The construction industry is overwhelmingly white and male, with the number of employed people of color and women hovering at around 10 percent over the last 25 years. Procore.org, Procore’s social impact arm, is working to expand the definition of what construction looks like by supporting organizations that challenge bias and expand the labor pool.
What makes Procore.org unique is that it has one sole focus: the construction industry. The team donates product and implementation services to university professors who are preparing the next generation of construction professionals, union training centers tasked with the job of increasing digital literacy in the field, nonprofits rebuilding our communities in the wake of disaster, and other stakeholders the construction industry reaches globally.
In 2020 and 2021, Procore.org began partnering with two of the largest minority contractor associations in the US, the United States Minority Contractors Association (USMCA) and the National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMC). These associations support their members with additional access to opportunity, including technical and educational resources.
Since last year, Procore employees have provided free product training to over 100 members, as well as a discounted buying program to better partner with minority contractors to support and amplify the impactful work they’re already doing.
Procore.org sponsors and speaks at USMCA’s Annual Tech Day on August 5th, 2021. Left to Right: Alexa Enriquez (Procore.org), Kevin Molloy (Procore.org), Rev. Larry S. Bullock (USMCA), Paul Doherty (Digit Group)
Additionally, Procore accepted a challenge from the Association of General Contractors (AGC), a group that represents thousands of construction workers and contracting firms in the US, to launch a new matching scholarship fund through AGC’s Education and Research Foundation. These scholarships will go directly towards students studying construction fields at historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs.
The ultimate outcome of the scholarships is to increase the representation of Black professionals in the construction industry and put a more diverse generation of students on track to become tomorrow’s construction leaders and innovators.
USMCA recently named Procore their 2021 Philanthropist of the Year for providing members with free product training, educational resources, and the discounted buying program on the Procore platform. “Procore’s mission and stance on diversity, equity and inclusion mirrors USMCA’s mission and purpose. We honor the progressive stance Procore has taken in the Black and brown community,” said Rev. Larry S. Bullock, President and CEO of USMCA.
Procore, a leading provider of construction management software, formalized Procore.org in 2017. Procore.org’s mission is to advance the construction industry through advocacy, education, and technology, as an extension of Procore’s vision to improve the lives of everyone in construction.
Procore formalized its dedication to social impact by joining the Pledge 1% movement in 2019. We’re honored to have been recognized with the Forbes Cloud 100 Pledge 1% Award later that year.
Now more than ever, people in the US and around the world are searching for ways to easily make a difference in their daily lives through everyday actions. At Pledge, we proudly partner with platforms, nonprofits and individuals to do just that – meet people where they’re at and power generosity. The launch of our newest partnership with personalized messaging video platform Cameo demonstrates the power of today’s creative approaches to philanthropy, and will enable talent and their fans to support causes around the world in new & innovative ways.
In a recent talent survey by Cameo, 81% said they intend to donate a portion of their earnings to nonprofits. Now through Pledge, talent and creators will be able to seamlessly donate to a variety of causes they care about through Pledge’s database of over 2 million verified nonprofits and charitable organizations around the world. The new Pledge donation integration will live natively in the talent’s Cameo dashboard, allowing them to turn their earnings into impact, while with Pledge managing the backend donation processing and disbursements to the nonprofit organizations.
While this new feature enables talent to fundraise for their favorite causes, it also provides an entirely new opportunity for nonprofits to partner with influencers to create new donation streams for their organizations, too. The potential for impact through Cameo is limitless and we can’t wait to see how talent and nonprofits alike use this new feature to make a difference in the world.
In the global context of giving, Pledge’s new partnership with Cameo also aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), established as “a blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and in the future,” which Pledge has actively supported since its formation in 2015. This specifically connects to Goal 17, to develop and strengthen global partnerships for sustainable development. Through partnerships like Cameo along with the other purpose-driven platforms Pledge partners with, such as Zoom and Shopify, our hope is to further encourage new, innovative ways of charitable giving through technology to make it simple, engaging and effective for anyone, anywhere to support causes they care about.
“We’re happy to invest in a more substantial, longer-term platform to enable charitable giving year ‘round, and we’re excited that our partnership with Pledge will give us even more insight into how folks give back on Cameo.” says Cameo CEO Steven Galanis.
The new Cameo fundraising feature powered by Pledge is launching on Giving Tuesday, so stay tuned!. For updates, follow Cameo and Pledge on social media and read Cameo’s recent blog post for all the details on this new partnership, which was also featured in AdWeek.
We are pleased to continue the tradition of #GivingTuesday. As part of our Pledge 1% commitment, MTX Group and The Nobel Foundation support underserved communities by improving access to quality educational opportunities. Additionally, MTX focuses community-building toward equitable opportunities for job seekers, people in poverty, military and veterans, people experiencing homelessness, those battling cancer and others.
We’ve been fortunate to help non-profits worldwide, such as Centro Educativo K’iin Beh, Desire Society, Room to Read and Warriors on Wheels. MTX also supports schools located in the Fiji Islands and Jaipur, India. Most recently, MTX collaborated with Gyandeep Public School in India to provide a holistic digital transformation, creating a computer lab to help give students a robust educational background. Eventually, this resource will offer invaluable access to skills-building for students’ futures.
MTX focuses on community building, equality and equitable distribution of opportunities through its partnerships. Our collaboration with Blaze Your Trail creates employment opportunities for people of diverse backgrounds to support migrant job seekers’ assimilation into the workforce. As Blaze Your Trail’s first Talent Partner, MTX contributes training and expertise while providing employment opportunities for graduates globally. MTX partnered with Connecting Everyone with Second Chances(CESC), a nonprofit bringing people out of poverty, to develop a solution easing the social service case management for social workers. In support of our veteran community, MTX maintains several training and inclusion initiatives.
Through our partnership with NPower, one of America’s leading nonprofits for equity in tech, veterans and spouses receive paid internships and full-time apprenticeships in the DFW area. MTX also works with The Unquiet Professional, an organization dedicated to honoring our nation’s Gold Star and surviving families by providing pro-bono consulting and technology services.
As part of our Pledge 1% commitment, MTX gives back to our local community. For example, MTX recently began work with The Samaritan Inn, anon-profit holistic homeless program in McKinney, Texas, that helps people gain independence. In addition, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, MTX sponsored Hope Kits for those fighting breast cancer. MTX family members put together self-care packages, including a hand-written note to each recipient, offering messages of hope and support.
MTX continues to create awareness, share inspiring stories and support those fighting cancer with our newly-announced Cancer Care program. MTX will fully cover medical expenses and one year of paid leave for family members fighting cancer. This follows on the heels of MTX’s industry-leading one year paid parental leave, a crucial part of our comprehensive effort to bridge the gender gap in the corporate world.
At MTX, social responsibility is at the core of our values and culture. The MTX family believes that change must start with us first. We look forward to continuing to meaningfully contribute our time, pro bono services and revenue towards building an equitable and sustainable society for years to come.
Since Lookout was founded, the company has been committed to investing in the communities outside of our own doors where we can see the results as proud members of the Pledge 1% movement. The philanthropic founders and CEO have created a culture of giving back by pledging equity, time and profits – and leading by example.
In 2014, over dinner at Marc Benioff’s home, Marc challenged the CEOs around the table to pledge 1% of their company equity to fund their social impact work, as he had done at Salesforce. Jim Dolce, CEO of Lookout, took Marc’s words to heart and got to work with Lookout’s founders, John Hering, Kevin Mahaffey and James Burgess, and Lookout COO and CFO, Mark Nasiff to create the Lookout Foundation.
The founders and CEO of Lookout each donated personal cash and stock to jumpstart the Lookout Foundation’s social impact activities – and to inspire the Board to approve a grant of 1% of Company equity to the Foundation. The strategy worked! During its 2015 Series F round, the Lookout Board approved the transfer of .2% of the shares per year over 5 years to the Foundation.
The Lookout Foundation is an independent 501c3 charitable organization run by employee volunteers who drive grant-making activities and employee engagement. The 3 pillars that the Foundation supports are Women & STEM, Internet Privacy & Security and Supporting Black & Underserved Communities. The Foundation gives grants and employees volunteer with impactful nonprofits in the cities where they live and work- San Francisco, Boston, Washington, DC, Toronto, London and Bangalore. Recipient charities include SMASH, NextGenCyberTalent, Stemettes, and humanitarian organizations around the world that are helping those negatively impacted by COVID and natural disasters.
In furtherance of the Lookout Foundation’s mission of supporting Women & STEM, Lookout launched the Day of Shecurity conference in 2015 with 25 female engineers gathered around a table at the Lookout headquarters. In 2021, Lookout held two interactive events that together reached over 2500 women from over 50 countries, sponsored by over 50 companies, including some of the most notable names in tech. Day of Shecurity was a resounding success and achieved our simple goal of inspiring more women to participate in the cybersecurity industry.
Brenley Brotman, VP Global Recruiting and Chair of the Lookout Foundation led discussions on what it’s like to work at Lookout with female employees in the Lookout Expo Booth, making it the most visited Expo Booth at both of the virtual conferences. Given the popularity of these talks, the Lookout Foundation has launched an ongoing “Day in the Life” series that we will share with our nonprofit partners and on the Lookout YouTube channel. You may see excerpts from a “Day in the Life” with Lookout Senior Threat Intelligence Researcher, Kristina Balaam here:
Leading by example, the Lookout founders and CEO have created a culture of giving back that inspires employees and makes Lookout a fantastic place to work. As a member of the Pledge 1% Builders, Lookout interacts frequently with fellow Member companies, sharing best practices on choosing grant recipients, sourcing virtual volunteer opportunities, and more.
“Hustle helped us reach Asian Health Services patients and community members to inform them about COVID testing and vaccination opportunities. Since Hustle was capable of handling the Asian language special characters, we were able to send in-language messages in Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Khmer and were able to connect respondents to testing and vaccination appointments.”
Michael Lok
Planning Manager
Asian Health Services
Cruise is proud to have joined Pledge 1% this past April as part of our launch of Cruise for Good – our social impact program leveraging our zero-emission, self-driving vehicles to positively impact the communities we serve.
The mission of Cruise for Good is to connect and support communities where and when we are needed most. Since beginning operations in response to skyrocketing food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cruise for Good has delivered more than 1.8 million meals to low-income communities in our hometown of San Francisco by partnering with the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank and SF New Deal – and this is just the beginning.
Michael Wirkkala, COO of the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank shares, “Cruise’s collaboration and partnership was invaluable in making it possible for us to quickly scale up and ensure low-income seniors in our community didn’t have to risk their health to access fresh groceries.”
By joining Pledge 1%, Cruise is dedicating at least 1% of our fleet to social impact – so our commitment to our communities will grow and scale as our business does. This ensures that traditionally underserved communities can benefit from the access and connection that our fleet can provide. We’re also committed to encouraging others to join the Pledge 1% movement and share our first-hand experience in the Pledge 1% Playbook — together we can all do our part to improve our communities for the better.
DroneDeploy has continued to grow their social impact program as a member of Pledge 1%. In support of giving tuesday and #pledge1gives, we’d like to share a story from one of our nonprofit partners. DroneDeploy supports nonprofits, schools and crisis response organizations with free and discounted software so they can better understand their world and make decisions. We’d like to highlight one of our partners, One People One Reef and share how the community can make smarter decisions with technology.
Micronesian Outer Islanders from the remote atolls of Yap & Chuuk in the western Pacific have sustainably managed their coastlines for centuries. Marine resources shape the cultural & social dynamics of these coastal communities. Their traditions & livelihoods are intimately linked to the health of the reefs that surround their islands.
In 2010, islanders recognized a decline in fish populations & reef health, in addition to a series of human health challenges. Rapid environmental and cultural changes threaten the present & future wellbeing of the reefs & the communities who rely on them.
One People One Reef works to monitor and mitigate changes in the reef and their effect on island communities. They recently started using drones to monitor the islands. “With drones, we can get centimeter resolution and are able to fly on our own schedule. This allows us to obtain data on the schedule of the project and the community needs rather than when a satellite happens to be passing by.”
Maps created from drone images allow community members to monitor changes in fringing reef from sea level rise, invasive species such as lizards and vegetation changes.
“We can literally get a birds eye view of the islands and surrounding reefs, allowing us to accurately quantify vegetation cover, reef extent, ocean debris, and many other parameters.” We take many hundreds of photos over each island and seam them together, using software generously donated by Drone Deploy, to make one large, high-resolution orthomosaic map of the entire island.”
The team at One People One Reef is just one of close to one hundred nonprofit organizations that DroneDeploy.org supports. Using DroneDeploy’s platform, the organization is able to better understand and manage their resources for greater community empowerment.
