GiveBack was established in 2010 by Stephen Paletta, the winner of Oprah Winfrey’s reality television series, Oprah’s Big Give. The show focused on 10 contestants who traveled the U.S. completing challenges and avoiding elimination in order to be named “America’s greatest unknown philanthropist.” Stephen won $1 million at the conclusion of the show. He was asked to give $500,000 to his favorite charity and then could spend the other half of a million on himself.
Even though Stephen was selected by Oprah as the next great philanthropist, he firmly believed that every person had the ability to be a great philanthropist no matter how much money they had to give — whether a person was giving away $50 a year, $500, $5,000 or $500,000 — they were all great philanthropists. So, with the second $500,000, he established The GiveBack Foundation as a §501(c)(3) donor advised fund, whose mission is “to encourage more giving: more people giving… more money… more often… to more charitable organizations.”
In 2014, Stephen sold the assets of GiveBack LLC, to TASC, the nation’s largest privately-held third party administrator of tax advantaged benefit plans. This allowed GiveBack the resources to grow into its next life stage and forever change how workplace giving is administered for employers all across the country. Today, TASC provides all technology, administration and customer service functions for The GiveBack Foundation. Stephen joined TASC serving as a subject matter expert and visionary to build the
distribution channel for the workplace giving service offering.
Stephen graduated from Cornell University where he was an All-American lacrosse player and earned a degree in Civil Engineering. In his 20-year career, he has been a serial entrepreneur starting three independent businesses. His first company, Westmoreland Construction, is still one of the premier telecommunication utility contractors in the New York Metropolitan area. Stephen is also the patent holder of three US Patents all focused on the pipeline technology industry.
Stephen’s heart has always been in philanthropic endeavors. Prior to starting GiveBack LLC, and The GiveBack Foundation, Stephen founded The International Education Exchange (IEE) in Rwanda Africa. IEE built the first ever public school library in Rwanda and developed a teacher training program that has been implemented in more than 1000 schools across Rwanda.
He enjoys speaking motivationally around the world about living a life of meaning: how charity and altruism is an essential ingredient to a significant life. He has been featured on TEDx Talk in Nashville, TN, “The Next Great Philanthropist.”
