Date/Time
Date(s) - March 5, 2014
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Location
Fortis BC Centre
Categories No Categories
John works to make charity simpler and more rewarding for everyone. Charity isn’t a new interest for him. John’s always been around it in one way or another all of his life; his dad, Blake Bromley, is one of the world’s leading charity lawyers. After university, a few years working in corporate finance at RBC Capital Markets and PricewaterhouseCoopers, working at an Internet start up in China, shooting a film in Malawi, and doing international development work in Cambodia, John joined Blake. Together, they started Benefic Group to fill the void in specialized expertise in charity law, strategy and policy in Canada. Benefic has worked with hundreds of local and international donors, charities, foundations, governments, non-profits and for-profits, providing strategic and legal advice, and arranging several billion dollars in giving.
John has also founded two different technology platforms for the charity world. Through his work with donors, John saw the pressure they put on charities to communicate better about what they’re actually doing while, at the same time, telling charities to spend less on overhead. The result is a constant struggle for charities that are torn by how best to divide limited resources between reporting and accountability to the public and their actual cause. In addition, he noticed there weren’t many ways for people to engage with charities online. Because John is young enough to be immersed in social media and internet culture, he founded Peer Giving Solutions, which uses the internet to help charities raise awareness, supporters and money through the power of community and storytelling.
Through his work with large donors, John saw how rewarding it was for them to be involved in philanthropy because they can more easily find out about charities, discuss ideas about charity with others, and donate to causes they know are effective. Yet, he heard the opposite from ordinary donors. So he founded Chimp, which brings large donor giving tools to everyone.
In addition to these two platforms, John is generally interested in how the internet is starting to change the way people interact with, transact with and learn about charity. And he’s working to shape charity’s entry into online culture, so that technology improves the sector by increasing public access and decreasing charities’ costs.