The Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado is rebranding to Pledge 1% Colorado to exponentially increase local startup giving.

EFCO set out in 2007 to change the world by inspiring early-stage startup philanthropy. Nearly 10 years later, 100 Colorado companies have joined our network and put upwards of $5M directly into local nonprofits, along with hundreds of hours of volunteer time. Today we’re announcing a program expansion that invites even more Colorado companies to join our movement as we rebrand to Pledge 1% Colorado.

Many of you already know that EFCO played a founding role in the development of Pledge 1%, a global program to catalyze startup philanthropy in partnership with Salesforce, Atlassian, and Rally for Impact that launched in late 2014. Earlier this year, EFCO officially spun off the global program to the Tides Center in San Francisco while retaining our independent Colorado presence as a program of The Community Foundation. In an effort to better align our local program and goals with the global movement, we are now re-branding to Pledge 1% Colorado and expanding our pledge options to include founder equity, employee time, and company product, in addition to early-stage company equity and annual profit pledges.

“This model allows us to fulfill the vision we had when we founded EFCO in 2007: that all startup companies could make giving part of their core business strategy. We were able to scale to meet a growing global interest in startup philanthropy. There are more than 800 pledged companies worldwide, inclusive of the companies in Colorado who were leaders in the movement,” says Seth Levine, Managing Director with Foundry Group and Founding Board Member for EFCO.

The new program structure will recognize more Colorado companies committed to giving back and can exponentially grow our impact. It also allows us to leverage additional tools and resources to support Colorado startups. Members choose the nonprofits they want to impact. Pledge 1% makes it easy for companies of all sizes to say, “When we win, the community wins.”

The leadership of the 100 companies in Colorado including Foundry, Techstars, Rally, Gnip, Revolv, Tendril and others who all pledged 1% of early equity or annual profits inspired the creation of Pledge 1% as a global movement. Their leadership is now inspiring new pledges from Colorado founders who are personally committed to giving back to nonprofits, like Toby Murdock from Kapost. “This community has really supported me, our company, and our employees. Pledging 1% of my founder’s equity feels like an easy way to acknowledge that support.”

Pledge 1% Colorado Board Member Adam Hasemeyer from Spire Digital added, “Heading into Denver Startup Week we’re hoping to get the word out to local entrepreneurs that making giving a part of your company early on is both easy and meaningful. You don’t have to wait until you’ve had a successful exit to put a stake in the ground and give back. One percent may feel small today but the future impact could be substantial.” Spire Digital recently committed 1% of their annual profits to Denver nonprofits through the program.

#PledgeItForward

Concurrent with Denver Startup Week (September 12-16), Pledge 1% will be kicking off #PledgeItForward to reach 1000 global pledges by Giving Tuesday (Nov. 29).  #PledgeItForward is a campaign to challenge the existing Pledge1% community to help us grow the movement. Don’t just take pledge- encourage and empower your peers to join you. And now there are even more ways to give.

Thank you for your support of philanthropy and local communities via Pledge 1% Colorado. We’re excited to embark on this next chapter with you.

Morgan McMillan

Executive Director

Follow us on Twitter: @Pledge1CO.