Bellevue, Wash.
Last year Vincent Stevens's church ran an experiment: 10 members were each given $100 to help their communities. Some gave the money away; others used it as seed capital to raise thousands more.
Stevens, a partner in accounting firm Clark Nuber, wondered what would happen if his company did something similar. To find out, the company launched Caring, Serving and Giving, a program that lets employees apply for grants of up to $500 to fund community service projects.
The first grant went to senior auditor Hillary Parker, 27. She and a colleague used the cash to turn a local St. Patrick's Day run into a charity fund-raiser that netted $750 to build two pools for rehabilitating marine mammals caught in oil spills.
"I don't think this would have happened without the seed fund," Parker says.
Read more about how Clark Nuber measures the returns on its charitable initiative.
NEXT: Talking back
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