We are living in an era where for-profit companies are not just acknowledging the importance of contributing to societal and environmental betterment but are making it a mainstream commitment. This shift is becoming a significant lever for creating value for both shareholders and customers alike.

DroneDeploy is the leading cloud-based drone mapping and analytics platform to help businesses get things done. DroneDeploy built the software that enables images and videos captured by drones and robots to be useful to a variety of industries.

Entrepreneurs are often celebrated for their ability to innovate, take risks, and build successful businesses. However, beyond their entrepreneurial prowess, many successful business leaders also possess a deep commitment to philanthropy and are emerging as powerful philanthropists (think Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Pierre Omidyar).

In the dynamic startup landscape, choosing the appropriate business model is crucial. A question that entrepreneurs often consider is, “Is it more effective to scale as a for-profit or a non-profit?” In this post we will dive into this latter question and compare a few very distinct companies who have lived both the nonprofit and for-profit lives.

You’ve likely heard about, or even made a purchase on, the Etsy website – but you may not know as much about Etsy’s corporate social responsibility program. One of their core impact goals of 2023 is to build more diversity into their marketplaces and increase underrepresented seller shops. In service of this goal, Etsy announced a partnership with Grameen America, a nonprofit that facilitates microloans to female entrepreneurs in the US.

According to Oxford Languages (Google’s dictionary), Philanthropy is defined as “the desire to promote the welfare of others, expressed especially by the generous donation of money to good causes.”

The world of philanthropy has grown in myriad ways over the past few years. The opportunities to invest in the betterment of the world have grown beyond the typical means, and thereby opened up new ways of increasing impact for every dollar given.