James Manto, Co-Founder Quant Tekel
In finance, we often discuss value creation in terms of market performance. But what if more companies—particularly young ones—used their reach, relationships and resources to create meaningful value beyond the markets, delivering real impact to their local communities and beyond?
In December of this past year, our company was in the fortunate position of being able to pay out a significant amount of money to successful traders; we chose to do it on Christmas Day, in a live-streamed event. Our company’s first-year luck and good fortune were a direct result of our team’s dedication and unwavering willpower. At the same time, we were aware that–leaving aside the economic and political upheaval occurring around the world–London was experiencing a very cold winter; we were keenly aware that, even as we were celebrating, many people in the community around us were going through hard times.
We wanted to do something. So we partnered with a charitable organization that supports individuals experiencing homelessness and used our live-streamed event to drive donations from the tens of thousands of traders in our community. We even set up a matching program to multiply our impact. The result was that we were able to make a sizable contribution to an organization that we knew would truly help people in need.
Best Practices For Philanthropy
A few things were in place that we believe enabled us to be successful in this philanthropic endeavor, which we recommend to other organizations looking to undertake similar initiatives:
1. Make ‘opportunity’ part of the company ethos.
Neither of the founders of our company started out wealthy, and many of the traders with whom we work daily have also come from nothing or have experienced monumental setbacks before finally achieving some measures of financial success. This fighter’s mentality is part of our DNA, and consequently, we look at our work as fundamentally about creating opportunities and enabling people to change their lives. This mindset makes it a natural extension of our work to seek to elevate people struggling in the local community, helping to create supportive pathways as they, too, work to turn their lives around.
2. Avoid doing things ‘just for show.’
While we live-streamed our fundraising within the trader community, no TV crew followed us when we delivered the donation and met those it would help. We would have found such coverage distasteful—philanthropy for publicity feels disingenuous. It also could have hurt fundraising, as donors might have been less generous if it seemed like a mere publicity stunt.
3. Leverage your community toward giving.
We’re lucky to have a strong community, which we’ve built intentionally over the past year. Relying on information from our trusted partners, we successfully acquired a brokerage within our first year, allowing us to transition from a challenge-based model to a phase of further growth and development as a company. Hiring within our community has allowed traders to transition into a career rather than a pastime.
Even when we have had delays, issues or setbacks with tech, providers or platforms, we have always done everything to make right by the traders, issuing free accounts or giving them more opportunities to succeed. We go out of our way to show these individuals how valued they are as members of our community. Ultimately, having this kind of convivial, relationship-driven network enabled us to marshal support when the time came for giving.
4. Recognize the value of your potential for change.
In tech and quant-focused careers, the value of a dollar can change dramatically. Traders are regularly dealing in the millions; what once seemed like life-changing money may look like chump change within a day’s work in our industry. But that’s exactly why organizations that deal in high dollars—tech, finance, telecoms, etc.—are best positioned to spearhead philanthropic endeavors. With a comparatively small outlaying of cash from the pockets of even small-size enterprises, many, many lives can be meaningfully changed.
We also recommend that enterprise leaders actively solicit feedback from their global trader community to pinpoint specific needs in local communities; this direct input can guide the development of targeted and impactful philanthropic projects.
Setting Goals For Broader Impact
As a growing company, we see money coming through our door—and we want to grow the size of our charitable impact in response. One thing we want to emphasize is that companies shouldn’t view philanthropy, or social impact in general, as something that only takes place around Christmas. A profitable company should be constantly looking for opportunities to give year-round so that as they develop, the community around them can grow and thrive as well.
Moreover, companies that are growing a global presence should be looking for charitable engagement not only within their “home” region but around the world. With more and more companies whose employees and client bases are represented in places like Africa or Southeast Asia, there’s room and opportunity to drive impact further afield as well.
As our company grows, we have a vision of creating sustainable, meaningful impact in the communities where our traders live and work. We encourage other companies to adopt a similar mindset, scaling their impact goals to the strength of their organization. There’s always more we could be doing, and there’s no time like right now to begin.
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