Groundswell

Groundswell sells software for corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, bringing employee giving, volunteering, grants management and employee assistance funds together in a single platform with web and mobile interfaces for employees and configuration tools for program administrators. The giving product is built on donor-advised fund (DAF) infrastructure: each employee receives a personal Groundswell giving account that they fund via bank transfer/ACH, payroll split deposits, debit or credit card, DAF-to-DAF transfer, or stock contributions through partner Donate Stock; employers can gift into and match those accounts. Because contributions flow through the DAF, employees receive a single consolidated year-end tax receipt and their individual nonprofit choices are not disclosed to their employer.

The platform covers more than 1.5 million U.S. 501(c)(3) organizations and over 300,000 international nonprofits, including all registered nonprofits in the UK, Canada and Australia and organizations in 83 additional countries; clients can configure allow- and block-lists to reflect internal giving policies. Adjacent modules handle volunteer events and volunteer grants, grantmaking with AI-assisted application scoring and configurable workflows, and confidential employee assistance applications with rapid disbursement. Groundswell states that donations, matches, grants and assistance payments reach recipients within 24 hours rather than being batched over weeks, and that it does not use distribution networks.

The company describes itself as SOC 2 compliant and states it uses vendors such as Plaid so that user bank and financial account details are not stored on its own servers.

Founding story

According to the company, the idea originated in 2020 when Jake Wood, then leading the nonprofit Team Rubicon and later Groundswell's CEO, concluded that while corporate willingness to give was strong, the mechanics were inefficient—marked by distribution delays, funding restrictions and fees that burdened nonprofits. Groundswell was started in 2021 to accelerate and personalize corporate philanthropy.

Business model

B2B SaaS sold to companies for their CSR and employee engagement programs, with a published pricing page and demo-led sales motion. Transaction economics are layered on top: a 1% distribution fee on domestic donations and 3% on international donations, which many client companies elect to absorb on behalf of employees. Recurring donations are not subject to the transaction fee.

Software subscriptions/licensing for the CSR platform combined with distribution fees on disbursed donations (1% domestic, 3% international), which the company says is below the 3-5% typical of other giving platforms.

Traction

Public evidence of traction is limited to customer testimonials and platform statistics: one client (Wipfli) reports use by over 70% of its associates and expansion of matching and gifting programs to India-based staff following a CAF America partnership; the site cites a 5.0-star G2 rating and references Global Fortune 500 compliance standards. The platform lists access to over 1.5 million U.S. and 300,000+ international nonprofits.

Latest developments

Current site materials present Groundswell as a full CSR suite spanning giving, volunteering, grants management (with AI-powered application scoring) and employee assistance funds, alongside published resources on corporate philanthropy. No new funding, acquisition or leadership announcements appear in the supplied sources beyond the 2021 seed round.