400 new nonprofit partners added to our community. A new office in China. A new currency option in Kenyan Shillings. And a new picture at the top of this letter!

It is with a real thrill that I include myself in the list of what was new at GlobalGiving in 2018. Since joining the team in November, I’ve delighted at the chance to learn not only about GlobalGiving’s work directly but also about the interlinked communities we serve—our nonprofit partners, individual donors, and the companies we work with. What I’ve learned is that there is a lot to admire, and a lot to celebrate.

Some of what deserves celebration is the new stuff: new initiatives, ideas, and innovations. Our commitment to Never Settle (one of our four values) requires us to continually raise the bar for ourselves in how we serve our communities. The team here is, happily, up to task, and I’m energized by the daily efforts to do more, and do better.

An effort to do more and do better that I’m looking forward to in the upcoming year is a renewed focus on our mission to accelerate community-led change. This mission defines the critical role our organization plays in the philanthropic landscape and is at the heart of what drew me to GlobalGiving.

Throughout the year, look for updates as we dive into the work of advocating for community-led change at a global scale.

Also exciting in the upcoming year: new developments in technology and in the software that powers our crowdfunding platform. In the world of technology, entire eras last just a few years (think of e-commerce, the social web, the development of mobile platforms, and so on). We’re now well into the era of machine learning, with augmented reality, blockchain, internet-of-things, or other ideas that have not yet hit the mainstream waiting to have their impact on the tools we use. 2019 will see GlobalGiving experimenting with these technologies, in order to ensure that we bring the best of what’s available to the people and organizations we serve.

Though there is a lot that is new, some important things remain the same.

GlobalGiving’s founders started the organization with a few key principles in mind, one of them being that the ideas that will change the world for the better can come from anywhere. Our founders sought to create a platform that would level the playing field for all organizations and donors to test ideas, making the social sector more community-led and accelerating the impact sought by donors and the communities served by those organizations. That principle held promise in 2002, it was the focus of our work in 2018, and it will anchor our work in 2019 and beyond.

Thanks to you, it could be witnessed in action in so many places around the world in 2018:

It could be seen in Farah and Abdulrahaman’s work to reduce the spread of cholera in Yemen, which has sickened thousands.

It could be heard in the voices of the Rohingya refugees who launched a radio program to share vital information in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh.

It could be read about in the pages of Mi Valedor, the first street newspaper in Mexico, which had funds to operate and employ the homeless thanks to GlobalGiving donors.

More can be found in our most recent Year in Review. Please take a look, and let us know what you think.

Thank you for being a part of this community, and the incredible impact that this community has had in the past year.

More importantly, thank you in advance for being a part of the movement going forward; there’s yet more work to do. And, together, we’ll go further, and get there faster, than any one of us alone can imagine.

Alix Guerrier
GlobalGiving CEO

TAKE A LOOK BACK AT 2018