Dominic Kalms ’06 on the Business of Giving Back

While at Milken, Dominic Kalms ’06 was involved with student government, track & field and, most importantly to him, Koreh LA where he first learned about the wonders of giving back.

 

At NYU, Dominic earned an undergraduate degree cum laude in Political Science with a double minor in Law and History. He continued his education at Columbia University where he earned a Master’s Degree in International Affairs. After graduate school, Dominic worked on Capitol Hill as an Associate in the United States Senate. Dominic worked for the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee where he focused on enforcing human rights compliance mechanisms in US Free Trade Agreements. Dominic reported directly to Everett Eissenstat, who is the former Deputy Director of the National Economic Council and former Deputy Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs.

 

After his time on the Hill, Dominic returned to Los Angeles where he worked at Global Philanthropy Group (GPG), a private strategy consulting firm which advises high net worth individuals, celebrities, and large corporations on their philanthropic strategy. While working at GPG, Dominic helped launch and manage foundations for a wide variety of public figures and corporations, but during this time he was very troubled by the amount of time and money required to start a nonprofit.

 

It was during this period that Dominic began to put together the pieces of what would soon become his greatest adventure yet, GVNG. He founded the technology company in 2015 with the vision of making philanthropy accessible to millions of people without the extensive paperwork, hassle, cost, and time traditionally required to establish a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. In the three years since its launch, led by Dominic as Chief Executive Officer, GVNG has secured over $3.5 million in venture capital funding which has facilitated the growth of the company’s infrastructure and its support team. GVNG’s proprietary software has the capability and legal compliance to establish a 501(c)(3) in one minute, bypassing what could be a 12 to 18 month waiting period while paperwork is filed and thousands of dollars are spent on staff and legal fees. The platform has partnered with Bank of America, GoDaddy, Bill.com, Getty Images, and others to provide clients with state of the art grantmaking systems, custom nonprofit websites, nonprofit bank accounts and proprietary fundraising tools.

 

Immediately following the recent Woolsey Fire, members of the Malibu community, including Miley Cyrus, Liam Hemsworth, and Cindy Crawford, used GVNG to establish the Malibu Foundation to provide funds and services to victims of the fires. To date, the Malibu Foundation has raised millions to help rebuild Malibu and has made grants to the Boys and Girls Club of Malibu and the Seminole Springs Mobile Park Home.

 

Dominic recalled the lifelong lessons he took away from Milken’s many community service opportunities, which partly inspired his career in philanthropy. He remembers specifically the service program that takes Milken students to local public schools to read to elementary students, known as Koreh LA. This literacy program is still thriving and our faculty would be thrilled to know its impact spans across the alumni community.