NuggetLove: Passion, Action, and the New Corporate Philanthropy

In the nonprofit world, there are 5 common types of Business Philanthropy: community grants, employee volunteer grants, sponsorships, non-cash, and employee matching gifts. CBT Nuggets doesn't do any of that, however, there was a time when we did and were recognized as the third most giving company of our size in the Oregon/Southern Washington area. But we decided to make a change.

Why the Change?

The traditional modes of philanthropy just didn't fit the business model at CBT Nuggets. The biggest reason is that we really wanted to match the mission of our brand to continually improve the learning experience for IT professionals to the mission of our charity work. We wanted to provide services to the organizations that we work with to help them gain the resources needed to achieve their mission and help them make a change in the world. We wanted to help make a tangible impact on the issues we care about most. So we set out to rebrand our business philanthropy and do something that likely had not been done before.

The CBT Nuggets Learning Experience includes relevant, on-point training resources along with Accountability Coaching and a Learner Community that help us to further develop how we can help those who help themselves. At CBT Nuggets, we take this user experience seriously, so we decided to offer a consultant/coach/fundraiser to help the organizations we work with as a part of our philanthropy.

Along with targeted financial support, we give our partner organizations a temporary consultant to help them fundraise and gain access to resources and partnerships to grow their mission. This is just one piece of what makes the entire CBT Nuggets Learning Experience successful, adding benefit to help our partners achieve their goals.

A Pivotal Partner: Drop in the Bucket

Drop in the Bucket, the organization we selected as a model for this change is based in Los Angeles, California, works in community development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Just like CBT Nuggets, Drop in the Bucket is an education organization. They believe that everyone has the right to an education, so they help people access education and empowerment by drilling wells in schools. These wells are then supported by village savings groups.

Drop in the Bucket transforms communities by helping children go to school, especially girls who are normally tasked with fetching water every day. These projects give access to clean drinking water and create opportunities for community members to earn and save funds to support well maintenance and repair. This also gives African community members an opportunity to access microloans and start or scale small businesses to give their families more economic freedom, pay school fees for their children, and in general, have a better, healthier life.

Very simply, what Drop in the Bucket needed from CBT Nuggets was more funds to drill more wells to help more people. We could've just written them a check. But we wanted to do more, have a bigger impact, and contribute to measurable success. So, CBT Nuggets hired a Corporate Social Responsibility Director tasked to redesign our charitable program, NuggetLove, to offer Drop in the Bucket and the organizations we work with more than just financial support.

NuggetLove is the connection between CBT Nuggets and all of the organizations we are accepting to our philanthropy profile. NuggetLove also provides access to resources via fundraising, events, communications, and business development support. We help our partner organizations grow exponentially to achieve their missions and provide solutions to the issues that we and our learning community care about.

A New Model for Social Change

The beauty of what we do is that we support cutting-edge learning for success. NuggetLove connects partner organizations to the most current schools of thought in social change. We believe not in giving funds, but rather sharing tools for individuals and communities to harness their own success and their own destiny.

The organizations that excite us provide communities with access to tools to empower community members and give them the ability to help themselves. The people that excite us have chosen to ignite their passions and learn the skills they need to elevate themselves. We want to revolutionize the learning industry and provide the opportunities for personal and community empowerment within our philanthropy.

NuggetLove, Serving People Everywhere in a Way That Ensures Self-Reliance

At CBT Nuggets, we care deeply about making a difference in our global community. We believe that training gives people and organizations the ability to thrive. The NuggetLove program extends this belief to our corporate social responsibility. Our mission is to serve people everywhere in a way that ensures self-reliance. We work to connect innovative people and organizations to the resources that optimize their impact, help them scale up, and make them sustainable.

NuggetLove provides capacity development training and assistance where nonprofits and NGOs need it most: resource development, communications, and strategy. Our ultimate goal is to support organizations that fulfill basic needs, while also creating, growing, and stimulating local market economies in order to create independence and self-actualization for the beneficiaries in the communities we serve. Together, we are entrepreneurs.

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"Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry." Bill Drayton, Ashoka