The View from the Office.

I met up with Andrew Kaufmann, the CEO of Time to Give Network at the Ole Steen coffee shop just south of Bryant Park. 

Andrew was visiting from London to promote the not-for-profit, which enables executives to sell a lunch meeting and donate the proceeds to the charity of their choice.

The idea evocates the famous annual lunches auctioned by investor Warren Buffett. Buffett raised a total of $53 million for the Glide Foundation selling 21 lunches. 

Time to Give Network gives you the chance to be like Warren, albeit at a lower price point.

Buffett’s auctions were handled through eBay. Last year, it was transferred to Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce. That auction fetched $200,100. 

Andrew said the idea is appealing to people who would rather donate time instead of cash, but there wasn’t a mechanism to do it easily.

That’s where Time to Give Network comes in. Anyone can apply to list an offer to meet, along with a price and charity from among the 26,000 organizations that have been vetted. 

People using the platform can browse listings to find a person. Donors set their terms including duration, location, the size of the donation and the charitable organization. There’s a 10% a commission charged to the person booking the meeting.

How much would you pay to have lunch with the billionaire legendary investor Leon Cooperman? 

Right now, he’s available for $10,000 for an hour.

The project isn’t just for billionaires. Whether you’re a CEO, thought leader, or industry expert, your time and knowledge are valuable, Andrew said.

You can reach Andrew via LinkedIn or DM me for a warm intro.