The “In Their Own Words” series is a collection of short columns from startup founders in Atlanta’s tech ecosystem. After a year of uncertainty and unrest, Atlanta Inno wanted to give founders the chance to reflect on 2020 and share goals for the new year.
Stephen Kump is CEO and founder of Charityvest, which is a donation platform that lets people create a tax-deductible account and donate with cash, cryptocurrency or stocks.
How are we preparing for 2021? By throwing a party to celebrate that 2020 is over!
Just kidding — a bit.
We expect 2021 to make many of 2020’s “temporary” changes more permanent — remote work arrangements, primarily digital communications, geographically disbursed talent and fast-paced information.
These trends bring incredible efficiency to life and work, yet efficiency without other positive counterbalances can accelerate isolation and depression. Fostering authentic human connection and purpose will be even more critical in 2021 as we settle into these longer-term patterns.
Our company gives tax-deductible charitable giving funds — like personal foundations — to both individuals and employees of companies. As such, we want to leverage donation experiences that grow our users in gratitude and connect them meaningfully to one another.
In 2021, we are prioritizing bringing positive, meaningful social influence into our product. Ultimately, we want charitable giving to be a new digital means of human connection.
Of course, this means making our product more social and collaborative, but it’s the quality and depth of the designed interactions that excites us most.
The products that will win in 2021 will be ones that become indispensable to human relationships. In our case, that could be donor-to-nonprofit, friend-to-friend, influencer-to-fan or employer-to-employee.
We are preparing for how we should respond to these trends internally as well. With the rate of change in the world, focus is our greatest resource. A clearly articulated vision and strategy are paramount.
We’re taking a retreat with our executive team in early January to align our decision-makers toward a common focus. This requires common intent combined with common assumptions. Both require intentionality to cultivate.
We are also preparing to make investments in our own team’s relationships in 2021. Internal trust is paramount to adapting and executing quickly. We know social time increases personal context and trust, so we’ve set up guardrails to ensure we achieve regular social time — even as a remote team.
We know trust is most often a function of effective communication. We’re setting norms for our digital communication to foster greater trust as we move quickly.
Ultimately, as a company that’s all about giving, we are preparing to be a more generous company in 2021 in the way we design our products, display our marketing, provide support for charities and treat our team members.
For us, all roads in 2021 — as well as every other year — lead back to generosity.
