Entrepreneur Jamie Welsh answers the phone like she’s anticipating you’ll tell her she’s won the lottery. And that she can give the winnings to the charity of her choice. The founder of 10% Solution, a company whose mission is “positive global change through certified giving programs,” comes across as equal parts excitability and energy. A survivor of the dot-com boom who joined corporate America with a goal of giving back, Welsh started a company last spring that requires clients to donate a substantial amount of their net profits, encourage employee volunteering, and work toward sustainability certifications. Her goal: to create giving models for more corporate social responsibility.
Welsh, who most recently worked as a marketing VP for Hilton Hotels, is currently the Orange County-based start-up’s first employee. The bulk of her network is based on the West Coast with three European companies recently expressing interest in getting involved.
Welsh reached out to the first two companies to become 10% Solution clients because they were committed to creating a culture of giving, including Gamblin Motors and Enumclaw Travel in Washington. “It’s so exciting to talk to brands with philanthropic roots,” said Welsh, who is also working with two Southern California companies, Decision Toolbox and Focus 360, to track their giving.
While most companies she’s researched give less than 1% of their profits, she requires that her affiliate companies give 5 percent of their pre-tax profits. Only a fourth of the financial component of their giving can be in the form of goods and services. Affiliation with 10% Solution involves a 2.5 percent overall employee volunteer rate, which averages to an hour a week or one day a month per employee for many companies. Clients must also work toward sustainability certifications, including LEED, USDA Organic, and Green-e energy reductions, which serve as a 2.5 percent credit. The combination is a 10% donation that Welsh describes as “giving at a gold standard.”
These requirements are rigid but Welsh said the result is that her clients’ efforts become trackable and reportable. “Much like an [International Organization for Standardization] rating, I wanted to create an international standard by which giving can be monitored in a way that would provide a seal of approval.”
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