Tythe

Tythe is an idea for a non-profit foundation targeted at improving the world and contributing to social causes. Its idea is motivated by the fundamental fact that capitalism doesn’t understand and doesn’t care about society.

How would it work?

Tythe would be a giving pact of 10% of post-tax income into a charitable/non-profit foundation:

Donations are divided between: - beneficial charitable organisations (where the most benefit/£ reaches the right people) - community causes and infrastructure - a mixture of loans and direct donations - Tythe projects (projects where there isn’t an existing alternative but where there seems to be a need). - a savings pot (which aims to fill shortfalls where necessary - pushing projects over the line, and contribute to long-term planning of the Tythe organisation)

The Tythe organisation should be as streamlined as possible so a majority of the input goes to real impact.

Key to ensuring exposure is that people see benefit to their donations, so focus has to be made on impact investing. Significant focus should still be placed on long-term projects as most problems cannot be solved in a few days, and focusing on short-term front-page issues will leave our greatest problems unsolved.

The aim of the fund should be to create benefit locally, nationally and eventually globally. We can’t ignore global problems, but certainly the local problems will be more cost-effective to solve first, since the cause has the most understanding of these. If the organisation can expand to make a bigger impact it should, but it shouldn’t forget its’ place - improving society and bringing everyone up with it.

In detail:

• A not-for-profit holding organisation which can act as a facilitator for gift aid donations. [on sign-up a donor will allocate their 10% monthly donation between causes at which point they will be able to sign up for a % to be gift-aided. This % has to be explicit and sign up for the legality of facilitating gift-aid to the charitable arm and keeping the funds separate.]
  • A charitable arm - targeted towards giving money to charities with the biggest impact
  • A ‘for-profit’ (technically) arm aimed at investing in projects that will make strong social impact, through a mix of loans and direct donations.
    • Any profit from projects will be passed to the holding organisation which will be able to reallocate.
    • This will also act as a holding organisation for sub-projects that are directly facilitated by the Tythe team - i.e. those where existing organisation don’t exist or aren’t good enough.