Social Entrepreneur: Conscious Companies | Benefit Corporations | Impact Investing

Charitable giving seems to be stuck in a time warp. While we easily bank, shop and communicate across mobile apps, online charitable giving is not always the best user experience. This poor user experience came to the attention of Tesla Motor’s Director of Quality Product Engineering, Mike Vo. Something else came to Mike’s notice. After 5 years of working 90+ hours per week with almost every day of the year, his accrued personal time off, or vacation time, was about to be forfeited. Mike wondered how common this problem was, and if he could do something with those unused vacation hours. In the US alone, every year there is $52.4 Billion in accrued, unused vacation time. That’s a lot of value that can be put to use. Also, every year, US companies set aside $10 billion in matching funds that go unused. So, these three factors: a poor user experience with many charity web sites, $52.4 billion in untapped wealth and another $10 billion in matching funds seemed like a compelling business case to Mike Vo. Today, Mi