GiveCon: Vision 2020 Recap

Yesterday, Givelify concluded its first global conference in Indianapolis, IN, and the company has truly gone global. Nearly two out of every five full-time employees of the company work outside the walls of the Indianapolis or Dallas offices.

Looking Back

Since the inception of the world’s highest-rated and most downloaded mobile giving app, the Givelify team has celebrated the annual milestones of the company and the organizations we serve. From humble beginnings as a team of less than ten, the first celebration was held over lunch at Fogo de Chão Indianapolis in December 2014. At that time, Givelify had processed more than $100,000 in donations and reached thousands of donors at hundreds of organizations across the United States. Our mobile giving app set the pace for those that followed. The celebration was well deserved!

Givelify’s first celebration in December 2014. From left to right: Matt Chandler, Director of Sales & Marketing Operations, Allison Weaver, Marketing Coordinator, Walle Mafolasire, CEO & Founder.

Vision 2020

As 2020 approaches, CEO & Founder Walle Mafolasire kicked off the inaugural GiveCon event, Vision 2020, with the reveal of exciting goals for the growing team of 59 employees.

“There is no doubt in my mind that we can accomplish these goals. We got this far with a small group. Just imagine how far we’ll go now,” Walle said.

The vision of GiveCon is to be the place where the Givelify team comes together for three days of fellowship, continued learning, a celebration of the past year, and innovations for the year ahead. VP of People and Culture, Jackie Rodriguez, spearheaded the event.

“I wanted to have a holiday party, but Jackie told me no, we can’t just have a party. She put on an amazing celebration!” says Walle.

The educational sessions included a design thinking round-up, a Predictive Index Assessment workshop, and a seminar on faith and giving.

Designed with the Human in Mind

JW Kim, Givelify’s VP of Product, lead the round-up on design thinking. With a background in engineering, an interest in art, and an MS in Product Design from Stanford University, JW facilitated the group through ideating, prototyping, and testing new Givelify product ideas.

“I like to call it human-centered design. Good designers observe. Great designers observe the ordinary…It’s not about the end goal, it’s about the process.” – JW Kim

In this round-up, each group developed a prototype of their idea and tested it with donors and organizations that use Givelify. They each gave insightful feedback on the products which the teams used to think critically about their ideas and how to improve them.

Predicting Success

Givelify is a true believer that great work starts with great people. Matching the right person to a role that gives them energy each day has been a driving factor in growing the team so quickly. One of the ways we make this happen is through the Predictive Index Assessment or “PI” for short. This isn’t just another personality test that can be manipulated to get a desired outcome. It’s a true test of self-awareness.

All 59 employees of the company have taken the assessment which produces a graph immediately after submitting answers. Each person’s PI is unique, and “all PI’s are beautiful,” says Kate Shuck, Director of Client Success at Advisa. The PI measures four drivers that appear in the workplace: dominance, extraversion, patience, and formality.

Kate spent the second half of Tuesday with the entire group facilitating interactive conversation about the PI and how they bring out strengths in each team. The session allowed the group to recognize ways to best communicate, collaborate, and challenge one another to understand how we work best together.

A Wealth of Knowledge

To better inform the work Givelify does in the philanthropic space, we brought in staff at the Lake Institute on Faith & Giving from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI. Cutting edge data on how congregations contribute individual gifts and how church leaders generate revenue using other means like capital campaigns inspired a new perspective on how Givelify can shape emerging trends in faith and giving.

Strong Work

This December, Givelify remembered its first celebration in 2014 at Fogo de Chão with the small team. For the fifth celebration in 2019, we returned to the same restaurant with more than quadruple the number of team members to celebrate with. Five-year anniversary awards were given to those who have been with the company since the beginning. Those with a tenure of one year were awarded a plaque and recognized for their service as well. Six extraordinary members of the team walked away with the highest honors Givelify offers in its recognition program. These awards embody the brand’s key pillars: Integrity, Heart, Simplicity, and WOW.

Integrity: Guardian of the Givelify brand

Gilbert Escalla

Heart: Servant’s heart through team collaboration & generosity

Allison Weaver

Simplicity: Champion of the customer experience

Meghana Bailey

WOW: Above & beyond the contribution to the Givelify mission

Faith Kimbrough

One special award, Strong Work, was presented by CEO & Founder Walle Mafolasire and Founder Tayo Ademuyiwa to Pastor Ron Pulliam, VP of Denominational Relations.

Next on the Horizon

2020 begins Givelify’s sixth year as the place where giving happens. Every decision we make and every feature we build keeps the organizations and the people who support them top of mind.

“When you listen to your customer…you’ll do the right thing every time.” – Walle Mafolasire

We’re thrilled to be your partner in changing the world one simple, joyful gift at a time.

Let’s do more good together today. What are your organization’s goals for 2020?