Editor's Note: This is a guest post by Dan Graham, co-founder of Notley Ventures and BuildASign, which is being acquired.
When my partners and I started BuildASign in 2005, we were solving a simple problem - making low cost, high quality, small order signage available online with the click of button. We loved rewriting the rules within an established industry and bringing entrepreneurship and technology to bear in a competitive environment that remained unchanged for generations.
Like many startups, we were bootstrapped and we were changing business models regularly as we looked for ways to deliver the products we knew customers wanted. We started out looking to license our software to traditional sign companies, only to be told no one would buy signs without seeing them in person, that the internet was a fad. It didn’t take us long to figure out there was a larger opportunity than just selling software; and that’s when we launched our first print shop, utilized online digital marketing to drive our first sales, and scaled very quickly leveraging our Photoshop-style web design tool for customers across the U.S.
As our business grew, so did our desire to give back. But we wanted to continue our spirit of innovation with how we gave. We began to launch several programs to accomplish that mission. The core of our giving program was a model we developed that made it possible for our Giving Team to function as a self-sufficient, fully budgeted business unit within the company. We charged large nonprofits a discounted rate on print orders, and used 100 percent of that revenue to subsidize products for smaller nonprofits, fund our employee matching program, provide grants, and pay the staff costs of our Giving Program.
At its height, the BuildASign Giving Team had a full-time staff of eight employees and we began to innovate rapidly. We launched a Welcome Home Troops program that gives away welcome home banners to families of returning military; to date we have donated over $10 Million in banners and supplied over 500,000 welcome home celebrations. We launched Philanthropitch, a fast pitch competition for nonprofits to receive grants; we co-founded Startup Games to bring fast growth companies together for a day of fun competition benefiting local nonprofits; we hosted Create-A-Thon, a 24-hour hack night for over 50 graphic designers to design brochures, websites, flyers, cards and more for nonprofits; and much, much more. Innovative, self-supported giving became part of BuildASign’s DNA.
In 2015, my wife Lisa and I teamed up with our friend Matt McDonnell to launch Notley. Our goal was to build a new type of organization that leverages entrepreneurial and business principles to achieve large scale community impact. This new way to approach philanthropy is not just about donations, but about scalability, sustainability, new types of capital sources, iteration, experimentation and continuous improvement.
We call it Social Innovation Capital - financial, human and knowledge capital that fuels the future of community impact. Notley now has a full time staff of twenty and we hold dozens of for-profit investments, social impact investments, and real estate investments. We also operate a 15-building campus in East Austin for socially innovative nonprofits called The Center for Social Innovation; Relay Coworking, a coworking space for social entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations; and The Refinery, a coworking and event space for Austin’s community of creative female entrepreneurs located in downtown Austin. We are developing a roadmap for how to build Social Innovation Ecosystems that is being applied first in our hometown of Austin, and will scale to communities across the U.S. and the world.
We’re using what we learned at BuildASign to take a different approach to social impact. And it’s working. We are operating and scaling multiple nonprofit organizations like Philanthropitch, Startup Games, and Student INC and bringing them to new cities like Denver, Columbus, Atlanta, San Antonio and Philadelphia. We are investing in new areas for impact like female entrepreneurship, the arts, and social entrepreneurship. We provide free educational resources for the nonprofit ecosystem through our blog, podcast, whiteboard videos, monthly breakfasts and workshops as well as consulting and mentorship. The recent sale of BuildASign is fueling this work, and we are just getting started.
We are changing the rules with a vision of changing the world. This is my next chapter. And I know I’m not the only one who thinks this way. I hope our approach at Notley will inspire other business leaders to join us on this journey of social impact innovation. If you share our mission, we are the community for you. Reach out and let’s work together on building the social innovation ecosystem.
About Dan Graham: Graham is the co-founder of Notley, a catalyst for social innovation unlocking opportunities with today’s impact organizations and changing communities. Founded in 2015 with his wife and co-founder, Lisa, Notley’s mission is to scale and support businesses, nonprofits, individuals, and programs making positive change in the world. Prior to Notley, Dan co-founded BuildASign.com in 2005 before transitioning to Executive Chairman in early 2017.
