Seedling is here to prove that the key to living is giving.
Meet Kylie Wallace and Jessica Bowman, Co-Founders of Seedling, a charity matching service helping people lead with their heart and validate with their head.
We caught up with Kylie and Jess to learn more about Seedling, what surprises and challenges them as an organisation in the charity space, and how they’re making the process of giving simpler and safer. Excerpts from our chat below:
Can you tell us a bit more about Seedling? How did it start, and what led to the inception of it?
Seedling is here to help you do good, better. We are a charity matching service providing personalised, vetted and trustworthy recommendations for donors and corporates, making the process of giving simpler and safer.
Seedling evolved from The Good Cause Co., a platform that Jessica Bowman launched in 2016 that provided donor services and advice for more than $15 million dollars of philanthropic funding. The Good Cause Co. also provided comprehensive reports on large Australian charities and guides on high impact giving.
What led to the inception of Seedling was Kylie’s passion for “making people feel as good as I do every day working in the NFP sector. I want everyone to feel the magic of giving. It truly is amazing how much purpose and meaning it can bring into your life.”
What problem is Seedling trying to solve?
Australians give away $12.5B per year, and with over 57K charities to choose from no one knows who to trust, what their impact really is and sometimes even how much to donate?
On average Australians are donating just 0.25% of their annual income. We believe people want to give away a lot more than this but there are many barriers holding us back from being as truly generous as what we would like to be. For instance, trust has also been a big problem in the charity sector for a long time. We make giving easier and safer. We restore people's trust and faith that charitable giving is vital in our community and those most vulnerable (if done well).
We help people to lead with the heart and validate with the head.
Can you explain how your service works, and what makes it different?
Seedling is a simple 3 step process:
Charity Matching Questionnaire - We discover the donor or company's values and giving goals through an online questionnaire.
Data analysis and Charity Matching - We undertake a thorough charity matching and due diligence process to shortlist aligned charities. Our DD is comprehensive, we review over 50 different indicators of charity performance.
Charity Reveal Session - We present the options back to the donor and confirm which charity they would like to support and 'plant a seed with'.
Every 6 months donors receive an impact update that talks about where the money has been going and how it has made an impact over that time.
Nothing like this is currently available in Australia.
What would you both say are your individual strengths that help you work well together?
Jess and I are a yin and yang team. Jess is the charity matching and data analyst expert and I (Kylie) am the brand, marketing and relationship management expert. Jess is more introverted and I am more extroverted but together our skill sets and styles are very complimentary.
What’s something that has surprised you both when it comes to working in the charity and community space?
Kylie - I’ve worked in the charity and CSR space for the last 12 years. One of the big things that continues to surprise me is the incredible generosity of volunteers. I’ve worked with many charities where volunteers have been the backbone of our success. Some volunteer roles were fun and involved styling celebrities at photoshoots and others were a real slog having to pack down events and empty out the bins at 1am. I’m so grateful to not only the incredible contributions of volunteers who have helped me over the years but also for the amazing friends I’ve made too.
Jess - I’m always surprised by the diversity of charities out there. There are absolutely terrible charities that, in my opinion, should be shut down, but then there are also these superstar charities that I’m in absolute awe of. Sometimes it’s really hard to know from the outset which charities fit in which bucket - there are some marketing teams out there that can make anyone look good! It’s only after doing comprehensive due diligence that it’s possible to understand the integrity of an organisation and who is running it.
What’s been a major highlight for you over the past year?
We only launched in March of this year and it’s been a wild ride already. We have had 22 donors so far and placed $55,300 in charitable gifts. A major highlight for us was when Zoe Foster Blake agreed to give Seedling an endorsement for our website and was really complimentary of what we are doing. It was a real pinch me moment!
And what are some of the most challenging aspects of running your business?
Kylie - When you put yourself out there you open yourself up to criticism and sometimes that can be hard… even when you’re working on something that is doing a lot of good. Being a two woman band running a startup I sometimes find it challenging wearing so many hats. I've had to learn to be an expert in a really broad range of areas including design, web development, finance, budgeting, business set up and Australian Fundraising laws and many other things. Somedays I also miss being part of a big team and having people to bounce ideas off, learn from and delegate to. But I’m grateful for the challenge because it is never boring.
More broadly speaking, what does success look like for you two? What would you say is your North star?
Our mission is to grow philanthropic giving in Australia. Over the next 10 years we want to inspire 4.5M people to use the Seedling service and give 5X more than what they are currently giving. We want to dial up their giving to 1.5% of their annual salary.
And what’s next on the cards for Seedling?
We are currently working on a growth strategy with Financial Advisors and Wealth Managers. We want to work with trusted advisors in our community who want to help their clients give away their money most effectively.
If anyone would like to learn more about how to identify a high performing charity to give to download our eBook ‘Do good, better - 12 Things You Must Know Before Donating to Any Charity.
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To learn more about Seedling, head here.
By Nikita Lamba
