Ensuring Effective Giving

Our mission is to Create a World Full of Giving. Because that's a happier world. To accomplish that, B1G1 uniquely focuses on these three important things with business giving.

1. Strict application process for Worthy Causes

Out of every 5 applications received, only 1 charity organisation makes it through our review process and becomes a Worthy Cause. We implement a set of checks that were created in consultation with the B1G1 Giving, Inc. board.

Some of our criteria:

Must be a registered charity in at least one country (a non-profit organisation that is not a registered charity will not qualify)
Registered and operating for at least 3 years
Must have audited accounts available
Must have more than 80% of their expenditure towards projects (meaning less than 20% of their expenditure is used for administrative expenses such as fundraising costs)

The full application criteria can be found here.

In addition, every year after they join us, each Worthy Cause is again subject to an Annual Review.

2. Ring fenced funds

B1G1 is run by a social enterprise (registered company in Singapore) and non-profit organization (501(c)3 registered in the US). When you join a Business for Good, your membership fee goes to B1G1 Pte Ltd. When you make contributions towards projects, that goes to B1G1 Giving, Inc.'s account to await remittance. In this way, funds are never mixed and we can ensure that all your contributions are passed onto the Worthy Causes excluding credit card and bank fees.

All giving contributions are first accumulated in B1G1 Giving’s bank account. Once the total contributions towards a Worthy Cause reaches a minimum of US$500, the Worthy Cause gets added to the month’s remittance list. The US$500 threshold is set to avoid incurring disproportionately high bank charges for smaller remittances and to ensure that each remittance is substantial and meaningful. Should the accumulated total contribution amount be less than US$500, B1G1 Giving will rollover the remittance to the next month, and send the remittance once the total contribution amount is at least US$500.

Once the funds reach the Worthy Causes, they are required to spend it on the designated project activity. We confirm this with a signed confirmation from the Worthy Causes, and through our Annual Reviews.

3. Annual Reviews

Every year, every organisation gets assessed and reviewed again. And when we say organisation, we mean even ourselves. To view our Annual Reports and Financial Statements, please head to the respective B1G1 Pte Ltd and B1G1 Giving websites.

For the Worthy Causes, they go through our Annual Review process each year. This consists of:

Financial Review

We collect the Annual Report and Audited Financial Statements from each Worthy Cause. The Treasurer of the B1G1 Giving board then checks these documents for financial health and integrity. The B1G1 Team also confirms with the Worthy Cause that the amount expended for each project is in line with what was contributed from B1G1.

Project Review

The B1G1 Team also reviews all projects during the Annual Review as a lot can change during a year. We check for

Any changes to the project scope
Any changes to project cost
How many beneficiaries were helped in the past year
How much of B1G1 funds were raised and utilised for the project

Board Review

After these steps, the Worthy Causes and their projects are presented to the B1G1 Giving board for confirmation.

If any project or Worthy Cause no longer fits our criteria or cannot utilize the contributions for the intended purpose in the expected timeline (e.g. due to scalability issues), we will suspend their projects on B1G1. We notify members when these changes occur to a project they are supporting.

You can find out more about our Worthy Cause Annual Review process.

Beyond Financial Reviews

Besides the checks and reviews that all Worthy Causes are subject to, we also work to ensure the effectiveness of your contributions in other ways.

Receiving updates from the ground

Every quarter, Worthy Causes are required to send us project updates. These updates allow us to stay informed of the current on-the-ground situation and they can include information such as:

Any organisational updates (e.g. change in team members)
Milestones celebrated
Beneficiary stories
Impact updates
Change to project execution (e.g. change in education curriculum)

All project updates can be found in your account. Read Project Updates to find out more.

Study Tours

A B1G1 Study Tour is a learning trip designed for actively contributing B1G1 Businesses, their team members and family members to collectively learn, connect, and engage with people on the ground. It also provides a unique opportunity to truly experience and witness the impacts you are creating.

These tours are carefully planned to ensure meaningful learning in sensitive ways to honour the people in various communities and held biennially so our members can learn from different experiences. Learn about some of the past tours here.

Common Questions

Can I see the audited reports from the Worthy Causes?

Yes, please reach out to us at team@b1g1.com so we can help.