For this piece, we talk to Andrew Kaufmann, Founder of Time to Give Network, who outlines a new way for vendors to get in front of their target audience – and benefit charities simultaneously. “After spending most of my career in business development, predominantly in the financial services sector, I experienced firsthand the challenges of gaining access to valuable business connections. As a result, I became very frustrated by the time and money wasted on traditional networking methods, which delivered very little value. I knew there had to be a better way,” he says.

What issues do vendors face when trying to reach their target audience?
The post-Covid-19 return to face-to-face meetings, combined with hybrid communications optionality, means that getting in touch with people, networking, and forming relationships has never been easier. That is the theory, at least, but the reality is that people are busier than ever, so grabbing the attention of someone and keeping it for long enough to have a meaningful conversation or even book some time in someone’s diary can be an uphill task. It often combines e-mail, LinkedIn messages, cold calling, and other ineffectual methods. Indeed, getting on someone’s radar in an era of information overload is hard work, resource-intensive, and, more often than not, unsuccessful.

This frustrating inefficiency is something I wanted to address, but in a completely new way that is beneficial to everyone involved.

Tell me about your new not-for-profit platform – how could it solve this problem?
I’ve created the Time to Give Network. It is primarily a tool for business development to help people who do what I spent over 20 years doing, which is trying to gain access to people in my target market to initiate a dialogue.

It is based on the Warren Buffett lunch model. For 10 years, Buffet auctioned off a lunch with him, creating US$50 million in charitable donations in the process. His concept was that everyone’s time has a value.

If you apply the same principle within the wealth management industry, vendors are trying to get in front of their target market – a wide variety of individuals within wealth management companies. The platform we have created allows them to do that by donating money to charity in return for a one-hour face-to-face meeting with the relevant person within the target wealth management firm, which easily solves the access problem. The return on investment (ROI) on that donation becomes quite compelling, and therefore vendors should be willing to spend money on this type of activity as part of their overall marketing and prospecting budget.

What is in it for the wealth manager?
Like most firms, wealth management companies of all shapes and sizes are trying to reach their CSR goals. Often, this is done by allowing employees to volunteer in the community or give to a cause that resonates with them or is one of the company’s chosen causes.

Using the platform, the amount vendors pledge to buy time with the target individual within the wealth manager is donated directly to a charity of either the target person’s choice, or a charity or cause with which the firm is already affiliated. Plus, the platform allows employees to engage in volunteering that leverages their valuable skills and experience.

How is this managed and controlled?
The person donating their time remains in control of the bid(s) they are willing to accept and is able to select the time and place of any meeting they offer via the platform. The platform has guardrails and controls that ensure wealth management firm employees are only meeting with individuals that are deemed acceptable from a compliance and personal preference perspective. Wealth management firms can monitor employee participation, and allow managers to include their overall employee activity in their company year-end CSR report.

Crucially, the platform is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company and all excess revenue generated by the Time to Give Network is donated as a year-end distribution to the charities that have received donations via the platform over the course of the year.

What about spreading the word?
We’re on course to arrange our first connections between vendors and wealth management companies this quarter (Q1 2024), and have a number of scalability and technology enhancements that we will be rolling out shortly after that.

The whole project relies on ease of use and awareness. The first thing is to make it easy to use. All someone has to do is register on the platform and create a profile that includes their LinkedIn details. Obviously, to do this, they have to be aware that the platform exists in the first place, and so to that end, we have been engaging with various charities so that they can, in turn, contact their partners and donors to encourage them to sign up. Charities have been, in the main, excited about this as it is an easy win for them and offers a new donation channel.

There are also very good levels of buy-in from sought-after individuals; it’s an easy win for those who care about CSR, have charities and causes close to their heart – but do not want to give up a whole day at a time – instead, they can split that time into a series of shorter meetings. More than that, though, it’s a controlled and easy way for the curious-minded to learn about the various vendors and solutions that are out there – and this is not to be sniffed at a time when awareness regarding the positive impact that technology can make is high.

Once we get traction in the UK, we plan to bring this to the US industry and broaden the network across other industry verticals.

If you would like to take part in our ‘TWM talks to…’ series, please get in touch with us at office@thewealthmosaic.com

About Andrew Kaufmann:
Andrew has over 35 years of experience in the financial services markets, both in New York and London. He began his career at Bankers Trust in institutional fixed income sales and then moved to FX market-making before pursuing a long and distinguished career in business development. Andrew has held roles at firms including SS&C, SunGard (now FIS) and other software and service providers, with a primary focus on the asset management vertical. The founding of the Time to Give Network is a culmination of Andrew’s professional experiences and the many valuable relationships that he has forged over his career.