As originally published on Puppet.com

One of our core values at Puppet is “Community powered. Empowering community.” With our open source roots, we’ve always had strong ties to our community of users who help us innovate much more rapidly than we could on our own. But our responsibility extends beyond our own technical community to the communities in which we live and work. As leaders in our space, we can make an even bigger difference through our philanthropy initiatives which foster diversity and inclusivity, encourage employee volunteerism, and provide greater access to technology.

Just a few months ago, we launched the Innovation Lab at Puppet in partnership with PIE (Portland Incubator Experiment) to help empower entrepreneurs and foster community within Portland’s startup community. The Innovation Lab at Puppet provides a co-working space at no charge for entrepreneurs at Puppet’s headquarters. In launching the program, we prioritized companies founded by people from systemically underrepresented populations in entrepreneurship, including women and members of the LGBTQ+, black and Latinx communities. Not only do these amazing entrepreneurs gain access to our space, they also have access to Puppet employees who have expertise across multiple disciplines, including marketing, product management, sales, engineering and more. Today we have 32 start-ups engaged with us, 40 Puppet mentors, and we are the beta customer for a couple of the startups as well. We are very fortunate to be able to share our space and knowledge with the next wave of innovators and to learn from them in the process.

Diversity and inclusion is another deeply important issue for us. Puppet has taken the TechTown Diversity Pledge and helped establish Ally Shift Workshops which teach people how to use their privilege and influence to support people who are targets of systemic oppression in their workplaces and communities. This includes women of all races, people of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQ folks, parents, caregivers of all sorts, and people of different ages. We’ve cross-trained more than a dozen facilitators and held numerous workshops around the world.

To encourage employee volunteerism, we offer employees four paid volunteer days each year. We encourage employees to use these days for causes about which they are passionate, and we provide support to teams to organize group volunteer days. Many Puppet employees are highly involved in local organizations after hours and on weekends, such as providing support for Girls Who Code, hosting hackathons for underprivileged groups, and hosting events for other community organizations.

While we’ve made a lot of impact in our communities, there’s still more that we can do. That’s why we’ve joined Pledge 1%, a global movement dedicated to helping businesses of all sizes contribute to philanthropic causes. Pledge 1% provides businesses a scalable way to make a difference by empowering them to donate 1% of their staff time, product, profit, and/or equity to any charity of their choosing. We are really excited to join the Pledge, to commit 1% of our equity as part of the pledge, and further increase the impact our company and employees can have around in our communities around the world. Stay tuned to learn more on how we leverage our participation in Pledge 1% to further drive positive change in the world. And if you know other companies who might want to join us in the Pledge 1% movement, they can learn more here.

We’re proud to be making a difference in the world, not just with the technologies we build and contribute to, but through our philanthropic efforts which enable us to have an impact on both a local and global scale.

Originally posted: March 10, 2020

Pledge 1%’s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are changing the world. Our leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, and are all doing their part to have an impact in their communities and at their workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their background and path to success.

What is your name and title?

Kassy Morris, Head of Construction Education and Employee Onboarding at Procore Technologies.

Briefly (1-2 sentences) describe your current role.

I lead the awesome teams that develop and deliver a world class new hire orientation and long-term construction education for employees. The Construction Education Program focuses on practical learning experiences that help non-construction folks understand how construction works and how our company helps.

What’s the best decision you’ve ever made?

I made the very difficult decision to leave the traditional construction industry to step to the sidelines and drive positive change from the outside.

What’s the number one challenge you face as a woman in your industry?

In a male-dominated profession, the number one challenge I’ve experienced is demonstrating competence. The burden of proof is on me as a woman, instead of having assumed competence as my male counterparts do.

Do you have any mentors? What does mentorship mean to you?

Yes. I have several, both male and female. My mentors do many things for me. The things that come to mind are modeling the way, advocating for me and those around them, and providing direct feedback and advice in tough situations. They also tend to push my boundaries when I’m not doing it myself.

What advice do you have for women who are just starting their career?

It is incumbent upon you to take your seat at the table. It is no one else’s responsibility.

If you are fortunate enough to have advocates for you and that support you, make sure you embrace them. We can’t do it ourselves, even though it does start with self-advocacy. Use your voice; your perspective is valuable.

What woman inspires you the most? Why?

At this time in my life, during the season of my life, a woman that I work with named Kelly inspires me the most. She is a leader with a strong but thoughtful voice. She believes in herself and speaks the difficult truths that drive success for her teams. She is a wife that supports her husband in all circumstances and she is a mother who has raised two strong, independent, successful children.

She’s done this all while developing a career of her own in which she is respected and sought after. She is objective but kind, resolute in her positions, cares fiercely for individuals in her life and models a work ethic that cannot be rivaled. She shows both dedication and selflessness in the things that she does, both personally and professionally. She does so in a humble way, without being boisterous. She does not expect others to drive her success.

Are you reading/listening to anything interesting at the moment? Please share your most recent favorite book or podcast!

I’m currently re-reading Measure What Matters, which speaks to the power of OKRs as a goal-setting methodology for business; however, I leverage them personally as well. I love good fiction as well and have fallen in love with Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter. I also enjoy NPR’s How I Built This podcast and Last Podcast on the Left as a guilty pleasure.

What’s something coming up that excites you?

I have recently been asked to share an idea I have on a TEDx stage in 2020 and to author a book about it. The topic is aimed at how the homeless can save the construction industry.

It will explore my hypothesis that we can leverage the able-bodied homeless population to supply the construction industry with trades people and knowledgeable workers. This will then reduce the severe labor shortage we are experiencing that threatens the future of our built world.

Originally posted: March 10, 2020

Pledge 1% invites all entrepreneurs and their companies to commit important resources (product, time, and resources) to support integrating philanthropy into their business from an early stage.

“The business of business is improving the state of the world.”– Marc Benioff, Chairman & CEO, Salesforce

As SxBlue is a registered Salesforce-partner, we are touched by the Pledge 1% movement. As a startup we believe that helping non-profits is essential for our business. We already offer pro-bono advise and actual services to Kenniscentrum Filantropie Foundation (KCF).

In early 2018, our colleague Kevin Leunissen approached Norbert van Berckel who was struggling with the implementation of Salesforce and Pardot for his foundation. KCF runs a platform of over 30,000 charities and major donating foundations. KCF strives to connect those parties in order to grow the efficiency of the philanthropic market in the Netherlands. As a result, less money is waisted on administrative processes. KCF offers help in acquiring the ANBI-status for charities and giving them sufficient fiscal advantages. With Geefwijzer.nl, they offer potential donors easy access to charities. With onlinefondsenboek.nl, they open up the vast area of major donating foundations.

Kevin, Wouter and Henk helped Norbert and his volunteers implement and develop the Salesforce NPSP solution. For a better understanding of the market KCF is in, Kevin sat alongside the volunteers and helped calling charities. This gives SxBlue employees the opportunity to grow their personal development on a real life production system. A real WIN-WIN situation.

More information about Kenniscentrum Filantropie Foundation, contact Norbert van Berckel at info@kenniscentrumfilantropie.nl

Are you interested in SxBlue? Please contact Nicoline Pol, Wouter Kitsz or Henk Arkesteijn at info@sxblue.nl. 

Originally posted: March 9, 2020

Pledge 1%’s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are changing the world. Our leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, and are all doing their part to have an impact in their communities and at their workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their background and path to success.

What is your name and title?

Jaclyn Mazzarella, VP of Marketing at Addteq.

Briefly (1-2 sentences) describe your current role.

I am responsible for all marketing and inbound sales efforts for Addteq. Although my favorite areas of expertise are event and digital marketing, I am also a content whiz.

What’s the best decision you’ve ever made?

Leaving my state agency job that I originally thought would blast off my career.

What’s the number one challenge you face as a woman in your industry?

Constantly feeling like I need to prove my worth. Sometimes, seeming like you know enough about a topic isn’t enough to prove you are “the right one for the job”.

What advice do you have for women who are just starting their career?

Keep learning. The knowledge you will need to know to expand your career did not end from graduating college.

Be open minded, accept criticism and be aware of opportunities around you.

What woman inspires you the most? Why?

Michelle Obama. The way she made a person of herself, even while being The First Lady of the United States, is inspiring. Especially, how she decided to take the resources she had available to her and use them to give back to the community in so many different ways.

Are you reading/listening to anything interesting at the moment? Please share your most recent favorite book or podcast!

The Myth of the Nice Girl. It is an amazing book that should be read by ALL young female professionals.

What’s something coming up that excites you?

Women’s History Month! And the summer months (I miss the beach).

Originally posted: March 6, 2020

Pledge 1%’s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are changing the world. Our leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, and are all doing their part to have an impact in their communities and at their workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their background and path to success.

What is your name and title?

Mandy Ballinger, Director of Operations at NextChapter.

Briefly (1-2 sentences) describe your current role.

I manage daily operations, product development, and user support at NextChapter which is a cloud-based software application for attorneys to prepare , manage and file their cases online. I’m also responsible for managing and overseeing NextChapter’s paralegal operations.

What’s the best decision you’ve ever made?

Prior to my current role, I worked as a paralegal in a large law firm. While I was ambitious and moved up quickly into a management role, my path was very defined and safe. I never felt like I was reaching my full potential.

One of the best decisions I’ve made in my career was to take a leap of faith and join as the first full-time employee at NextChapter when it was a small startup on the verge of launching its product. I was new to the legal tech industry and there were so many unknowns, but it was an adventure that was just as scary as it was exciting.

From that position, I became the COO and helped launch & develop the product and grow the company to a team of more than 20 employees. Our rapid growth & success eventually got the attention of Fastcase, another legal tech company, who recently acquired us. I’m very proud of my accomplishments with NextChapter and Fastcase. I couldn’t have achieved those if I hadn’t taken a risk almost 5 years ago.

What’s the number one challenge you face as a woman in your industry?

There have been times where my opinion has been put into question, likely because of my gender. My role is to build and manage software for attorneys, as aa non-attorney and to lead developers as a non-developer. Both of those groups are predominantly male.

Trusting in myself and being confident has been essential in my role to be taken seriously. It’s not an easy thing to do and it’s taken time and practice to successfully become a habit.

Do have any mentors? What does mentorship mean to you?

Yes, I think mentors are invaluable. I think sometimes people can think of mentors as only formal relationships. I consider many people in my life to be mentors that I turn to to help me talk through tough situations and to ask for their opinions and advice.

What advice do you have for women who are just starting their career?

My best advice would be to not back down when it feels like the odds are stacked against you. There were so many times in my career where I knew I had the right answer or solution and I would start to second guess myself because I was being challenged, likely because of my gender.

I’ve learned over time that doing what’s right is rarely what’s easy. Every time I stand up for myself, it’s like adding a building block. Over time those blocks have built a strong foundation for trust that I have in myself.

What woman inspires you the most? Why?

I’m inspired by woman who have championed the efforts to support other woman such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, J.K. Rowling and Sheryl Sandberg.

When did your company join Pledge 1%? How long have you been working on your impact program?

NextChapter was founded with the Pledge 1% model at conception. It was one of the aspects of the company that really caught my attention when I was considering joining the team. Having an integrated philanthropy modal so early on as a company has allowed us to integrate giving back and helping others into our core culture and values.

Are you reading/listening to anything interesting at the moment? Please share your most recent favorite book or podcast!

I love Brene Brown’s book, Dare to Lead. She very honest and authentic about the struggles of being a leader and the importance of being vulnerable to be courageous.

What’s something coming up that excites you?

I’ve been working over the last 6 months to build a new service offered through NextChapter, called Paralegal as a Service which will be launching very soon! I’m excited for this launch because it’s been a chance for me to use my new role as Director of Operations to work with, and lead, paralegals again. The service is like an Uber for paralegals, where attorneys can work remotely with paralegals in our network. I have really enjoyed recruiting new paralegals to join our network. We have a very energetic and hardworking team that’s so eager for this service to launch!

Originally posted: March 6, 2020

Thank you, Nasdaq for helping us celebrate some of our wonderful #Pledge1 female leaders on your jumbotron in Times Square! Happy International Women’s Day!

Pledge 1%’s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are changing the world. Our leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, and are all doing their part to have an impact in their communities and at their workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their background and path to success.

What is your name and title?

Jessica Hyman, Head of Strategy and Sustainability at Atlassian.

Briefly (1-2 sentences) describe your current role.

I lead Atlassian’s global sustainability program which includes diversity and belonging, climate and human rights.

How long have you been in your current position?

I’ve been at Atlassian 4 years and my role has continually evolved. Previously, I led people analytics, strategy, program management, operations and communications. I also ran our Pledge 1% involvement and sat on the SF Foundation Council. Atlassian launched our formal sustainability program in April and I’ve been the Head of Strategy and Sustainability since.

What’s the best decision you’ve ever made?

After almost a decade in sustainability consulting, I set an intention to start a sustainability program at a tech company. I turned to Naomi Morenzoni who was running Pledge 1% at Salesforce, who gave me the advice to join an HR team at a tech company and try to start a program from that team. Four years later I accomplished that goal at Atlassian.

My path wasn’t direct and took a lot of turns along the way. My mom taught me the power of “polite persistence” and my Dad taught me “if at first you fall, try, try again”.

Over the course of four years, those two lessons of perseverance and resilience, over a perfect plan, got me there.

What’s the number one challenge you face as a woman in your industry?

This is a tough one. I feel like the challenges change as you grow. However, the most important thing that has gotten me through each challenge has been having people I could turn to for guidance and resilience.

Do have any mentors? What does mentorship mean to you?

I run a women’s mentoring group called Forum. It’s a place where we can be open about where we are at, inspire each other to reach our goals and ultimately hold each other accountable to getting there. I also can count on several people on my team at Atlassian for mentorship in different areas in which I’m hoping to grow or learn.

What advice do you have for women who are just starting their career?

Get clear on a vision of where you want to go. The path to get there is often unclear so just start taking steps in the right direction and be open to changing your approach along the way.

What woman inspires you the most? Why?

I’m not sure I have a single woman to point to, but I always feel inspired when I see a woman really owning her own voice; especially when it may contradict popular opinion.

I’ve watched several women at Atlassian do this including Megha Narayan, Molly Hellerman, Erika Fisher, Amy Glancy and Bek Chee. I really look up to all of them.

Are you reading/listening to anything interesting at the moment? Please share your most recent favorite book or podcast!

I just finished reading Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton and loved it. My favorite podcast is the New York Time’s the Daily. However, one of my favorite recent podcast episodes is “Ultra Sitting and the Philosophy of Endurance with Jason Bowman” from the Well. It’s about Vipassana – a 12 day silent meditation program that I did last spring.

What’s something coming up that excites you?

A first attempt at a self-supported 50k run in May, from Point Reyes along the coast to San Francisco with a bunch of my friends.

Originally posted: March 5, 2020

Pledge 1%’s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are changing the world. Our leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, and are all doing their part to have an impact in their communities and at their workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their background and path to success.

What is your name and title?

Shanee Ben-Zur. I am the head of marketing, media, & growth, at Crunchbase.

Briefly (1-2 sentences) describe your current role.

I lead the teams that shape the Crunchbase brand, market our products, generate demand and create ongoing relationships with our users.

What’s the best decision you’ve ever made?

The best decision I made was to start speaking up. I gave myself guidelines.

If I understand the goals of a project, if I am approaching it with a curious mind, if I have suggestions for what we can do, and more importantly, if I have the ability to help bring those suggestions to life, I’m going to speak up.

That has helped me enormously. It’s gotten me on projects and teams that I wasn’t necessarily connected to because I spoke up and volunteered my support. In my current role, I work with my team to help foster that spirit of speaking up, questioning the status quo and always seeking improvement. As a leader, those diverse perspectives are crucial to finding great solutions and uncovering gaps before it’s too late.

What’s the number one challenge you face as a woman in your industry?

Leaders and managers who don’t know how to help outspoken women be successful. It’s an endemic issue. If you are a strong, outspoken woman, you will be told that you have to change. Conversely, if you are a strong, outspoken male (especially in a leadership position), the people around you will be told they need to flex to the leader’s style.

Do have any mentors? What does mentorship mean to you?

I have had many mentors over the years. Some bosses, some friends, some co-workers and some direct reports. Mentorship is essentially the act of helping one person identify the best path to get to their goals. I typically identify a strength area that a mentor has that I’m interested in growing in. I will then work with them to learn more about how they developed their skills, or get advice from them on how I can make that strength more integral to the way I work.

I am typically drawn to mentors who able to maintain a sense of calm, positivity and warmth through all their work, especially the hard times. It’s a very unique skill to be able to always put the whole over the individual, especially in times of stress. I also look for mentors who can help me identify strengths that I didn’t know I had and foster them. Additionally, I like to find ways to avoid being overly self critical of areas I’m still working on.

What advice do you have for women who are just starting their career?

I think the common trap is to immediately ask, “how do I climb the corporate ladder?”. The problem with that is that it blinds you from asking the more important question, “which ladder do you want to climb?”. It’s important to spend your early days as a professional learning about what different jobs in your space entail and trying your hand at them to see where you find the most passion and excitement.

You’ll need to find something you’re passionate about for the days when your job is hard. And there will be days, many days. That passion will also fuel you to ask for what you deserve as you gain expertise in your field, so you can also have support to move up the corporate ladder. It’s important to come in with an open mind and an eagerness to help solve problems so that you have the chance to learn.

What woman inspires you the most? Why?

Three way tie. My grandmother who survived Auschwitz and emerged as fiery and no-bullshit as you can be. The strength and fortitude to go through the worst of humanity and emerge someone who has humor, love and more than her fair share of sass was an inspiration.

The second is my mother. She always, always told me to demand what I deserve. From being a little kid and forcing me to talk to the server at a restaurant to ask for what I want, to being an adult in the work place and always asking, “are they recognizing my contributions?”.

Last, but certainly not least, my older sister. My sister has worked in heavily male dominated fields her whole career, working her way up from staff engineer, to leading business units and now as a corporate VP at Microsoft. She is strong, doesn’t make apologies for who she is and isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers in pursuit of the greater good. And she does it all while looking for opportunities to bring others up with her.

Are you reading/listening to anything interesting at the moment? Please share your most recent favorite book or podcast!

I get a lot of value from The Daily podcast – they always find a way to identify the human interest angle of any topic. The second podcast I enjoy is Without Fail, which talks to people who started something and typically had a big fail before getting to their ultimate destination. This really resonates for me because I think we all need to do more to open up and share our failures and how they were actually launchpads to success.

What’s something coming up that excites you?

Crunchbase’s mission is to democratize access to opportunity. One of the ways we do that is by shining a light on inequities in the private company landscape, through research we conduct and editorial stories we share.

We’ll be releasing a report detailing the last decade of investments in female founders in anticipation of International Women’s Day. I’m excited to see how the findings resonate with people in our industry, with media and with female founders who are trying to bring their ideas to market. I believe that the first step to addressing issues is acknowledging their existence. This is one way we’re trying to bring the differences in opportunities to the front of people’s minds.

Originally posted: March 4, 2020

Pledge 1%’s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are changing the world. Our leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, and are all doing their part to have an impact in their communities and at their workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their background and path to success.

What is your name and title?

Diz Petit, Head of Civic Labs.

Briefly (1-2 sentences) describe your current role.

I focus on continual integration of our core Civic Labs mission into our company DNA and the growth of our three pillars: Fostering Community Engagement, Promoting Food Security, and Advancing Diverse-Owned Businesses.

What’s the best decision you’ve ever made?

Staying true to what I am passionate about.

When I started at Postmates I became known as “the person who cared about stuff” just through my interactions with other people. When it came time to start a social impact team, it was a no brainer that we had the right folks to build it.

What’s the number one challenge you face as a woman in your industry?

Equity.

When did your company join Pledge 1%? How long have you been working on your impact program?

2017! We started our program by building our program in conjunction with support from Pledge 1%. We wouldn’t be where we are today without it.

Are you reading/listening to anything interesting at the moment? Please share your most recent favorite book or podcast!

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries.

Originally posted: March 3, 2020