The Philanthropy Workshop & Magnify Community

Magnify Community launched in 2018 as a time-limited philanthropic innovation lab to encourage more local giving from high-capacity givers in Silicon Valley, by providing the inspiration, insight, and tools to propel their local philanthropy. Magnify was founded on the premise that the work it seeded would grow and endure in other institutions after the conclusion of the initiative. As a three year initiative, Magnify will sunset in September 2021.

TPW continually looks for strategic partners to grow and deepen our presence in our existing geographic hubs (London, New York, and the San Francisco Bay Area) to bring new ideas, experience, and talents into our global community. With similar community values and a deep focus on impact, both TPW and Magnify are very aligned with a focus on activating more philanthropy and doing so with a strategic lens, an emphasis on shared learning, community building and relationship building, and a sense of purpose and joy.

This partnership between TPW and Magnify also demonstrates the power of strategic collaboration in the sector. It creates a pathway for the local giving movement to continue to attract and influence others in Silicon Valley and beyond as we collectively work to strengthen community systems and nimbly respond to the challenging, urgent social issues facing our people and planet.

Magnify Pledgers are a community of high-capacity individuals and family foundations committed to giving locally to nonprofits in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

To try to create a new Silicon Valley norm that “if you live here and are successful here, you give here,” Magnify Community developed and piloted the Magnify Community Pledge to encourage leaders in the local giving movement to publicly commit to give more locally. Magnify Pledgers each made a 3-year commitment to either measurably increase or proudly sustain their current local giving at a significant dollar amount or percentage of their overall giving. What began as a call to action, a prompt to inspire others, and an accountability mechanism that would help set a new norm, quickly became a learning and giving community. 

The 40 Magnify Community Pledgers have collectively pledged to increase their giving by $45M over three years. In 2020 alone, Pledgers donated more than $116M to Silicon Valley charities. 

TPW and Magnify have built a thoughtful plan to ensure that the Magnify Pledgers can fully integrate into the TPW Community through membership and in the creation of a new Silicon Valley Action Lab (see question five below). Magnify Pledgers will be onboarded as new TPW members with a full overview of the TPW community including signing up for core programs in the first year and exploring other ways to engage through programs and peer groups. They will also be asked to sign TPW’s Member Agreement to acknowledge and uphold our values and code of conduct that underpin our culture of trust and challenge within the TPW Community. 

The process is designed to bring the best of the TPW and Magnify Communities together by growing the group of champions for local giving and highlighting best practices in philanthropy to drive greater impact where it’s needed most.

In September 2021, TPW will launch the TPW Silicon Valley Action Lab, a new peer group that will regularly convene Pledgers and Bay Area-based TPW members to share ideas and best practices, and learn together from local nonprofit and philanthropic leaders. This new Action Lab will incorporate the model of community briefings and resources that Magnify Pledgers have come to trust and depend on into TPW’s structure for Action Labs, which has proven to be highly effective in fostering greater impact, learning, and connection. TPW, with consultation from Magnify, will hire an expert facilitator with local Silicon Valley and Bay Area knowledge and expertise to lead the group, with strong member leadership and input from TPW. The group will also maintain a listserv for ongoing communication, sharing ideas and investable opportunities, asking questions, etc.

While the focus of Magnify has been to increase local giving in Silicon Valley, largely in response to the Giving Code report, the Pledgers — like TPW members — give to and invest in a wide range of issues and geographies that go well beyond the Bay Area. We know that some of the best opportunities for peer learning come from unlikely connections, and we see huge potential for the kind of exchange of ideas, approaches, and strategies that will come from bringing our communities together. 

TPW is absolutely committed to growing the global Community with a focus on our existing global hubs in London and New York and places in between. We view this strategic partnership with Magnify as a model to build on as other potential partner organizations seek to leverage TPW’s platform and expertise in building community, fostering connections, and catalyzing action.