How 1% of Revenue Is Transforming the Planet: The Scalable Model Behind a Global Environmental Movement

My guest today leads an organization with one of the simplest and most powerful models in philanthropy. It’s called 1% for the Planet, and the premise is this: businesses commit 1% of their annual revenue to environmental causes—and 1% for the Planet ensures those funds are directed with purpose and impact.

As CEO Kate Williams puts it:
“We work with businesses who become members by allocating 1% of their annual revenues to give to environmental nonprofits or environmental partners, as we call them, and we facilitate that whole ecosystem.”

With over 5,000 members in 60 countries and more than $750 million certified in giving, it’s a movement built on clarity, trust, and community. And Kate, who found her leadership voice on a snowy mountain pass at age 18, has carried that spirit of joy, grit, and teamwork into everything she does.

She joins us now to talk about movement-building, climate leadership, and the power of collective action.

Denver: Kate Williams, welcome to The Business of Giving. It’s great to have you here.

Kate: Thank you.

“…what we do is we work with businesses who become members by allocating 1% of their annual revenues to give to environmental nonprofits or environmental partners as we call them, and we facilitate that whole ecosystem.”

Denver: Let’s start with a grounding overview. What is 1% for the Planet? How does it work? And why is this idea so powerful in how it links businesses to environmental impact?

Kate: Great question. 1% for the Planet is a global nonprofit. We’re based in the U.S., but we manage a global network of businesses and nonprofits. And what we do is we work with businesses who become members by allocating 1% of their annual revenues to give to environmental nonprofits or environmental partners as we call them, and we facilitate that whole ecosystem.

So we engage the members; we advise them on their giving. We give them tools. We create lots of opportunities for them to learn and engage. They give directly to the nonprofits, and we have eligibility criteria and a vetting process for those nonprofits. So what we have created is a way that on the business side, the businesses can feel supported and gain trust in the process of smart giving and feel like it’s strategic and aligned with what they’re trying to do.

And we reduce some of the friction of figuring out who to give to and doing the vetting yourself and all that. It can be hard work to give, so we sort of bring those barriers down and make it a process that can be really powerful and strategic and good for business for a lot of those businesses.

And then on the nonprofit side, we create a framework for them to access corporate giving, which is not something that nonprofits always know how to do. So we put all those pieces together into a great community that creates large impact at scale.

Denver: You sound like you have a fantastic role in terms of a matchmaker and a classic philanthropic advisor that serves everybody exceptionally well.

Before we explore the movement itself, I want to take you back a little bit because I know you had a formative leadership experience when you were about 18 years old during a National Outdoor Leadership School expedition in Wyoming. Can you tell us what happened on Hailey Pass and how that has shaped the way you lead the organization today?

Kate: Absolutely. I basically had a really hard experience and loved it. And yeah, essentially the short of the long story is that I was on a long trip, a 30-day trip with NOLS, the National Outdoor Leadership School, and everything went wrong. It snowed. We missed re-rations. And then ultimately, one of our instructors broke his leg.

And so that led to a pretty extended evacuation during which two things happened. One is, I got… unexpectedly to me… asked to lead the group that wasn’t doing some of the other  runner group or carrying the injured instructor. I was tasked with leading that group up to the pass.

And it was snowy and all the hard things. And I didn’t think I knew how to do that, but I actually found that not only did I know how to do it in terms of being successful, tapping into the other people around me, and getting us to the destination, but I actually loved it, and I realized I was really interested in how do you kind of organize a group of people to do a hard thing.

And we actually had some fun along the way, too. And so that, plus being in a place that was absolutely beautiful… just those big mountains took my breath away. And so for me, that combination of wild places and organizing a group to do hard things is something that I have just continued to be interested in.

And really from that moment, in a kind of inarticulate way, knew that that was what I wanted to figure out how to do in my life.

Denver: Oh, that is great. That’s a wonderful story. And it is amazing when organizations do hard things, the confidence it gives them to do the next hard thing that they never thought they could do.

And I’ve always wondered why organizations don’t focus more on organizational confidence because if you do it and you believe it, and you just take a moment to think about it, the next thing which looks to be impossible, say, “Nah, we can do that one, too. Remember the last one was impossible?”

Kate: Exactly. I do think… I mean, I’m an athlete as well, and for me, I always have that metaphor of just… if you want to run a marathon, you don’t just go run a marathon and assume you can nail it. You train, and you develop a training plan, and you build your capacity to do hard things.

To your point, you grow in your ability to do that. And sometimes you might have really big, hard days along the way. And when you accomplish those, you learn how you could do it better the next time. But to your point too, you also get the confidence of like, Oh yeah, we can do what we didn’t think we could do.

Denver: Yeah, yeah. I remember Bobby Knight, who was a coach of Indiana, said: it’s not the will to win… everybody has the will to win. It’s the will to prepare to win. And that’s really what the difference is that very few people have.

I’ve been amazed. This 1% model, it’s so simple and it is so scalable. I mean, it’s amazing. Why do you think it has resonated so widely? And what can other organizations learn from a very clear, simple, beautiful model such as yours?

Kate: I think what they could learn is that essentially what we’ve created is a psychology or a theory of change that works. And in some ways, we, like many good ideas, we were founded to build this movement and then came to understand more deeply what the psychology was that worked so well.

And when I say psychology, I mean basically what we’re doing is we’re creating a way that people can take a step into a different form of behavior, and we’re reducing the barriers to doing that so that people can make that change and then further live into it.

And I think some of the other things that we’ve realized along the way, and basically our theory of change– which we can now articulate– is that 1% for the Planet… we’re guided by the concept, the proven concept, that simple actions done repeatedly in community are how you drive change at scale.

And so the three components of that are simple action. So figuring out what’s some simple unit, and we don’t say small action because 1% of revenue is not small, but it’s manageable. You can wrap your head around it. It’s clear what that is. You can look at someone’s financials and say, Okay, that’s 1%. You can do the math in your head.

Denver: That’s right, and that’s big.

Kate: And then… yeah, and that helps. And then, done repeatedly. So it’s not …we’re not saying that it’s the marathon. We’re saying that all of us together are taking the steps that add up to the ultra-marathon, to keep using that metaphor. So simple actions, done repeatedly.

And then the community piece is really important because I think what happened, what we see is that by being part of something bigger than themselves, the smallest member and the biggest member, the smallest nonprofit and the largest nonprofit if we’re to use size, but there’s also all sorts of other dimensions, but everyone’s in it together.

Every company is giving their 1%. Even if it’s a little 1% or a big 1%, everyone’s kind of proportionally in it together. And particularly at this stage, but even on an annual basis, people have this chance to say,  “Wait a second, I did just this one small thing, my 1%, but it added up to this really big thing.” So we immediately create this ability to lock into this idea of collective action.

And then we’re also able to create some fun because I think doing things alone can feel scary and hard and uncertain. And I think when you are in a community, you can get some reference points from around you to be, Oh, okay, they’ve dealt with this before, and they figured it out. Or, I’ve always admired that company and they do this, so I’m going to stay the course even though it’s feeling difficult or whatever sort of messaging from the community you might need.

So I think all of those components have helped us to create something that If you talk to my staff, they wouldn’t say it’s easy. We work really hard to make it simple. That’s what makes it work. So I think we would all say that it works.

Denver: Yeah. That’s what I always thought about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. People said they made it look so easy, but they practiced to the point where the movie directors wanted to shoot them. Particularly Fred Astaire… you just do it over, but you make it look easy.

And I can see the thread back to Hailey Pass when you said, “And it’s fun. We make it fun.” Are there ways that you try to animate that collective action… or people just know they’re in it?   Or there are some ways that you try to demonstrate it so they know they’re part of something larger?

Kate: We are always thinking about that, and so we’re always kind of developing new ways that we do that. Among them are: we listen to our members and hear what they’re interested in. And so over the years, we’ve developed things like: we do regional or more local events. We do a global summit, which is a bigger event, and those are all optional, but they create a way for people to physically come together.

And the regional or local events are fun because people can get to know the stakeholders… where they operate and where they live, and where they know the landscape and things like that. And so those are some really nice connections.

We also do virtual events. We got better at those like most people during the COVID years, and learned that’s a really great opportunity for us because we have such a big global network. So it’s not like there’s a region or a place that all members can easily congregate, and so creating virtual places where people can come together.

And then along those same lines, we use things like Slack to create ways for our members to communicate with each other. So we’re always looking at all the ways that we can create relationships and connections because that’s where we hear from our members.

For some of them, they want to be able to ask business questions of other brands who are in the network. For others, they want to just get to know people because then it becomes their community of peers. So it really varies, and we just try to create a bunch of different formats for those relationships to evolve.

Denver: Kate, speaking of members, give listeners an idea of the scale and scope of 1% for the Planet.

Kate: Absolutely. So we’re at about just under 5,000 members now. And that’s all over the world. We’re in about probably 60 countries at this point. Primarily, our biggest concentrations are in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. And then we are growing in Australia and some other markets, and then kind of a scattering elsewhere.

And our nonprofits pretty much match that same footprint. Most companies seek to drive impact in the areas where they operate, which makes sense. So we see kind of a matching of the member footprint and the nonprofit footprint. But there’s also the nonprofit footprint is slightly larger because we are focused on the planet, and so there’s giving that’s kind of touching down everywhere.

And over the lifetime of 1% for the Planet, so since we were founded in 2002, we’ve certified more than $750 million U.S. dollars in impact. And last year alone, we certified more than a hundred million U.S. dollars. So we’ve been growing and accelerating that growth.

Denver: Certified. What does that mean? How does that… dig a little bit deeper in “certified” and what that achieves and accomplishes.

Kate: It’s a very important word for us, so that’s a good one for us to dig into. The way our model works is that we don’t take in the dollars from our members and distribute them, so we’re not a foundation. That’s a  common and understandable misconception that we encounter out in the world. So very clearly, we don’t do that, and we don’t do that because we want our companies to be in direct relationship with the partners that they’re supporting, because good things come from that. They can communicate about stories they want to tell. Or can you send me photos? Whatever. We get out of the way once they’ve made those great giving choices.

So then our certification becomes very important because that’s the way that we annually verify that every member has met their 1% commitment. And so for our members while they do the legwork… we try to make that simple and fun as well, but they have to submit documentation so that we can do that certification.

But that’s what makes it trustworthy. That’s what makes our logo meaningful and particularly in the time when appropriately, consumers are skeptical about greenwashing, and people are kind of on alert about that. Greenwashing– meaning companies saying they’re doing things that they’re actually not doing.

1% for the Planet is the opposite of that because every year, the companies that we are certifying, our certification says they’re doing exactly what they say they’re doing. They’re giving their 1%, and that’s really important to them and to us.

Denver: And I saw somewhere, I think I got it right, about 70% of the member companies that join see revenue growth. That probably gets back to your logo a little bit as well. Explain that. That’s a remarkable number.

Kate: Yeah, it’s interesting. It’s correlation, not causation, so we can’t fully own it. That’s my  asterisk on that. But then I will say, You know what? We think about this a lot. Because really the best case in the world for the planet is if doing good things for the planet becomes synonymous with doing well as a business.

And our model is starting to create some evidence that the companies that choose to invest in something like 1% for the Planet, choose to make that commitment, gain some lift from that 1% commitment. Consumers align to that. We have good brand awareness. It could also be, I think there are other things– to have the discipline as financial discipline and kind of strategic discipline to become a 1% for the Planet member to manage around that 1% allocation. I think there are some other habits or practices at the companies that might also play a factor in their growth.

There is some larger evidence that companies that are purpose-driven more broadly tend to outperform the market in times of recession, and again, that could be because there’s some consumer lift. It could also be because to do business what is now differently, but is becoming more normalized, but to take the intentional step to align your business not only with profit, but also with outcomes that you care about, takes some discipline.

And like in most things, I think discipline in one area is going to show up elsewhere. So I imagine there are a lot of reasons for the lift, but nonetheless,  we’re thrilled to be part of that and really love working with our businesses.

And I would say maybe one other thing that we see is back to the community piece. We are able to connect our businesses with each other in ways that they leverage, not just for specific conversations around what they’re doing at 1%, but also like: How did you solve this packaging issue? Or, how are you handling tariffs? Or what have you done in your supply chain to address?

So they’re able to have a lot of conversations. So that may be yet another kind of factor in that lift. So we love to see that, and it’s been pretty consistent, and we’re always curious to hear from our members exactly how they’re seeing it play out for them.

“So they wanted to create a movement builder because they really saw the opportunity for businesses to become this force that could create change at scale. So one of the things that we have done, we stayed really true to that purpose. And our purpose statement, which is our why, is to inspire commitment and action so that our planet and future generations thrive.”

Denver: Oh, that’s great. That’s a great insight. You can be a convener organization that serves some benefits directly, but it’s those ancillary benefits that they happen to be sitting next to each other and they start talking. And next thing you know, they form a separate relationship on a separate issue, but it was all done under this umbrella.

Let’s talk about the evolution a little bit. I think you said it a moment ago, it  was founded in 2002 by Yvon Chouinard and Craig Mathews. How does an organization stay true to those founding principles and vision, but at the same time evolve over 23 years, which you probably have to do at least to a certain degree?

Kate: Yeah. So when Yvon and Craig founded 1%, we were founded as a movement builder in the sense that they were both through their companies, Patagonia and Blue Ribbon Flies, they were allocating resources to give back in ways that supported the things that they cared about.

And they thought that was important, but they also realized, I think wisely, that individual companies doing these one-off things ultimately was good, but didn’t matter in the sense that it wouldn’t create the scope of change that was needed to address some of the challenges. So if they were doing their good things over here, but everyone else was not, it might not matter in the end.

So they wanted to create a movement builder because they really saw the opportunity for businesses to become this force that could create change at scale. So one of the things that we have done, we stayed really true to that purpose. And our purpose statement, which is our why, is to inspire commitment and action so that our planet and future generations thrive.

And so we stay really focused on planet, future generations, the commitment model, the action and engagement. And then we’ve actually evolved kind of less than you would think that an entity over 20 years would, particularly in a changing world.

We’ve made some tweaks to the model, and we’re actually always having conversations about: In what ways have the opportunities for impact changed?  In what ways… are we learning from our businesses that they may need different things?

So, it’s a really good question because it is one that we have to constantly be thinking about and sort of reflecting on how, in the context of that larger purpose and in the context of building a movement that is powerful and that results in positive impact today and for future generations, what do we need to do differently?  And what do we need to stay true to? It’s an excellent question.

Denver: You’ve got to be thinking about it all the time. Climate work can be overwhelming. It is certainly not for sissies, and it can place a tremendous burden, I think, on both individuals and institutions. But you know this world so much better than I.

How do you personally stay grounded? How do you help the team manage climate anxiety and maybe some of the reversals we have been seeing, and allow them to sustain energy for the long, long haul?

Kate: I think we all have our moments for sure. But I would say for the most part, our team stays really focused on that purpose, and it’s very much alive for us. We also stay really focused on the fact that we get to do this work.

I mean, at this moment in the world, to do this work, as hard as it is because it is hard to do this kind of work right now, but to be able to be in the arena of the work that needs to be done and that we get to be part of trying to figure out: How do we kind keep it going is?… Again, it’s hard but it’s also joyful in the sense that there’s a real sense of purpose to it.

So even if there can be this sense of overwhelm at times, and we acknowledge that, there’s also like, Okay, so let’s go over here and just really stay focused and get stuff done. And I would say our team does a really remarkable job of just being this really energized group of people.

And so at any given time, if someone’s having one of the days where they’re feeling overwhelmed, we’re able to link up and stay focused on the path forward. We are a mostly remote organization, so that’s been an interesting new challenge for me as a leader and I think for the world as we figure that out.

Because when you’re on a call, it’s great. We’re able to be more connected in some ways, but then also you just end a call and you hit OFF, and there’s not that  walk back to the office or “Hey, you looked a bit down today.” So we try to really make sure that we’re using our tools well to be really connected at a time when that’s an added challenge, I would say.

Denver: Yeah, I’ve heard from other guests who’ve said that one of the tough things about being remote is that the communications vertically are better than they’ve ever been before.

And perhaps the communications, it’s clear, it’s more frequent, but the horizontal communications really fall, and you’re not being influenced by those adjacent to you to the degree that you were when you were all physically present. Have you found that?

Kate: That’s a really interesting perspective. I haven’t heard that specifically, but I can see that. That makes sense to me. I would say maybe my  framing of it would be a little more of the formal communications. The structured communications are easier and better just because it’s much easier, say, for me as CEO to get into a room with more people on a regular basis, and true for everyone else.

I think the less structured, less formal communications, which are often really rich and valuable and where people are able to say like, “Hey, could you just give me some feedback on that presentation? So-and-so’s face looked off.” It’s just when you have to schedule a call for that as opposed to say, “Hey, can I just grab you while we’re walking back?” It’s just a little harder.

So I do think though, I would say for me, that’s more how I’ve experienced the difference. And so I think our team has done a really great job. We’ve had our bumps in the road for sure, and we’ve learned things the hard way. And as we’ve learned things, I think we’ve solved for some of that. But I think there, it’s just a different context.

We wouldn’t change it. We grew a lot, and we were able to hire amazing people who live in different places. So we’re not an organization where there’s a return to office. Reality, that wouldn’t make sense for us. And there’s not a return to the office. We have a small office and we have a headquarters.

 So I think that’s helpful in a way because there’s no thought of: Should we become more… it’s like, no, no, we’re remote. And so doing this well is that’s what we do.

Denver: Lots of decisions ahead of us, but that ain’t one of them.

Kate: Yes, exactly.

Denver: Yeah. I mean, you know, I always miss those walking back to the offices from the conference room and talking to your colleague and saying to her, “Kate wants us to do what by Tuesday? Is she crazy?” You miss that. You really miss it. You can’t do that after the phone call was done.

Kate: Right, right. Exactly.

Denver: Talk about team a little bit. This started at Hailey Pass. You said, Hey, I like to lead a team. It’s in my DNA, and I like to do it in a joyous way. What do you think the key is to having a great team and leading a great team?

Kate: I think the key is really investing in relationships. So, building the relationships so that there is a context of trust. And I would say that’s only back to our remote conversation. I think that has only become more important, and it’s constant. Like, it’s not you get it right and then you’re: check, done.

It’s really committing to investing in those relationships because we’re humans, and so we make missteps and we make mistakes. Absolutely, myself included. And so investing in trust and then being really transparent and owning mistakes and creating a culture where that is acceptable. And that starts with leadership being able to do that.

And I’ve definitely had my experiences, and it’s hard, but I do think that that helps. So trust, kind of ownership or accountability. And then in that context, like creating clarity so that people know what they’re supposed to do. I think that just the fundamental  clarity is really, really helpful.

And then staying dynamic because I think there’s never a “set it and forget it.” And so just… I had a coach, and one of the things he said to me that was really interesting is:  Any time the slightest change happens, say, a new person joins a team, or even just someone… their role changes, you now are working with a new team.

It’s not like you don’t have a leg up from having worked together before, but really  staying open to the fact that almost all the time, or at least several times a year, you’re managing a new team, and so you need to operate in that way. And that can either feel hard. Or like this great opportunity of like, Okay, so new teams, we have to figure out some new things.

Or I need to… I think the way I was handling that was not working, so this gives me a new chance to do this differently. So, those are some of the things I know. For some people, they might have a really clear…. it’s this, this, and this. And I have a little bit of that trust, transparency, clarity, and dynamism.

But when I  linger on that last point, my experience of team is that it really is… I think about it as much now as I did when I first started. I think about it differently, and I bring more experience to it, but it continues to be something that takes, in the best of ways, my full attention because it’s about relationships.

Denver: Yeah. You’re so right in terms of a new person. Somebody once compared it to a recipe and cooking something. And throw one additional ingredient into that recipe or that dish that you’re cooking, everything’s going to taste different. It’s not going to just be over here in the corner. Everything changes, and you really have to be mindful of that.

Kate: That’s a great analogy. I’m going to use that because that… yeah, it truly can, and that can be great. It might sometimes not taste as good, and so then you have to figure out: Do we need a different ingredient, or do we have to adapt in some other ways? So I do think that’s a really great one.

Denver: Yeah. Yeah. One thing about it is it’s always going to taste different, and that’s not going to be as good, it’s going to be worse until you get used to it because…

Kate: Exactly. Exactly.

Denver: Then we get, Whoa, it’s an acquired taste. This is actually better…

Kate: Yeah.

Denver: …than this one.

Now I saw that you’re increasingly engaging individual donors alongside businesses. What have you learned about what motivates people to give? And what are you doing, Kate, to go out there and round them up, reach them?

Kate: Yeah, so our particular relationship with individual donors is a strong one and one that, as you said, we’re working on growing.

And I think what’s interesting about it for us is like our model, our impact model is businesses giving to other nonprofits. So we’re facilitating that. We’re facilitating, and that’s all through our impact area. So that’s the work that we do.

The individual donors that we’re reaching out to and that are finding us are supporting our work directly. So there are donors who are saying, Hey, I like that ecosystem that you’re building, and I want to support you in doing that. So the types of donors who are interested in what we’re doing are an amazing group of people because they’re interested in growing the amount of impact in the world at large.

And so they see our model and they’re like, oh, you certified a hundred million U.S. dollars in giving last year. I can’t give that much, but if I give to you, I can be supporting your ability to do more of that. So they’re kind of systems builders, and we have a lot of systems to build right now, so we’re definitely seeking those donors who can support that.

And I do think sometimes clarifying that message across our whole ecosystem of stakeholders because our businesses… they do make a small donation to us as part of their 1%, and that’s part of how they’re supporting our work as well because they know we need to do the work.

And then our nonprofits don’t pay anything. They’re the recipients of that funding. But the individual donors, we have a really unique and special relationship with them because they’re the ones who see what our team is doing, what our purpose is, what we’re doing on a daily basis to create this global infrastructure and ecosystem. And they’re psyched about that.

“…I would say for each of our stakeholder groups, there are really key things, and it all boils down to believing that you can take a simple action, and that is the pathway to big impact.”

Denver: Backbone supporters are priceless. And it’s funny how many organizations love the backbone organization, and they want to support the backbone organization with words, but not enough of them want to support it with dollars. They want somebody else to do it. And to be able to focus on that and to find some people to do it is absolutely fabulous.

Finally, Kate, for listeners tuning in, whether they’re running a company, donating as individuals, leading a nonprofit, what’s one meaningful action they can take today to join or support the 1% for the Planet movement?

Kate: So appreciate this question. And I would say for each of our stakeholder groups, there are really key things, and it all boils down to believing that you can take a simple action, and that is the pathway to big impact.

So for businesses out there, learn about 1% for the Planet and join, that’s a simple thing. Whether you’re tiny or huge, there’s a place for you, so join. For nonprofits, keep doing what you’re doing. That’s what I would say to that stakeholder group. And articulate clearly what it is that is your why in the world, because that’s what people are attracted to.

And then for individuals, if you are interested in building the ecosystem that can withstand and create positive outcomes in a dynamic world, we are here for you. And we have a recurring donor program, monthly donations, and we also have opportunities for more connected, ongoing giving. So across all of those stakeholder groups, reach out. We’re always happy to talk.

Denver: Fantastic. Well, thanks so much for being here today, Kate, and for being such a fabulous guest. It was a real delight to have you on the show.

Kate: Thank you. It was a pleasure to talk to you.