At Appfire, giving back is in our DNA. Having participated in the Pledge 1% movement since its inception, we are proud of the way our Appfire family embraces it by #LivingThePledge. Appfire Co-founders Randall Ward and Mat Gauvin believe being philanthropic is integral to operating our business, not merely the result of our success.
In 2015, Appfire joined the network of organizations committed to philanthropy through Pledge 1%. From day one we knew philanthropy was a priority, and were drawn to Pledge 1% as an amazing force multiplier for good. Becoming an early partner was an opportunity to amplify our shared commitment to giving back. As our partnership has grown, we’ve helped develop program content, supported local communities, and spread the word about Pledge 1%.
This year, we announced Appfire will donate 1% of the equity in our business to Pledge 1% to continue the movement to inspire, educate, and empower companies to leverage their assets to be that force for good. We’ve now grown our Pledge 1% program to include all four pledge types — product, profit, equity, and employee time. We were among the first to do this, and we’re proud that Pledge 1% is part of our evolution.
Now more than ever — as a fully distributed, global organization with nearly 500 people — we walk the walk with #LivingThePledge. On any given day, we are:
● Caring for stray animals on the streets of Hyderabad
● Offering free coding classes to adults in rural communities looking for a career change
● Making jewelry in the Philippines, with proceeds going back into the community
● Providing support services for at-risk, displaced populations
● Bringing supplies and support to communities impacted by natural disasters
● Giving scholarships to students
● Donating to organizations to help feed hungry children
● Mobilizing in numerous ways — including creating a Slack network to communicate needs, contacting members of Congress, and making donations — to reunite a teenager who was in Afghanistan during the fall of Kabul with his family in the US
“Whenever you put yourself out there like that, your hope is that other people respond to the story, to the message, to the emotion that you’ve put into it,” said Army veteran and Head of Product Engineering at Appfire Steven Kling, who led the effort to bring the son of his former Afghan interpreter to the US. “When people do, it’s so meaningful.”
Maintaining a social-impact mindset fuels us. We are product engineers, analysts, support engineers, marketers, and other professionals who want to have a positive impact on the world and value giving back to the communities where we live and work.
“Our leadership genuinely wants Appfire to make a positive contribution in the world,” said Appfire Technical Writer Christie Gera. “Working here allows me to help others, and the flexibility we are afforded enables me to jump in at a moment’s notice when there’s a need. I feel at home and supported, and lucky to be here.”
Watch our video to learn more about Appfire’s impact.
We’re grateful to be part of the Pledge 1% builder community and join the elite group of leading companies in the social impact space. Addteq is so excited to share our 2021 accomplishments with the community while our founders announce a new commitment to pledge1% of our product Unstoppable revenue towards Glaucoma Research Foundation.
The Techstars Foundation is pleased to announce the receipt of an equity gift from Rover.com valued at more than $630,000. This gift comes as a result of Rover.com’s recent initial public offering and an equity grant given to Startup Weekend when Rover.com was founded, and ultimately to the Techstars Foundation. With this generous support from Rover, the Techstars Foundation will be able to provide additional grants to nonprofit organizations who train and elevate underestimated entrepreneurs.
The Techstars Foundation is a social impact program focused on advancing equity through entrepreneurship, sponsored by Techstars, the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. Since 2015, the Techstars Foundation has worked to make innovation and entrepreneurship more accessible and inclusive by investing in and accelerating nonprofits that deliver scalable impact for underestimated entrepreneurs.
The idea for Rover was pitched at a Startup Weekend in 2011 by Greg Gottesman, then Managing Director of Madrona Venture Group. “I had a bad experience with our family dog at a local kennel after we couldn’t find anyone to watch her,” Gottesman said. “I thought someone in our local neighborhood would have done a much better job for less money than the kennel, so I pitched the idea of matching local dog sitters with pet parents who were going out of town and needed someone to take care of their beloved pet.”
At the time of the founding of Rover, Gottesman, now co-founder and Managing Director of Pioneer Square Labs, served on the board of UP Global, the nonprofit organization that managed and organized Startup Weekend, Startup Week, Startup Next, and Startup Digest. After conversations with Brad Feld, a fellow UP Global board member, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and early leader in the Pledge 1% movement, Gottesman wanted to recognize the important role Startup Weekend played in the Rover story by pledging 1% of Rover’s founding equity to UP Global.
“The truth is, if it wasn’t for Startup Weekend, the world’s largest pet services company would not exist,” said Gottesman, who served initially as the company’s CEO. “So when we were founding Rover, we made a 1% grant to Startup Weekend not just in recognition of what it had done for Rover’s founding but also the startup community more broadly.”
Phillip Kimmey participated in the winning Startup Weekend project and, after the weekend, joined Gottesman as Rover’s second co-founder. After a few months and some early traction on the site, Gottesman hired Aaron Easterly as CEO and the third co-founder. Easterly grew the company and today continues to serve as the CEO of the public company.
In 2015, Techstars acquired UP Global with the goal of growing the worldwide entrepreneurial ecosystem in partnership with a truly global network of community leaders. Because Techstars is a for-profit company, the equity pledge was contributed to the Techstars Foundation, which had recently been established by Techstars co-founders, David Cohen, Brad Feld, and David Brown, to encourage diversity and inclusion in tech. In 2015, the Pledge 1% movement was considered cutting-edge philanthropy and there was no way of knowing when or if the equity pledge would develop into real financial support.
In February 2021, Rover.com merged with Nebula Caravel Acquisition Corp, a publicly-traded SPAC sponsored by True Wind Capital. A decade after Rover was founded, 1% of the founding shares, which at the time was just an idea that came out of a Startup Weekend, resulted in $630,000 to create more access and opportunity for new entrepreneurs from all backgrounds to pursue their own ideas. “We are incredibly grateful to the Rover co-founders and everyone involved in fulfilling this pledge,” said Angela Madura, the director of the Techstars Foundation. “We are excited to see the impact this donation will create for underrepresented entrepreneurs as they build wealth for their families and their communities.”
If your company would like to join leading companies like Rover and pledge 1% of your founding equity to the Techstars Foundation, please contact us. If another cause calls to you, Pledge 1% is ready to support you in making a pledge.
Unity created the Employee Giving Program as a means of empowering Unity employees to participate in opportunities that positively impact our local and global communities of creators making change.
Through this program, our mission is to support global initiatives and organizations, especially those that elevate and share the values of the Unity Social Impact pillars:
- Education and Inclusive Economic Opportunity
- Environment and Sustainability
- Digital Health and Well-being
In total, Unity employees have supported 831 global causes via volunteering and donations and invested $329,000 USD since we launched matching in May 2021. I’d like to reflect on two responsive giving moments that I’m particularly proud of.
In May, Unity leaders met with our team in Colombia to listen to their experiences with widespread protests and violence in their home country. Our response included initiating a grant to support the nonprofit, Recon Colombia. As a result of the funding we directed, Recon has developed an incubation and acceleration program for social entrepreneurship in the Colombian Pacific to advance economic and social inclusion. They estimate that this program will help lift 3,000 people in this region of the country out of poverty, which has the second highest Multidimensional Poverty Index in Colombia.
In the Summer of 2021, the Taliban overtook Afghanistan, wreaking havoc on the ground and preventing females from having access to education and economic opportunity. As a result of the dire situation, a group of Unity employees quickly mobilized to help vulnerable populations in Afghanistan. Unity’s goal is to bring qualified Afghan engineers, and coders from the Code to Inspire program to work at Unity, where they can unlock economic opportunity and meaningfully contribute to our organization. We believe Unity can help sponsor this group and leverage our unique position in tech to start a wider industry trend. Currently, we’re processing all candidate CVs and encouraging qualified candidates to apply.
There are many more examples of Unity employees giving their time and resources to global organizations and I feel grateful every day to work with these individuals. Our employee giving program wouldn’t be possible without the work of Sarah Farris, Senior Engagement Manager, Social Impact, so I’d especially like to thank her for empowering us to do this critical work. We look forward to seeing how much more we can accomplish by this time next year!
The pandemic demonstrated that every sector, organization and person is responsible for change. Whether it’s with money, time, or skills – we all have the power to give.
At Salesforce.org, this commitment is core to who we are and what we do. When Salesforce was founded, Parker Harris and Marc Benioff committed to giving away 1% of our equity, 1% of our time, and 1% of our technology. Over time, that commitment has grown and evolved — including the Power of Us program, Salesforce.org’s technology donation and discount program. In Fiscal Year 2021 alone, this multi-pronged approach has totaled more than $1.45 billion in technology donations and pro bono support to nonprofits around the world.
But our efforts are only as strong as the organizations they support. With over 56,000 nonprofits in our community, we’ve seen organizations use technology to adapt, relying heavily on volunteers, donors and employees. According to our 2021 Nonprofit Trends Report, over the past 12 months 87% of respondents that invested in technology reported it as impactful.
While technology is an important tool to accelerate impact, nothing is possible without donors and volunteers. This Giving Tuesday, through the voices of volunteers and donors alike, we’re celebrating the donors and supporters who are at the heart of our nonprofit community and the power of each individual to give back.
Read on for inspiring stories from volunteers and donors of why they give, and follow us @SalesforceOrg to share your own stories.
“I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in 2018. Went through lumpectomy, countless blood tests, heart scans chemotherapy, radiation, a year of Immunotherapy, and 5-10 years of hormone blockers. I’ve been walking ever since I completed chemo and it’s been a lifesaver. I am walking for all my pink sisters that we have lost and those that are thrivers.”
– Pam Paolucci Tentinger, American Cancer Society Donor and Volunteer
“Josephine and I had been married for 46+ years when she passed away. Having been raised in an orphanage, and as a registered nurse, she felt a personal connection to families in need of a safe and stable home. When she learned about Habitat she immediately wanted to become a part of their mission – and she thankfully brought me along with her. Before her passing, Josephine made me promise that I’d continue to support Habitat. I kept that promise by establishing a charitable gift annuity to help more families have access to the strong foundation that a decent home provides. Josephine was always smarter than me, she had the right idea about giving to Habitat, and I’m grateful to continue to honor her legacy.”
– Gerald “Andy” Anderson, Habitat for Humanity Donor
“Being able to engage and help on a one-on-one basis really gives you a different perspective on how society is coping with what we’ve been through over the last 18 months and I’m truly grateful for the opportunity. I also love the feeling of being a meaningful and active part of the solution rather than just reading about all the challenges our community members face.”
– Ned Mendez, Made in Hackney Volunteer and Trustee
Historically, companies have engaged their employees through volunteering – often considered the cornerstone of corporate giving strategies. Mostly done as part of CSR initiatives, these volunteering events used to be mostly physical and structured around defined VTO policies.
With the pandemic, employees found themselves confined to their homes – but their desire to give back to their communities only grew. This desire was soon supplemented by virtual volunteering – which enabled corporates to engage their employees in remote volunteering opportunities that complemented the new model of working.
Spurred on by the social justice issues in recent years, people around the world are more open than ever to doing good. This trend is supplemented by the growing workforce proportion of millennials and Gen Zs – who are evidently very passionate about giving back. Corporate volunteering leaders such as CSR and HR managers are now looking for ways to engage this workforce.
Goodera x Pledge 1% – A collaboration for good:
Within Goodera too, we’ve worked on multiple volunteering events featuring our own employees (Gooders as we like to call ourselves):
As a part of our promise with Pledge 1% to donate time, Goodera employees volunteered virtually for a group Mapathon to map the most vulnerable places in the developing world so that local and international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) can use these maps and data to better respond to the crisis affecting these areas.
The Pledge initiative helped us do our own part for the cause, with multiple other events organized, supporting organizations like Save the Children.
A few snaps of our Gooders taking part in various virtual volunteering activities across the country. Gooders devote ~500 hours to volunteer, contributing to at least 4 key social events a month in their own capacity.
For the last two months of 2021, our focus is on events surrounding Thanksgiving, Christmas, as well as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Throughout the year, Gooders devote ~500 hours to volunteer, contributing to at least 4 key social events a month in their own capacity.
Planning ahead for 2022, our primary focus area for January and February would be Martin Luther King (MLK) day and Black History Month.
Goodera’s role in giving back:
We curate opportunities specific to each campaign, each month, so that our corporate clients have plenty of volunteering opportunities to choose from. Our most notable campaigns in 2021 included our campaigns on racial equality, Women’s History Month, LGBTQ+ History Month, and Literacy month.
We are currently running campaigns around GivingTuesday, by offering a suite of 30 diverse, globally-distributed volunteering opportunities. Assembling cookie kits for children in crisis, creating educational flashcards, attending a dance workshop run by persons with (dis)abilities, and audio recording books for children under medical care are some of them.
About Goodera:
At Goodera, we’ve been working for the past 7 years to ensure that we connect this generation of purpose-driven employees with global nonprofits in need of their skills.
Today, the total number of eligible users (employee volunteers) of our virtual volunteering platform stands at a little over 5M. Team-based volunteering events that build cross-team collaboration have emerged in popularity (96% of total events) over individual employee volunteering.
We will continue to curate and execute powerful volunteering experiences as a proud Pledge 1% member.
We are now hosting free, exclusive GivingTuesday-themed volunteering activities for corporations.
You can register here with 5-20 members of your team. Happy volunteering from Goodera!
SeeBeyondBorders is a UNESCO award-winning non-government organisation operating in Cambodia. The organisation works in primary schools in partnership with local communities to sustainably improve education standards by training teachers, getting children to school and developing better learning environments. Salesforce has enabled them to have greater visibility and management over the complex nature of operations including the lengthy application process for grants for much needed funds and a geographically diverse volunteer and part-time workforce.
From the outset, FullCRM worked closely with SeeBeyondBorders to understand its business imperatives. They provided mentorship and training including one-on-one visits to assess needs, current competency and how to make Salesforce work in a way that was practical, manageable and sustainable.
“FullCRM’s unfailing willingness to be there for us is by far a stand out,” said Kate Shuttleworth, Director, SeeBeyondBorders. “They have taken the time to familiarise themselves with our programmes, understand the unusual nature of our geographic spread and the different needs of each office. We have such diverse reporting and data collection requirements, so their ability to listen and understand us has been invaluable.”
Like many NGOs, SeeBeyondBorders operates on a tight budget and is reliant on their valuable, yet transient volunteers. With the introduction of Salesforce it has meant that valuable knowledge stays within the organisation. However, they needed someone who could manage the ongoing optimisation of the system. FullCRM offered to meet this need by providing ongoing, pro-bono administration and configuration of Salesforce for the NGO.
“It would be impossible to overstate the role FullCRM have played in making Salesforce work for us and as a result making us a much more efficient organisation,” said Shuttleworth.
Each of SeeBeyondBorders’ offices have different functions; where Cambodia is focused on planning, program implementation and communications with government and other NGOs, the UK and Australia have fundraising, communications and marketing responsibility. With Salesforce they now have a central repository of information, which is critical for direct collaboration between teams and countries. By working together, the various functions of the organisation are able to operate more effectively with efficient and correct task allocation and reporting. On the reporting front, access to data of programming is paramount and is used in generating reports to incorporate in communications with donors and other stakeholders, including the board, advisory board and trustees.
Pacific Channel has joined Pledge 1%, committing to donate 1% of our revenues and 5% of our team’s time to support nonprofits in our community.
We’ve helped the Talalelei Life Futures Fund (Talalelei) since its inception in 2018. It began when Talalelei (Tala) died saving a Chinese New Zealander, caught in a rip on the south coast of Samoa.
To honour Tala’s memory and his life-giving spirit, the fund offers scholarships to young Samoans into tertiary education, an otherwise unattainable path to a better life.
Talalelei is now raising funds to support students into 2022, targeting $30,000.
We encourage you to give alongside us. Pacific Channel will match any donation that you make $1 for $1.
Robbie, Fale, Jane, Su’e, Catherine, Isa and Gogo are working hard at their studies and achieving fantastic grades, and this year Talalelei will have their first student graduate.
The Talalelei trustees, our Pacific Channel team and our key suppliers MinterEllisonRuddWatts and VCFO generously assist Talalelei without charge, so 100% of funds raised pays for the scholarships. From our team, Lachlan Nixon contributed significantly as founding trustee; and Emerald Scofield and Traci Sietu are now trustees.
Here is the link to the Give a little page.
Please give generously – Talalelei has Overseas Donee Status, which makes your donation tax deductible in New Zealand.
Recruiting and retention look a lot different in 2021 than they did twenty years ago. In addition to an increased focus on company purpose & mission and the ability to work a flexible schedule from home (or anywhere), many employers are also offering an increasing amount of Volunteer Time Off (VTO).
Since our founding in 2014, Ad Victoriam Solutions, a Salesforce implementation partner and certified B Corp, has always strived to be different, including offering an entire 40 hours of annual VTO. However, we found, like most companies, that not everyone took advantage of this perk. In fact, in both 2019 and 2020, only around 25% of employees utilized any portion of their one week of paid volunteer time. Sure, we still achieved our Pledge 1% commitment to donate 1% of employee time back to the community, but we knew we could do better.
As we spoke with employees, we found three contributing factors: the overwhelming lack of weekday volunteer opportunities, the business demands of the workweek, and the difficulty of finding an opportunity that included their biggest passion: technology.
2021 Changes:
So, we set a 2021 goal to double our employee volunteerism rate and we made some changes.
For starters, employees could volunteer on the weekend and count it towards their work-week expectations–volunteering no longer had to be done during work hours to count. We also opened it up to non-traditional volunteering, like chaperoning field trips and helping out with little league practices, encouraging parents to spend more time outside of the office and with their children.
In addition, we launched a training program with Goodwill of North Georgia that allowed our employees to volunteer their technical skills and expertise to teach Salesforce to adults transitioning into tech careers. We also added an experiential component to the program, pairing employees with students to implement Salesforce’s nonprofit success pack for four deserving organizations.
2021 Results:
As of mid-November, we were on pace to see almost 60% of our staff use their paid VTO to give back to their communities. And that 1% target? Between the volunteer time (on pace for 1,600 hours) and our pro bono Salesforce work, we’re going to double our goal and donate 2% of revenue in the form of employee time.
So, as we begin to lay out our plans to eclipse our 2021 results in 2022, we’re confident – in hindsight- that increasing our flexibility as a company really did drive overall team volunteerism. And all it took was small changes to attain those significant results… an impactful reminder of the importance of listening to our employees.