By Sarah Kimmorley. Originally published on Business Insider Australia.
Happy Friday and welcome to the weekend. Here’s what you need to know.
1. The Apple Watch is here – almost. On March 9 Apple is hosting a media event which will likely go over the final details, including the pricing, of the watch which will be released in April. And while we still don’t know everything, we’ve collected the most important Apple Watch features the company has shared so far here.
2. How said Australian property has to be expensive? You can now buy in without actually buying a house. Real estate investment startup BrickX is trading “Bricks”, which start from $66 each, as a way for investors to partly own properties. Ultimately the business is aiming to make purchasing property more accessible, although you don’t get to move in. Read more on that here.
3. eWay has pledged 1% of its profits to philanthropic ventures. Last night the online payments startup joined Ansarada, in becoming one of the first companies in Australia to get onboard Atlassian and Salesforce’s 1% initiative. Atlassian began doing it 10 years ago, and have now donated about $40 million.
4. Buy shares in VPN companies: metadata retention is coming to Australia. The Abbott government’s $400 million plan to make telcos save two years of metadata from phone and internet users is hitting parliament today after Labor finally backed down and agreed to support the controversial measure, which the government argues will protect us from terrorists and pedophiles.
5. Westfield will offer free WiFi to shoppers. After striking a deal with Optus and recently listed Australian tech company SkyFii, more than 20 Westfields will offer customers up to 1GB of free data to use over a three-hour period daily. The WiFi service provided by SkyFii will also provide location analytics and personalised content for subscribers. See where the service will be rolled out here.
By Lina Caneva. Originally published on Pro Bono Australia.
The Foundation’s new integrated philanthropic approach is called the 1-1-1 model, and Salesforce is now striving to share it with other corporates, developing a standalone program, Pledge 1%, in order to do so.
Behind Pledge 1% is Suzanne DiBianca, President and co-founder of the Foundation and member of a number of boards and advisory councils in the community, including the World Affairs Council’s Global Philanthropy Forum and the Entrepreneurs Foundation. She and her team seek to inspire other corporations to adopt their approach and prove that effective corporate philanthropy is, in fact, not all that difficult.
This week DiBianca is Down Under to spread the word about Pledge 1%, having already had some success in Australia through her mentoring of the CEO of Australian tech company Atlassian.
Pro Bono Australia News spoke with her about the initiative, its future in Australia and how corporate philanthropy is transforming – for the better.
Scanning for Need, Strategising for Change
The roots of Pledge 1% stretch back fifteen years, when Salesforce, and its Foundation, were in their early days.
“When we started the company, we said we’re going to do things differently..
“I did an industry scan and asked, ‘what are the best practices for philanthropy in the corporate world?’ I found there were three domains where people could make a big difference, and that’s where the one per cent model came together.”
“One of the things that we learned doing this scan was that most companies are disintermediated with their philanthropic strategy. That is, they send people one place, they write cheques somewhere else, and they give their product somewhere else. It’s not connected.”
DiBianca looked to the corporate philanthropy strategies of major companies to find inspiration for Salesforce.
“Firstly, it’s one per cent time – we learned that from [toy company] Hasbro. We gave all employees six paid days to do volunteer work, and now we’re at about 800,00 volunteer hours globally,” DiBianca explains.
“The second was product. We learned that from [networking firm] Cisco. They were the first leaders in giving your products at a discounted rate to the NGO sector.”
The Foundation’s model for grants encourages young enterprises to leverage the stock market, an idea DiBianca says she got from online auction platform eBay.
Before companies launch on the stock market and open up shares to the public, the model recommends that a percentage of stock is put into a foundation structure. When the company goes public, that stock is essentially turned into grant money.
“Once the company’s stock has value, you suddenly have all this money to give away and you don’t have to rely on shareholders to get permission to do it,” DiBianca says. “I’m, really fired up on the equity side. We went from zero to $20 million in our Foundation in our first day [of going public].”
Since adopting the 1-1-1 approach, the Salesforce Foundation has given over $80 million in grants.
The ultimate strength of the 1-1-1 is its universality, DiBianca says.
“It is something that every company on the planet has – every company has those three aspects. They all have people, they all have money and they all have product.
“Some are more relevant to the non-profit sector than others, especially on the product side… [but] there’s a place for you to give your product no matter who you are!” she says, enthusiastically recalling a product partnership between Energiser batteries and robotics organisations.
Pushing The Pledge
With the establishment of Pledge 1% as a stand-alone initiative, the focus for the Salesforce Foundation shifted to finding strategic partners worldwide to drive its rollout.
DiBianca explains that rather than creating new Not for Profit organisations, the intent is to support existing Not for Profit organisations to administer the program.
“We started in the US with a group called the Entrepreneurs Foundation in Boulder, Colorado,” she says. “Here in Australia, we’re partnering with Australian Philanthropic Services Group (APS).
“We’re very focused on the equity part, and every country has different tax rules, so we’re trying to find the best local partners.
“Entrepreneurs are very busy, they don’t have a lot of time. Pledge 1% is to take the myth away that it’s hard to do this, because it’s not hard to do it, and also to help entrepreneurs execute quickly and execute really easily.”
DiBianca mentored Australian software company Atlassian’s Scott Farquhar, who is now a founding member of the Pledge 1% program, with two other Australian companies, eWAY and Ansarada, set to join next week. Leading companies like Google and Yelp have also adopted all or part of Salesforce’s 1-1-1 model.
DiBianca expects to extend beyond the tech sector.
“The groups we learned from weren’t all tech companies. It just happens to be that our network happens to be mostly tech companies, but every company on earth has these assets. They all have people, product and money, it’s just how they want to use that to better the community,” she says.
“Now, if I look at where we are today, and the incredible work and leadership of other companies like Atlassian, we luckily got out the gates first. Just like I learned from Hasbro and Cisco and eBay, they’ve learned from us. We’ve been really excited to share everything that we’ve learned with this whole next generation of companies.”
“When I started in this job and we were a small company, I looked to the bigger companies. I looked to Cisco, and wondered, how can I learn from them? People look to them as leaders.”
Part of DiBianca’s Australian trip is to now encourage local corporates to drive the 1-1-1 model and to scout for prospective Not for Profit partners.
“We’ve gotten a lot of interest and a lot of momentum. People just want to know what to do and how to do it,” she says.
“Atlassian – they’ve put their money where their mouth is, they’re just fantastic. Another one is Campaign Monitor – they’re doing some product donations. My sense is that they’ll go bigger when the time is right for them.
“We’re trying to find NFPs that are excellent in this area and list them up. We’re just trying to find great organisations and put some wind into their sails.”
Some Australian Not for Profit organisations have already benefited from the Pledge 1% program, including Homeless Connect and Volunteering Queensland.
The Changing Face of Corporate Philanthropy
In the 15 years she has worked in her role, DiBianca has seen some seismic shifts in the way corporate philanthropy is managed and where it is directed.
“Corporate philanthropy is starting to leave the marketing department and its entering HR. I think that’s a good trend, because HR is the heartbeat of the company,” she says.
“Marketing is your brand. Not that philanthropy is not important to the brand…but I’m starting to see all these companies building CSR into their HR departments, and I like that a lot. I think it’s the right place for CSR to live.
“I’m also starting to see that philanthropy used to be very top down, depending on what the CEO liked, and it is not that way any more. It is very democratically driven, bottom-up rather than top-down.
“If you want philanthropy to be real and not just something that’s stamped on a brochure, or on your signs at an event, you’ve got to have your people own and drive it, so it’s totally appropriate. I’ve really seen that in the last ten years.”
DiBianca says she sees a shift towards companies and foundations working with a limited number of major benefactors.
“We made this mistake, we spread our money out with a lot of small grants and a lot of organisations and we just really learned that our best use of our money was when we could put our people, our money and our product all together in the same place,” she says.
“It doesn’t matter if you have a separate foundation or if it’s part of your company, we have different models operating in different parts of the world. What matters is whether the company is willing to invest in it regardless and can you make it part of your policies and procedures as a company.
“I’m just really pleased with where I think this is going in Australia.
“There’s a new kind of company that we’re starting to see – either old companies are getting on this program because their employees are demanding it, or new companies becoming involved in their startup process – but part of the reason I came here first is that I’m seeing lots of interest in this [Australian] market, but also a lot of action.
“I think it’s a great sign.”
More than 25 companies join Pledge 1% in the U.K., dedicating 1% of employee time, equity, product or profit to improve communities around the world
U.K. companies, including NewVoiceMedia, Qubit and Sage, commit to making the community a key stakeholder in their businesses London
February 5, 2015 – Pledge 1%, a corporate philanthropy movement founded by Atlassian, Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado, Rally for Impact and Salesforce.org, today announced the launch of Pledge 1% in the U.K. More than 25 U.K. companies have pledged 1% of employee time, equity, product or profit, making the community a key stakeholder in their businesses. The launch took place at St James’s Palace and was attended by the Duke of York and a number of companies supporting the pledge, including high-growth companies NewVoiceMedia, Qubit and Sage.
Comments on the news:
- “Salesforce.org is dedicated to changing the way companies think about corporate philanthropy,” said Charlotte Finn, vice president EMEA, Salesforce.org. “We are excited that more than 25 U.K. companies are joining us in giving their resources back to the community. Pledge 1% is a great example of the power that business has to effect positive change.”
- “By participating in Pledge 1%, you will be acting as an accelerant for a number of different people and a number of different streams of activity. The most significant one will be acting as an accelerant to your own entrepreneurial business,” said HRH The Duke of York.
- “The real power of Pledge 1% is that it inspires companies to incorporate philanthropy into their business model from day one,” said Scott Farquhar, co-CEO and co-founder, Atlassian. “As a result, giving back becomes a core part of their culture and driver of success, not just another box to tick off. Having already launched the Pledge 1% movement in the U.S., Australia, and Canada, we’re excited that the movement is now taking hold in the U.K.”
- “Pledge 1% has been a rocketship since we launched in the U.S last year,” said Ryan Martens, founder, Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado and Rally for Impact. “We’ve found that companies are truly ready to give back and drive incredible impact in their communities—we have a goal of securing 1,000 new pledges this year.”
- “We are proud to join the Pledge 1% movement in the U.K.,” said Jonathan Gale, CEO, NewVoiceMedia. “We believe giving back is a key component of being a great company and our employees are excited to be part of a movement that enables us to share our success and become a force for good in the world.”
- “We are delighted to be one of the first U.K. companies to support the Pledge 1% movement,” said Graham Cooke, co-founder and CEO, Qubit. “Donating equity, time, and product fits with our goal of being a socially responsible company. We’re fully committed to fulfilling our pledge, and as we grow, giving back more and more to the local and global community we’re part of.”
Pledge 1% Comes to the U.K.
With 608,100 new business started in the U.K. in 2015, an increase of 4.6% year-over-year, the potential power for U.K. companies to create a lasting impact continues to grow. Companies that have joined Pledge 1% U.K. at launch include NewVoiceMedia, Qubit, Sage Group Plc, Idio, CloudShift Group, GoSquared and Adaptavist. Pledge 1% plans to secure 50 new U.K. pledges in its first year and 1,000 new pledges globally in 2016. Pledge 1% has also partnered with leading venture capital firms including Bessemer Ventures, Blackbird Ventures, Foundry Group, Obvious Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and SV Angel and ecosystem influencers including B Lab, Techstars and Startupbootcamp to include Pledge 1% as a key part of the startup process. 50% of the companies in the Salesforce Ventures U.K. portfolio have taken the pledge. In addition, Pledge 1% is partnering with Founders Pledge, a UK-based charity, to provide companies a turnkey option to process equity and further access to like-minded peers who are establishing giving as a core value from the beginning.
Building Philanthropy into the Next Generation of Companies
Companies today are fighting a war for top talent, especially among millennial employees. Corporate leaders are realizing that to better engage employees and attract and retain top talent, giving back needs to be at the centre of a company’s culture. In fact, companies that integrate corporate citizenship into their businesses have 2.3 times the employee retention and an increase of 29% in new hire commitment than companies that do not, showing the true business value that philanthropy can bring to an organization. According to Deloitte’s 2015 Millennial Survey, six out of ten millennial employees say that a “sense of purpose” is part of the reason that they chose to work for their current employers.
In addition to increased recruiting, retention and employee engagement, philanthropy and corporate responsibility efforts can also affect the bottom line. According to Nielsen, 55% of global online consumers are willing to spend more on products from companies that are committed to positive social and environmental impact.
Pledge 1% provides the tools and best practices to empower companies to dedicate 1 percent of employee time, equity, product or profit to improve communities around the world — making it easy for companies of all sizes to incorporate philanthropy into their business models. To learn more about how your company can take the pledge, visit www.pledge1percent.org.
About Pledge 1%
Pledge 1% is an effort spearheaded by Atlassian, Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado, Rally for Impact, Salesforce.org and Tides to accelerate their shared vision around integrating philanthropy into businesses around the world. Pledge 1% encourages and challenges individuals and companies to pledge 1% of equity, product and employee time for their communities, because pledging a small portion of future success can have a huge impact on tomorrow. Pledge 1% offers companies turnkey tools and best practices, making it accessible for any company to incorporate philanthropy into their business model. To learn more or to take the pledge, please visit www.pledge1percent.org.
About Salesforce.org
Salesforce.org is based on a simple idea: leverage Salesforce’s technology, people and resources to improve communities around the world. We call this integrated philanthropic approach the 1-1-1 model. Since 1999, Salesforce technology has powered more than 27,000 nonprofit and education institutions; we’ve provided more than $100 million in grants; and our employees have logged more than 1.1 million volunteer hours throughout the world. For more information on Salesforce.org, please visit www.salesforce.org.
Salesforce, Salesforce1 and others are among the trademarks of salesforce.com, inc.
Sources:
- Centre for Entrepreneurs, 2016: http://centreforentrepreneurs.org/how-entrepreneurial-was-the-uk-in-2015/
- Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship: State of Corporate Citizenship, 2013: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/276918559_The_State_of_Corporate_Citizenship_2014
- Knopp, Brian. “Maximizing the Effectiveness of Corporate Volunteer Programs” (webinar). CEB. July, 2014.
- Deloitte: The Deloitte Millennial Survey, 2015: http://www.deloitte.com/MillennialSurvey
- Nielsen: Nielsen Global Corporate Responsibility Report, 2014: http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/nielsenglobal/apac/docs/reports/2014/Nielsen-Global-Corporate-SocialResponsibility-Report-June-2014.pdf
Originally published on CSR Wire.
BOULDER, CO, Dec. 02 /CSRwire/ – #GivingTuesday — Atlassian, Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado and the Salesforce Foundation today announced the Pledge 1% program, setting a target of securing 500 pledges by #GivingTuesday 2015, December 1, 2015. The program is the result of corporate social responsibility leaders coming together to encourage and challenge their peers to pledge 1% of their company’s equity, product and employee time for their communities.
“When our company was small we made a public 1% pledge so that our employees and the world would hold us accountable,” said Scott Farquhar, co-founder and co-CEO, Atlassian. “We pledged 1% of equity, profit, employee time and software licenses. That little 1% decision at the beginning has turned into more than $30M aimed at making the world a better place. We want to empower other entrepreneurs to join the movement and we believe the Pledge 1% program will help them make one of the best choices of their lives.”
“When founding Rally Software, we made the commitment to pledge 1% of our personal and corporate equity to benefit the community and create the Rally Foundation. With Rally’s 2013 IPO, these early efforts translated into the largest single gift to our community foundation and in turn, gave a substantial boost to Rally’s social mission of creating Citizen Engineers,” said Ryan Martens, co-founder and CTO, Rally Software; co-founder and board member, Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado. “This commitment has had a huge impact on our overall corporate culture and values. I encourage all entrepreneurs to make this same pledge to society.”
“Fifteen years ago, Salesforce transformed corporate philanthropy with the 1-1-1 model of integrated giving and it was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made,” said Suzanne DiBianca, president, Salesforce Foundation. “Leading companies like Google and Yelp have already adopted all or part of Salesforce’s 1-1-1 model and with the Pledge 1% program, even more companies will be inspired to create an impact in the communities where they live and work.”
The Pledge 1% website details how companies can pledge 1% of their equity, product and employee time, empowering companies to take the pledge with the support of the Pledge 1% program. By providing a turnkey solution with tools, best practices and relevant information, the website is intended to make it easy for any company or person to incorporate philanthropy into their business model from the beginning.
#GivingTuesday is a global day dedicated to giving back. Businesses, charities, community centers, families and students around the world come together for one common purpose: to give and celebrate generosity. By launching Pledge 1% on #GivingTuesday 2014, the hope is to inspire, facilitate and further encourage giving by companies around the world and achieve a goal of 500 company pledges in one year.
The Pledge 1% movement already boasts an impressive roster of entrepreneurs, executives, founders, venture capitalists and companies who have pledged to improve their local communities, including Cotap, Foundry Group, Google, InsideSales.com, Optimizely, Rally Software and Yelp. Additional Pledge 1% partners, including B Lab, the Robin Hood Foundation, SV Angel, TechStars and UpGlobal, have committed to help grow that roster by encouraging the early stage companies they work with to make giving back a priority.
To learn more about how your company can take the pledge, visitwww.pledge1percent.org.
About Pledge 1%:
Pledge 1% is a movement dedicated to making the world a better place by inspiring, fostering, and celebrating early stage corporate philanthropy. Pledge 1% encourages and challenges individuals and companies to pledge 1% of equity, product, and employee time for their communities, because pledging a small portion of future success today can have a huge impact tomorrow. The Pledge 1% website provides a turnkey solution featuring tools, best practices and relevant information, making it easy for any company or person to incorporate philanthropy into their business model from the beginning. To learn more or to take the pledge, please visit http://www.pledge1percent.org.
About Atlassian:
Atlassian unlocks the potential in every team. Our products help teams collaborate, build software and serve their customers better. Nearly 40,000 large and small organizations – including Citigroup, eBay, Coca-Cola, Netflix and NASA – use Atlassian’s tracking, collaboration, communication, service management and development products to work smarter and deliver quality results on time. Learn about products including JIRA, Confluence, HipChat, Bitbucket and Stash at http://atlassian.com.
About Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado:
The Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado (EFCO) is a network of Colorado entrepreneurs whose companies share a common commitment to pledge a portion of founding equity or a portion of annual profits to the community. By creating a culture of corporate philanthropy from an early stage, EFCO member companies instill the values of community support into their organizations and into the communities in which they reside. For more information about EFCO, visit http://efcolorado.org.
About Salesforce Foundation:
The Salesforce Foundation is based on a simple idea: leverage 1% of Salesforce’s product, equity and time to improve communities around the world. We call this integrated philanthropic approach the 1-1-1 model. Since the Foundation’s inception in 1999, Salesforce technology has powered more 23,000 nonprofit and higher education institutions; we’ve provided more than $73 million in grants; and our employees have logged more than 743,000 volunteer hours throughout the world. For more information on the Salesforce Foundation, please visit www.salesforcefoundation.org.
Salesforce, Salesforce1 and others are trademarks of salesforce.com, inc.
By Chris Rauber. Originally published on San Francisco Business Times.
The Salesforce Foundation is hoping to inspire 500 startups to pledge 1 percent of their company’s equity, 1 percent of the founder’s personal equity and 1 percent of their product and employees’ time within the next year. The Salesforce Foundation pioneered the Pledge 1% program 15 years ago.
A new website aims to make participation in the program easier.
Atlassian, an Australian software firm with U.S. offices in San Francisco and Austin, Texas, and the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado are backing the new website along with the corporate foundation of San Francisco-based Salesforce.com. The trio made the announcement to coincide with Giving Tuesday, the philanthropy world’s answer to Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
The new site, www.pledge1percent.org, explains how companies can make a pledge, complete with online tools and background information.
The Pledge 1% effort is already supported by a host of high-tech companies, including Salesforce, Google, Cotap, Foundry Group, Rally Software and Yelp, among others. Other partner organizations, such as B Lab, SV Angel, TechStars and UpGlobal have signed on as well, volunteering to encourage the startup companies they work with to take the pledge.The campaign is being administered by the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado, based in Boulder.
Sydney, Australia-based Atlassian, which makes project management and team collaboration software, formalized its pledge in 2006 to donate 1 percent of equity, profit, employee time and software licenses to the effort, officials said.
“When our company was small, we made a public 1 percent pledge so that our employees and the world would hold us accountable,” said Scott Farquhar, the Aussie software company’s co-founder and co-CEO. That decision “has turned into more than $30 million” in equity contributions, he said.
Ebony Frelix, Salesforce Foundation’s vice president of programs, said the Salesforce.com-backed foundation made the Dec. 2 announcement in partnership with Atlassian, Rally Software and the Rally Foundation, and Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado, to stress that the campaign is not a one-company campaign but a collaborative effort among many organizations.
“We’re pooling our resources,” Frelix said, since one of the perceived barriers to other organizations signing up for the Pledge 1% program is that “people sometimes associate it with one company.”
The inimitable Marc Benioff is CEO of Salesforce.com, which launched the Salesforce Foundation in 1999. Suzanne DiBianca is president of the foundation.
To date, the foundation has provided $73 million in grants to nonprofits, and Salesforce employees have logged 743,000 volunteer hours worldwide, officials said.
By Matt Weinberger. Originally published on Computer World.
Cloud CRM provider Salesforce has long distinguished itself from other Silicon Valley heavyweights by refusing to move its corporate headquarters and offices from San Francisco itself, even as titans like Google, Facebook and Yahoo sprawl their offices all over the East Bay and the Peninsula that sits to the south.
Yeah, rent is cheaper there, with San Francisco’s legendarily horrible real estate market a major line item for any company trying to make it in the city. But Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is a native son, and has long maintained that his company can do the most good for the community by staying put. That philosophy is reflected in Salesforce’s much-ballyhooed 1-1-1 model for corporate philanthropy, which has promised that Salesforce puts 1% of “product, equity and time” into charitable causes since is founding in 1999.
Fifteen years later, the Salesforce Foundation, in partnership with Aussie developer tool vendor Atlassian and the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado, is today introducing the “Pledge 1%” program — a push for Silicon Valley companies, venture capitalists, executives, and influencers to get with the 1-1-1 program with a goal of 500 pledges before this time next year.
A key part of Pledge 1% is a resource center that aims to help early-stage startups integrate that 1-1-1 giving model into their businesses before they get all big and sinister, with dastardly schemes and maniacal laughter and dramatic lightning and whatnot.
“We believe that if you create a simple pattern, people will participate,” said Jay Simons, president of Atlassian, which has followed the 1-1-1 model for some time.
Corporate philanthropy is nothing new, after all — you can’t throw a hot dog in New York City without hitting an institution that’s received a giant novelty check with the family name Rockefeller on it. For its part, Salesforce says it’s given more than $73 million in grants to charitable organizations, and makes a special, custom version of its core software available to nonprofits for free.
But for early stage startups, the issue is that they might want to give back to the community, but don’t know how — or feel like they don’t have much to offer. A pre-revenue startup usually has a lot of debt and not a lot of money in the bank, after all.
“When you set aside 1 percent of your company, it’s 1 percent of nothing,” said Suzanne DiBianca, president of the Salesforce Foundation.
That’s where Pledge 1% comes in. Rather than help them disperse their non-existent money, DiBianca said, the Foundation wants to help startups give over 1% of their equity to charitable causes. It costs them nothing now, and can add up to huge sums for charity later, say, when their company sells to Microsoft or IPOs at a valuation of $1 billion.
It’s not even that hard, she said. Thanks to the assistance of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado, DiBianca said that Pledge 1% can offer a “turnkey” solution that makes it easy for startups to include philanthropy in the corporate charters, with the Entrepreneurs Foundation providing all the go-between hustle to get the paperwork sorted. Simons and DiBianca urge startups to get, um, started, because it’s never too late.
This news comes on so-called #GivingTuesday 2014, a hashtagged global celebration of charitable causes. The goal of the Pledge 1% is to get 500 signees by #GivingTuesday 2015 — and it’s already well on its way, with startups and titans like Cotap, Foundry Group, Google, InsideSales.com, Optimizely, Rally Software and Yelp already on board. Meanwhile, startup accelerator TechStars, angel fund SV Angel, and charitable giving consultants B Corp and UpGlobal have all signed on to urge the young companies in their care to pledge.
“The earlier [you start giving back], the better,” DiBlanca says. “But it doesn’t mean you missed the boat.”
By Tom Held. Originally published on The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Organizers of the “1-1-1” model for corporate giving hope to use Giving Tuesday to dramatically expand the effort.
The goal of the 1% Program, launched on Tuesday, is to recruit 500 companies to pledge 1 percent of their equity, 1 percent of their employees’ time, and 1 percent of their product to charity by Giving Tuesday 2015. The effort is patterned after the 1-1-1 model that Salesforce founder Marc Benioff created 15 years ago.
“It would be our dream for all companies to do this,” says Ebony Frelix, vice president of programs for the Salesforce Foundation. “We believe all companies could do more.”
Keeping the Momentum
The new effort also marks an attempt to keep the momentum of a one-day event, Giving Tuesday, going through the next year.
The key element in the Pledge 1% program is a new website, that makes it easier for entrepreneurs to register and incorporate philanthropy into their business model. It will show business leaders how other companies have implemented the 1-1-1 model.
“It’s not just this automated website but the people who are behind that, too,” says Ryan Martens, chief executive of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado.
Future Big Players
The recruiting drive for corporate philanthropists is focused on the kinds of start-up companies that have become major players in charity—the next Facebook or Microsoft, for example.
“We want them to weave this into the culture of the business at its beginning point,” says Mr. Martens, the chief technical officer of Rally Software. “That will be our customer focus in the short-term.”
Giving Tuesday provided the perfect vehicle for the launch of Pledge 1%, according to Ms. Frelix.
“You have big days, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday,” Ms. Frelix says. “People are paying attention. And we want to shine a light on corporate giving.”