can already work in practice is something I am currently exploring myself with a focus topic for the podcast, newsletter, and my FO Foundation that changes every few weeks. Read on for my first insights.

A person who inspires me: Nick Kristof

He is the #1 Impact Influencer in the US, at least for his generation. As an Impact Influencer, Nick Kristof moves several million dollars annually with his column in the New York Times, over $7 million in 2024 alone. For decades, he has reported from the margins of the world – on violence, poverty, oppression – but he does not stop at outrage. He asks: what can we do? With his wife, he wrote “Half the Sky” about the disadvantage of women worldwide. His columns in the New York Times became the blueprint for engaged journalism that not only informs, but mobilizes.

Quick trivia question: who is the current #1 Impact Influencer on YouTube?

An idea to think further

So, how does Impact Influencing work in practice? The honest answer is: I don't know exactly either. But here are my steps:

1. First, I decided to show myself with my giving. In doing so, I probably feel the same as most people. I think: am I even giving enough? Am I not making myself vulnerable? How do I handle requests? So I gathered some courage and wrote polite text templates for rejections.

2. Second, I looked for a topic. I am starting with women and gender equality. Because lately I have run into several organizations and people who have impressed me. And because I am following my own advice on anti-cyclical giving.

3. Third, I make it easy for everyone to contribute with just one click. For this, I naturally use bcause. I make my foundation account public (the premium feature costs €20/month or €170/year), call the whole thing FO Foundation, and add a list of organizations. Everyone who donates to my foundation automatically receives a donation receipt - and I receive a notification that I have extra money to distribute. That will be my favorite email!

4. Fourth, I use my existing channels to talk about it. It can be a birthday (guaranteed to be had by everyone) where, instead of gifts, I wish for small contributions to my foundation. In my case, LinkedIn is also added (most people have that), and then also this newsletter. And there is also the podcast “The New Giving”, to which Janina Breitling and I invite the great donor Ise Bosch and then the inspiring social entrepreneur Zarah Bruhn to complement the thematic focus.

5. Fifth, it is a matter of waiting. And then an email like the one at the beginning of this newsletter arrives. And many other wonderful responses.

6. Sixth, I am now thinking about further topics: at the end of July, we will continue with a focus on nutrition and health. For this, I am now asking my network … and look forward to suggestions from you too.