How Givology Works

We've all heard it before. "Finish your plate, there's a child starving somewhere out there." Perhaps you laughed because you knew that your plate of leftovers would never really make it into the hands of a hungry child. Or maybe you were simply unconvinced that a plate of leftovers would be enough to make a difference.

That may have been the case before...but not anymore. Your leftovers may still be unable to miraculously fulfill a famished appetite, but a few dollars from your wallet can now make a tremendous difference in the lives of students around the world. Donations as little as $5 may seem insignificant, but small-denomination contributions add up to a powerful aggregate that can change lives and futures.

Givology partners with leading grassroots non-profit organizations, local communities, and schools to sponsor education grants and innovative community-based education projects. Through our website, you can support these initiatives and scholarships.

After browsing through student and project profiles online, you can donate as little or as much as you like - as often as you like. No more monthly pledges, donation minimums, or check-writing hassles. Once a student or project is fully-funded, Givology transfers the funds to our field partners, who use the money for the indicated cause. You can also learn more about key issues in rural education by reading the blog posts of our fellows and staff.

What truly distinguishes Givology is our philosophy of building lasting sponsor-student relationships and cross-cultural communication. Through our messaging and blogging system, you can send messages to a student, as well as receive updates on their progress. Our partners visit currently funded students and projects on a regular basis and will deliver your messages. Each quarter or semester (often times more frequent), student letters, progress updates, and academic documentation are all posted on Givology to allow you to track the impact that you have made in the lives of an individual or a community.

Givology makes giving easy, transparent, and rewarding.

Our Value Proposition and Impact Summary

Launched in March 2008 by students at the University of Pennsylvania, we are an Internet online giving marketplace for education that leverages small dollar donations to support grassroots projects and student scholarships in the developing world. As a P2P community at the forefront of the internet microphilanthropy revolution, Givology partners with NGOs and schools throughout the world and connects internet donors to grassroots causes. Through donor message functions, open blogging, and frequent student updates, Givology democratizes philanthropy by introducing choice, transparency, and information sharing in education philanthropy. The successes of Kiva, Global Giving, and Mission Fish have proven that the use of the Internet to pool millions of microdonations can have a huge collective impact. Givology applies this philosophy to the education sector, in which philanthropy still depends on the traditional check-book, commitment sponsorship model. We pride ourselves on partnering with highly localized and innovative organizations that do transformational work in the community to assist talented students in need. More than anything, we care about making giving an active act - to actively engage all of you, our supporters, in our online community.

In 2008, we raised approximately $50,000 to support over 1,300 students in 10 different countries. The organization has 4,000+ supporters on Facebook, Linked-in, and Twitter, 1,100+ registered donors, 11 chapters started at universities, high schools, and various cities, 30 core team members and 90 volunteers globally, and 22 grassroots partners. As a 100% volunteer-run organization, Givology was selected as one of the "Top 100 Student-Run Enterprises in the United States" by the Kairos Society for Entrepreneurship, and has been featured in Knowledge@Wharton, Nicholas Kristof's blog in the New York Times and his most recent book Half the Sky, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Seattle Times, among other print and media sources.