The founder of CannaMakeADifference.org, Kevin J White, was on the board of a nonprofit in 2014. Although it was already legal in Colorado, cannabis was picking up momentum to legalize in many more states. Kevin and other board members began to look at whether or not they should accept support from cannabis companies.
As a smaller nonprofit, the decision was made to accept the support, however, many nonprofits across the country were not accepting support from the cannabis industry. As he took a closer look, Kevin realized the potential of the cannabis industry. An entirely new industry, which at its root, seemed to embody the desire to drive change, have a social impact, and give back to the world. He wondered why a company seeking to donate $200,000, couldn’t find a charity to accept the money and therefore was giving it to the county government for a corporate-community partnership project. Kevin decided he needed to find out why nonprofits weren’t accepting the support.
During his situation with his own nonprofit and his research, he found that there was a lot of confusion from the nonprofit sector about accepting support. He found that this was actually not an easy thing to overcome. Legal challenges, banking challenges, 280e, laws regarding marketing, and the sheer number of regulations from the state, county and even individual municipalities created so many hurdles, most nonprofits just decided to forget it.
But one thing kept standing out. The inability of cannabis companies to legally take a tax deduction for a donation!
This caused the greatest confusion for nonprofits and for companies wanting to donate. It also created a little bit of frustration on both sides, especially for cannabis companies looking for nonprofits that would take their donations.
This struck a chord with Kevin and he began working on ways to connect cannabis companies with 501(c)(3) nonprofits willing to accept support from cannabis companies.
With that, CannaMakeADifference ways born!
The mission was clear, ELEVATE both sides of the marketplace and assist in helping cannabis companies receive the benefits all companies do, like tax-deductions, because only then would the full potential for what good the cannabis industry could do for our local communities be realized. This is our fight to this day.
