Introduction

In this case study, we explore how four investment management companies—Axonic Capital, BrightSpire Capital, Hawk Ridge Capital, and One River Asset Management—used Groundswell to tackle the common challenges of running a corporate giving program.

Legacy platforms often create administrative headaches, slow distributions, and limited transparency, making it difficult for employees to engage and for HR teams to manage.

Groundswell addresses these issues head-on, helping firms streamline workflows, navigate budget constraints, and launch giving programs that protect employee privacy while optimizing tax advantages.

The result: faster implementation, higher employee participation, and meaningful impact across the organizations and causes they support.

Alleviating administrative burden and leveling the playing field for Axonic Capital

“Axonic Capital has always aimed to give back but, frankly, everyone was just too busy to do it consistently,” said Clay Degiacinto, founder and Chief Investment Officer of the $6 billion fund. “I came up through Goldman Sachs, which has a deeply ingrained culture of philanthropy. We wanted that here but didn’t feel as though we had the resources.”

For decades, large Wall Street institutions have leveraged their vast resources to give back to the community. This effort often takes the form of massive corporate foundations, complete with dozens of staff, multi-year strategies, and expensive or custom-built software.

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What was great about implementing Groundswell was it gave us a modern, easy-to-use program that immediately leveled the playing field between us and the largest financial institutions on the planet.
— Chris Hughes, Chief Operating Officer, Axonic Capital

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Some, like the aforementioned Goldman Sachs, have even used corporate philanthropy as a component of their total compensation approach. Each year, the iconic firm places a significant contribution into a donor-advised fund for each of its 400 partners - equal to roughly ten percent of that partner’s annual bonus. The Goldman Sachs Gives program then allows those partners to give that money away however and whenever they want.

Once Axonic deployed the Groundswell program to its employees, they saw benefits similar to those that came with the Goldman Sachs Gives program. “What was great about implementing Groundswell was it gave us a modern, easy-to-use program that immediately leveled the playing field between us and the largest financial institutions on the planet,” said Chris Hughes, Axonic’s Chief Operating Officer, and the architect of the firm’s Groundswell program. “Now we can offer a benefit that any young, talented portfolio manager coming from a major bank has come to expect.”

Restoring benefits and rebuilding employee trust for BrightSpire Capital

This was exactly the scenario that faced BrightSpire Capital, a $5 billion REIT that spun out of a much larger investment management firm. BrightSpire Capital employees previously had access to a very generous matching program through Benevity. However, following the split those employees lost access to that benefit, with many of them voicing disappointment. They had to decide if they wanted to continue their charitable giving program with a large institution or switch to a platform that would best serve its employees’ needs.

BrightSpire Capital needed a solution that could scale with their organization while maintaining the personal touch often lost in enterprise systems. Their exploration led them to Groundswell, a newer player in the corporate giving space.

What caught their attention wasn't just the platform's capabilities, but also its approach to

customer service. "Groundswell wanted to work with us and get our feedback," Falisha Indarjit, the program administrator, explains. “They really listened to what we wanted and tried to make things happen."

The shift to Groundswell brought immediate improvements in several key areas. The most significant change came in the form of transparency into matching and distribution timelines. “What I love most about Groundswell is that you put in your $2,500 or your $1,000, and you see that immediate employer match," says Indarjit. This instant visibility allows employees to better plan their charitable giving and split donations across multiple organizations.

With Groundswell, BrightSpire Capital has seen an increase in employee participation, particularly during significant events like Giving Tuesday and charitable fundraising events like Cycle for Survival.

From inbox chaos to streamlined giving for Hawk Ridge Capital

For Hawk Ridge Capital’s Dave Bradley, the problem was different. For years, the Brentwood based firm prioritized giving back, offering to match employees’ charitable donations of up to $5,000. Bradley has so consistently emphasized the importance of the program that the company achieves nearly 100% participation across its team.

But that high achievement came at a price - as each match request was sent as a simple email directly to his team’s accounting inbox. They found themselves buried under time consuming administrative tasks - vetting the nonprofits to ensure 501(c)3 compliance, mailing and tracking checks, and maintaining an excel spreadsheet of each employee’s remaining match limits.

Bradley discovered that Groundswell was built to serve all size businesses, including small and medium-sized businesses - both in terms of cost and simplicity.

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I had explored employee giving software solutions in the past, but the price points and implementation timelines and costs just made them unjustifiable, How can I justify spending $40k per year on Benevity when we’re only giving away $100k? It seemed wildly inefficient.”
- Dave Bradley, COO, Hawk Ridge Capital

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Whereas platforms like Benevity can charge $35,000 or more just to implement their software—often taking 30 weeks to go live—Groundswell offers a full-featured solution that launches quickly, reducing administrative burden while maintaining robust functionality and support.

Hawk Ridge was so impressed with Groundswell that it referred the platform to one of its fellow investment firms, One River Asset Management. Ian Malloch, One River’s Chief Operating and Risk Officer, had always wanted to launch a matching gift program. But for Malloch, the issue wasn’t administrative burden or cost - it was risk.

Honoring employee and company privacy for One River Asset Management

Malloch was sensitive to the idea that employees would have to disclose to him where they sent their contributions in order to receive their match. Further, he was nervous that One River would then have to directly associate itself with that charity by sending a matching check from One River’s account.

“I just felt like today’s hyper-polarized world left us exposed in both those scenarios,” Malloch said. “First, employees don’t want me to know about their charitable business, and I imagine they simply may not have participated in our program if they had to disclose where they were donating. Second, there’s zero chance I want the firm tied to any of these organizations, no matter how much I might personally align with them. There’s too big a chance one of our limited partners would see that association and raise it as a concern.”

In today’s polarized world, privacy matters. With Groundswell, employees can choose to remain anonymous, and companies can opt to keep their contributions disassociated—giving both sides control over how donations are shared.

Because Groundswell’s platform provides each employee with a tax-advantaged donor-advised fund (DAF), all corporate donations and matches flow through the Groundswell Charitable Foundation. Donations (and matches) can be sent anonymously, even those coming from the company. This ensures that employees can give privately, while companies like One River remain fully disassociated from the charities, alleviating any potential concerns from employees or stakeholders. The result is a secure, compliant, and highly engaging giving program that protects privacy without limiting impact.

Conclusion

By combining strict compliance, streamlined administration, and tools designed to drive employee engagement, Groundswell makes corporate giving, volunteering, and grantmaking simple, secure, and impactful. Financial services companies of all sizes—from lean teams to larger investment firms—can quickly launch programs that protect privacy, reduce operational burden, and inspire employees to give more, more often.