Ms. Hawley is founder and CEO of UniversalGiving™ (www.UniversalGiving.org). UniversalGiving™ (UG) is an award winning marketplace which allows people to give and volunteer with the top-performing projects all over the world. UniversalGiving™ offers a variety of ways for donors to become involved through individual Projects or Gift Packages. Visitors simply choose a region (such as Africa) and an issue (such as education or the environment) and receive a list of quality ways to give and volunteer. When giving, 100% of your donation goes directly to the project. UniversalGiving™ performs due diligence on all its projects through its unique, trademarked Quality Model™.
To date, almost $1.5 million and 8,000 volunteers have been matched through www.UniversalGiving.org. UniversalGiving™ has most recently been featured in Business Week, NBC, Oprah.com, The Christian Science Monitor, Self Magazine, Chicago Sun Times, New York Times, L.A. Times, and CNNMoney. In addition, UniversalGiving™ was the 2006 Webby Award honoree and won W3's 2007 Silver Award for Creative Excellence on the Web. UniversalGiving™ is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, whose vision is to "create a world where giving and volunteering are a natural part of everyday life."™
Before UniversalGiving™, Ms. Hawley co-founded VolunteerMatch, which has matched more than 4 million volunteers with nonprofits. During her time with there, Ms. Hawley also launched VolunteerMatch Corporate, a customized version for employee volunteer programs. More than 20 Fortune 500 companies became clients, providing 43% of Volunteer Match’s sustainability.
Ms. Hawley’s global experience includes work and volunteering abroad in microfinance in remote villages of India; crisis relief work in the 2000 El Salvador earthquake; sustainable farming in Guatemala; digital divide training in Cambodia; and indigenous community preservation in Ecuador. Ms. Hawley has a political science degree cum laudé at Duke University and a Masters on scholarship at the Annenberg School of Communications, USC, in International Communications.
"If I had one million dollars, I’d use it to support homeless people I meet on the street in the following ways. It would be unplanned and from the heart. If they ask me for money, I’d give it through support; I’d pay for a hotel room for a night; pay for a meal; pay for counseling or help. I’d use it the rest of my life to provide small gestures of daily support to people who are in great need, and to do it spontaneously."
"People are “starving” for meaning in their lives. By allowing them to help those even less fortunate than ourselves, we can be grateful, humbled, and help others."
"Starting a nonprofit must come from the head and the heart. It’s a true balance. Most people think you need to have strong passion and loyalty to a cause, and you do. But one must also have a strong desire for effective business planning and operations in order to ensure you deliver your product, in this case service to the community, effectively."
The best way to find out more about me is to visit UniversalGiving, to see first-hand the service we provide in connecting people to the best performing projects to donate to or volunteer with, internationally. You can explore our additional pages describing our corporate service, or look at who runs UniversalGiving by visiting our team page. You're also invited to my blog, Living and Giving, to read what I have to share about giving, volunteering, and living a meaningful life--and to join the discussion as well.