Today, Pledge 1% is excited to announce a landmark milestone: 20,000 companies across the globe have taken the pledge, making the commitment to integrate giving and impact into the core of their business.
From an Experiment to a Global Standard
This achievement marks a defining moment for the corporate giving movement — one that began a little more than a decade ago with an ambitious experiment: get 500 companies within one year to publicly commit 1% of their equity, product, profit, and/or time to a charitable cause of their choice. This small bet immediately paid off and has continued to scale well beyond the original goal. As of today, 20,000 companies across major industries, 130+ countries, and all stages of growth have taken the pledge.
Co-founded by business leaders, Pledge 1% is now an independent nonprofit organization leading the corporate impact movement through insights and resources, peer connection, and a framework for companies to mobilize resources for different communities and causes worldwide. Today, member companies span North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and beyond — a testament to the universality of the embedded impact model — and the movement’s growth reflects a shift in how businesses around the world understand the relationship between commercial success and social impact.
What a Decade of Impact Has Revealed
Over more than ten years of working alongside companies at every stage of growth, Pledge 1% has gained a clear view of how corporate giving and collective action works in practice. Several themes and key learnings have emerged consistently across the member community:
Giving takes many forms. Pledge 1% members contribute in ways that extend well beyond the original framework of four pillars: time, product, profit, and equity. Companies are finding meaningful ways to give through expertise, access, services, and other forms of value — reflecting the diversity of businesses that have joined the movement.
An early commitment sets the tone and maximizes impact potential. The consensus among Pledge 1% members is that companies benefit most from taking the pledge early. It helps set a company’s culture, enhances hiring practices and talent recruitment, and is easier to implement and grow with your business.
Investors view the pledge as a signal of strength. An increasing number of investors support founders and companies that have taken the pledge. This commitment is viewed as a positive signal rather than a liability, one that indicates long-term thinking and values alignment.
Impact is not limited by company size, industry, or stage. Pledge 1% member companies range from early-stage startups to unicorns and publicly traded companies. Pledge 1%’s framework is flexible and designed so that any type of business can find a meaningful and sustainable way to have impact.
The pledge supports long-term business performance. Across all sizes and stages of companies, the commitment to giving has contributed to recruiting and retaining exceptional talent, deepening customer engagement, and building durable brand recognition as the companies have scaled. The data continues to affirm that corporate social impact and business performance are complementary, not competing.
Join the Movement
Companies considering the pledge are encouraged to make the commitment now. Pledge 1% is designed to meet companies where they are — any size, any industry, any stage. Our team can help you navigate your options and build a model that scales with your core business. You can learn more and take the pledge at www.pledge1percent.org/take-the-pledge.
