Aimee Griffiths is the Head of Social Impact at MoneyGram, a global fintech company, providing money transfer and financial services around the world. During our conversation we discussed how MoneyGram’s business is all about remittances, which are a lifeline for over a billion people living on less than a dollar a day in low and middle-income countries, and also how the company's commitment to social impact and sustainability is at the heart of its strategy. Case in point: MoneyGram is focused on reducing remittance fees (in line with The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 10) and ensuring the safety and protection of its customers, who in many cases, are their employees. 

Aimee has a unique perspective because she worked in the nonprofit space for years, helping to drive positive impact on people’s lives, and initially came to MoneyGram to run their foundation. She realized early on, however, that there was an opportunity to do more than just write a check, and their Social Impact program was born.

Here are some of the key takeaways from this episode:

• Your programs have the best chance for success when you make sustainability and/or social impact a true part of your business.
• MoneyGram has a social impact program built upon four pillars of purpose: corporate citizenship, philanthropy, inclusion and belonging and employee engagement.
• There are things that you should just do because it's the right thing to do, but a strong social impact program goes beyond that (and even regulatory compliance) and does more to protect and improve the lives of stakeholders.
• Find the business case for your social impact program; there’s a really great business case to be made for reputation, for brand, for customer relationships, and more. 
• Align with great partners to strengthen your impact programs, and to amplify your impact.
• Be intentional when working with nonprofits. Make sure you’re aligned, then ask them to  submit their proposed outcomes and targets associated with the proposal or project they’re seeking funding for. Ask the organization to report back on how they achieved those targets, or how they tracked against the outcomes that were created.
• Give the nonprofits you work with a safe space to negotiate (and always send a donation with your volunteers) 
• The talent pool in this space is evolving - universities and colleges now offer social impact and/or philanthropy as a focus or a major, so people are coming into the job market with awareness and expertise.
• When building an impact program, move forward with intention and purpose, but be sure to always innovate, bring others along, and be decisive. 

Links associated with the conversation:

• Aimee Griffiths - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aimeegriffiths/ 
• Social impact at MoneyGram - https://corporate.moneygram.com/social-impact/
• UNSDG 10 - https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal10 
• Stellar Development - https://stellar.org/foundation
• RedRose - Empowering the Humanitarian Sector - https://www.redrose.io/  
• UNHCR - The UN Refugee Agency - https://www.unhcr.org/us/ 
• Global Giving - Helping fellow nonprofits access the funding, tools, training, and support they need to serve their communities - https://www.globalgiving.org/ 
• Save the Children - https://www.savethechildren.org/ 

Thanks for checking out our show! It was produced by our team of experts at thinkPARALLAX.

Intro/Outro music by QubeSounds from Pixabay.

#inspiringperspectives #sustainability #CSR #Philanthropy #socialimpact #sustainabilityadvice #nonprofits #thinkparallax #community #moneygram #unsdgs #careeradvice #csrstrategy #purpose #moneygram

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