Our Approach
“Seeding a global community of changemakers”
An Antidote to Apathy
We believe the goodness & creativity within every individual is the largest untapped resource for building a kinder, more compassionate world. We support early stage grassroots volunteers, many of whom may have just a glimmer of an idea. Often, these ideas are seen as too small or too risky to attract other support. Without a path to manifest their vision, many would-be changemakers are just left to shake their heads and think “Someone should do something about _____.”
What if there was a way we could show individuals that they are indeed that “someone”? What if there was a model that could offer encouragement, many forms of support, and community to anyone who has a vision for service? What if we could offer an antidote to apathy? We use the money we raise to seed a vibrant community of global changemakers.
Every day, our community selects a new project that will receive $1,000 in seed funding. The funding is helpful, but the real gift is belief; for this reason, we love to be the first to say “yes”! As the project blossoms, leaders can access capacity-building support, encouragement, and connectivity with others within a geographic or focus area.
Pollination Philanthropy
We call our approach “Pollination Philanthropy,” which reflects a set of ideas designed to push power to the edges, democratize philanthropy, and build a relational, peer-to-peer model of giving that moves beyond a transactional one-to-one approach.
Support for Individuals:
We are one of the few organizations who encourage proposals from individuals. We believe that by uplifting individual action, we widen the walls and expand the opportunity to manifest goodness outside of institutional contexts. Focusing on the grassroots means that we frequently see proposals from underrepresented groups such as indigenous people, women in the global South, religious & ethnic minorities, and children.
Seed Funding:
We invest in bottom-up approaches through microgrants, usually of
$1,000. This compliments our focus on grassroots work, which is free from administrative overhead or bureaucratic constraints. Working with seed funding at the individual level, we have encouraged thousands of volunteer leaders to engage meaningfully with the causes closest to their hearts.
Participatory Grantmaking:
We have invested in over 5,000 grassroots changemakers in 120 countries. Our seed funding decisions are made by a team of volunteer advisors, many of whom previously received support from TPP for their own project. In this way, we seek to give away not only money, but also power.
Flow Funding:
For every 100 applications an advisor reviews, they access $500 in flow funding to give freely as they wish. This “pay it forward” philosophy reimagines who can be a philanthropist, and gives advisors the opportunity to share the joy of giving in more than one way.