Next in our two-part series on Employee Engagement, this session explores why businesses need to lean in and engage their employees through pro bono programs, including developing opportunities to leverage technology for social impact as we move on to create new normals in this post-pandemic world. Read the recap below and access the session resources here.

The past 18 months have taught us that employees crave human interaction at work. Fatigue, loss and grief are being felt across the board, and people want to feel a sense of purpose, belonging, and a chance to be part of something bigger than themselves that helps make the world better. According to recent studies, current trends show that while 50% of all employees are open to leaving their companies for new roles, this drops to less than 12% if they believe that their company is making a positive impact in their communities.

In this session, Erin Dieterich of New Relic spoke with Jessamine Chin of VMware, Amanda Lenaghan of Cruise, and Brian Mattos of Salesforce about their experiences running pro bono programs and how the pandemic has propelled their organizations to come up with new normals to raise awareness about the interconnectedness of employee engagement, ESG, and social impact in the workplace.

Here are our 4 takeaways from the event:

1. Pro bono means putting team talent and professional skills to work with nonprofit partners and customers.

Leveraging your company’s assets for social impact is key to having a successful pro bono program, especially when it comes to your team’s talent and skills. In this hybrid work environment, it’s essential that we explore how our products and services can be key drivers for change.

2. The right balance is in helping organizations achieve their goals while providing impactful volunteering opportunities to employees. 

Matching a pro bono volunteer with a nonprofit project isn’t always easy. While there’s a lot of great intent and passion towards making a difference, there’s also a rush to implement when the need arises. In managing pro bono programs, beware of skipping certain steps that might lead to missing the root cause, creating a solution that isn’t sustainable, or perhaps leading to an outcome that does not fully address the organization’s needs.

3. Improving employee skill sets in ESG will benefit companies and nonprofits alike.

There are many pathways to a social impact career, starting with the job you currently have. A lot of the day-to-day skills needed right now is the ability to bridge external realities of what potential clients and customers are facing with the internal demands of the workforce and leadership teams. Whether you’re an engineer in R&D or are part of a frontline salesforce , having that knowledge of ESG will naturally evolve the way you create impact through your work.

4. The “Work From Anywhere” future leads to “Impact From Anywhere” movement. 

The virtual systems and approaches we’ve adopted at the start of the pandemic is a good point to launch employee engagement strategies that should stay post-pandemic, especially in hybrid environments. Developing human-centered programs not only with employees but also with the organizations that need our expertise and help will define the future of pro bono in the workplace.

For more information, explore the tools in our Member Community or watch the full recording below:

In October, 2021, Pledge 1% launched the Pledge 1% Community to create a space for members to connect with tools and resources, as well as each other, in an effort to build and amplify their social impact programs!  This resource aims to be the go-to place for members to connect, share experiences and best practices, find collaborative opportunity, and access a growing repository of resources meant to enable social impact teams of various sizes, serving various company sizes/stages/locations.  We believe this community will be a significant value-added tool for our members!  Read more to get acquainted with the benefits of registering an account and becoming an integrated part of this exclusive community!

ACCESS PLAYBOOKS

The Pledge 1% Team has developed playbooks that address a variety of topics in creating and amplifying social impact programs.  From GAIN VALUABLE INSIGHTS FROM YOUR PEERS

Registered users of the Pledge 1% Community are able to post and comment on discussion threads within the Social Impact Forum.  This forum (and future forums to come) is one of the most distinctly valuable areas of the site.  At your fingertips, you can connect with members from across the globe, representing the over 15,000 members of the Pledge 1% movement.  Whatever questions, challenges, opportunities you see within your own social impact programs are likely to be shared by your peers and by engaging with these discussion forums, you can gain valuable insights to help drive your program forward.

BECOME A THOUGHT LEADER

Whether it’s through engaging with the Pledge 1% Community discussion forums, engaging with our blogs or participating in events, or sharing your own story in our Member Projects, the community offers registered users the opportunity to position themselves as thought leaders within the Pledge 1% movement.  As momentum grows around global social impact, active users within the Pledge 1% Community will become the thought leaders helping new members grow their own programs, much like Atlassian’s @LaurenBlack  who shared this member project post: 

WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU IN THE COMMUNITY

As news users register and as the Pledge 1% Community grows, dedicated discussion forums will be added as we see topic trends emerge within the site!  We are excited to lead and grow this resource with our members to amplify global social impact in pursuit of advancing the Pledge 1% movement.  Take advantage of all of these additional resources by officially joining the community today!

Have questions or need assistance getting registered?  Contact support@pledge1percent.org and a member of the community team will be happy to assist you!

Pledge 1%’s #WomenWhoLead series celebrates female leaders who are paving the way for the next generation. While our featured leaders come from a variety of backgrounds and industries, they are united in their efforts to promote equality for all women in the workplace. We’ve asked them to share a bit about their journey to success, as well as lessons they’ve learned along the way.

What is your name and title?

Katina Washington, President/CEO at the SHE. Event Indy.

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

I am a Black owned women business coach/executor. I assist women business owners with taking their concept from conception to execution.

How did you get here? Please share any quick stories from past work experiences.

I am all about empowering and encouraging women to dream big. Every day I am focused on “she.” SHE stands for She Has Everything because I believe that women should feel empowered to start their own businesses and create jobs, because our community depends on it.

In January, I received the distinguished Jefferson Award for Multiplying Good. Through our events and marketplace, we’ve empowered over 90 percent of vendors to create their own products and services, as well as given scholarships to youth.

In your opinion, what’s the #1 decision or move you’ve made that has helped advance your career?

During Covid, I created SHE. Marketplace to host many black women owned businesses to be able to continue to showcase their products and services when we are unable to do in person events.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned this past year?

How to pivot!

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

Funding and resources to propel the SHE. Event. We have proven measurable outcomes and have proven to be a credible fiscal steward for over 8 years.

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

Yes, I do! I just gained 2 mentors and we have monthly meetings. One of my mentors is an owner of La Z boy.

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

Reciprocity. Practice reciprocity. Always think of how both parties can benefit when approaching others with business deals/meetings/etc.

What is one thing companies can do, big or small, to help create an environment that advances women into leadership positions?

A dollar earned in the black community only stays in the black community for an average of six hours. The purpose of the SHE. Event is to extend the length of time that dollar is circulated through the community where it is earned. The SHE. Event accomplishes this by providing artists, entrepreneurs, and small business owners with a rigorous training program on business operations and an online platform to reach consumers/the community. By providing these resources, the SHE. Event increases economic development and financial stability for both the larger communities and families of the students.

What is one thing you hope to accomplish in the next year?

Through our program S.H.E.Creates, we train women in primarily underserved communities (including Empowerment Zones) on owning their own businesses and manufacturing their own products. We use a cohort style of training to allow participants to collaborate and learn from one another. Aside from learning the basics of business, participants will also learn conflict management, financial literacy, and how to produce handmade products and labeling. We also provide tools such as how to register their business, increase their social media presence and connect them with suppliers and resources to produce their products/services. We’ve also partnered with seasoned entrepreneurs who have operated a successful business within the same area to mentor our participants. I hope that our graduates can utilize these resources and grow their business by selling their products/services at the S.H.E. Event Marketplace.

Is there a cause that is particularly close to you? If so, why this cause and how did you get involved?

Women empowerment. I believe that we are only able to address the economic, health, and safety risks caused by the coronavirus pandemic through entrepreneurship and innovation directed towards underserved individuals who can start their own businesses and become economically empowered. I created the S.H.E. Event Market Place to provide platforms and other opportunities for women-owned businesses and vendors to showcase their goods, products, and services by leveraging technology and e-commerce.

When did your company join Pledge 1%? What does your impact program mean to you?

Our company joined Pledge 1% last year. Because of the pandemic, we were working very hard to keep our business afloat (and we did). Our goal for 2021 is to get more involved as we love your mission.

What do you like to do outside of the office? Any interesting (or unique) habits or interests?

I create accessories. I am an artist at heart. I also promote and browse social media telling others about products I purchased from the marketplace.

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

I listen to Gary V often. I also listen to meditation music. I meditate daily.

What’s been the one (or two!) things that have helped you navigate this past year? Any tips or tricks to dealing with remote work?

I have learned a whole new meaning to “Eat the meat, and throw away the bones.” Covid taught me how to pivot, manage my time better, my true value, and how to use my human capital until I am able to get access to investors.

Originally published on Twitter.

Today, we’re celebrating the news that as part of our 1% equity commitment through @PledgeOne, we’ve helped to unlock $1B in new philanthropy in just 4 months. pic.twitter.com/B8MxQXZVUl

— BetterUp (@BetterUp) October 26, 2021

With the support of @dougpepper of @ICONIQGrowth, @alexkayyal and @jsomorjai of @SalesforceVC, and @RonConway of @svangel, we’re leveraging our assets to connect corporate philanthropy to community building to help people everywhere live with more clarity, purpose, and passion.

— BetterUp (@BetterUp) October 26, 2021

Beyond our equity commitment, we’re also donating 1% of our revenue, employee time, and product to create positive changes within our communities and support mission-aligned non-profits.

Better all for a better world ⚡️

— BetterUp (@BetterUp) October 26, 2021

Congratulations! We’re proud to have you in the Pledge 1% community. Thank you for your leadership and support, BetterUp!

On the 25th & 26th of October, we celebrated reaching this milestone with our Pledge 1% Boardroom Allies, who were featured on the Nasdaq Tower. Scroll down below to see some of the day’s highlights!

Working closely with Boardroom Allies to help top companies set aside equity for social impact prior to liquidity events, Pledge 1% has doubled the $1 billion equity impact announced just four months ago, ensuring proceeds from a record-setting summer of IPO and market activity are earmarked for philanthropy. Pledge 1% ensures nonprofits benefit along with private markets, and is well on its way toward a goal of unlocking $5 billion in new philanthropy by 2025.

This momentum builds on more than $1 billion in philanthropy previously ignited by Pledge 1% industry leaders. Formalizing how executives and their teams can easily join the movement has dramatically accelerated impact. To learn more about the Boardroom Allies who helped us achieve this milestone achievement, click here to read the official press release.

Check out some of the day’s highlights and watch the reel below!

Richard Wong and Andrew Braccia of AccelRon Conway of SV AngelSeth Levine, Ryan McIntyre and Brad Feld of Foundry Group

  Click here to watch the reel!

Originally published at Inside Philanthropy. Written by Ade Adeniji.

Fellow tech donor Marc Andreessen once called him “the human router.” Others call him the Godfather of Silicon Valley. Ron Conway, 70, has invested in hundreds of internet companies since the early 1990s, including PayPal, Google, Twitter and Airbnb. He founded SV Angel, the San Francisco-based seed fund, in 2009. But his Silicon Valley bona fides go way back to early positions at National Semiconductor Corporation and Altos Computer Systems in the 1970s and 1980s. Along the way, Conway has amassed a rolodex of allies in technology, politics and Hollywood. And he’s advised a number of celebrity figures—Kevin Durant, will.i.am and Ashton Kutcher among them.

Through the years, Conway has been a major donor to the University of California, San Francisco, including via a $40 million donation to the new 207,500-square-foot UCSF Ron Conway Family Gateway Medical Building at the UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay. More recently, Conway helped organize an all-volunteer COVID Tech Task Force to increase coordination between technology companies and policymakers. And amid new calls for social justice and racial equity, he backs Slauson & Co, which aims to democratize access to entrepreneurship.

At the end of 2020, Conway and his wife Gayle signed the Giving Pledge. A driving force behind their decision to sign, he writes in the pledge letter, is to “encourage more tech founders to join and become role models for their generation.” He goes on, “I encourage founders to see the tipping point when they donate meaningful amounts of their net worth and begin the process of becoming ‘never-billionaires’ by donating their worth now and not later. And advise them not to let their money sit in a donor-advised fund. It’s much better to put it to work in philanthropy and see the good it does.”

I caught up with Conway by phone to ask him about his philanthropic approach and his thoughts on the broader philanthropic landscape in Silicon Valley. This conversation has been edited for clarity.

Tell me about the 1 % pledge and signing the Giving Pledge. Why have you chosen multiple ways to catalyze giving?

I spend vast amounts of time encouraging founders to begin thinking about philanthropy and to give back from the very beginning. The catalyst that I use for that is getting their company to sign up for Pledge 1%, which Marc Benioff of Salesforce started. It’s an effort to invite technology entrepreneurs and their companies to commit 1% of their time, product and pre-IPO equity to develop philanthropic programs at their companies. Each employee also uses 1% of their time on volunteer causes in their community. It’s a public pledge. (Inside Philanthropy covered the launch of Pledge 1% here.)

As the company gets bigger and the founder gets wealthy, or if they become a billionaire, then I pitch them on signing the Giving Pledge. That also places a marker in the ground that this founder is philanthropic. I later introduce them to the [confidential] “Conway philanthropy chart” to show founders how to pick philanthropic sectors they want to donate to and focus on.

By the way, the founders of these companies are not the only wealthy ones. Overall, there’s hundreds of people who become very wealthy from these IPOs. So when a founder says, ‘I’m going to give away 50% of my wealth,’ that sends a message to everyone else on their team who also made lots of money on the IPO that they should be generous and they should start donating money, too.

What do you find are some of the most attractive giving interests for Silicon Valley donors these days? And I’m seeing you using this “Never Billionaire” slogan.

Well, the Airbnb founders, because it’s synergistic with Airbnb, are donating millions for refugees. Many founders are very interested in aspects of healthcare and healthcare research. Others are interested in the education space. Really, it’s whatever floats their boat. I just encourage them.

As for the second part, part of what’s made Silicon Valley great, is that we’ve created all these philanthropists. But you can’t do it on your own. You need a mentor, you need somebody suggesting this to you. They just need a path, and I provide them a philanthropic path. And then they become role models themselves. It just feeds on itself and becomes an ecosystem.

What was the tipping point for you getting involved with social justice causes?

Oh, George Floyd, for sure. It was a huge wake-up call for me. I think racial equality, the only way to solve it is through economic prosperity. The only way to do that is to have more founders of color. Well, the only way to get more founders of color is to have venture capital firms invest in founders of color. So I interviewed 20 Black-led VC firms. I could only partner with one, but I’m helping them all, and make sure they become the next Andreessen Horowitz or Sequoia. I partnered with Slauson & Co in Los Angeles. I’ve helped them raise over $60 million. And they’re already actively investing in founders of color. We need to create, through venture capital funding, the next Google or Facebook-sized company, and we will do that with Slauson & Co. And those founders of color will build a diverse management team naturally.

When those companies go public, then the employees in that company will go out and start their own shops. Just like all the people who left Google and Facebook started companies. That’s how you build an ecosystem of racial equality and racial equity. It’s going to take time, but it’s about time we start. I talk to Ajay and Austin (Ajay Relan and Austin Clements, the managing partners of Slauson & Co) every single day.

You signed the Giving Pledge in the winter of 2020. I saw that interesting line about not really wanting to set up a personal foundation. What do you think are the advantages of this?

I like to give big and give fast. And I encourage that in all the founders that I work with. Once you get going, give big and give fast. The more you give and the faster you give it, the more you’re going to enjoy it. It feeds on itself with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. It’s hard to pull the trigger for the first time. What I’ve been doing lately is to get them to pull the trigger in a certain area. I just say, ‘You’re really interested in this, aren’t you? Let me make it easier. I’ll write a check for a million and you write a check for a million.’ I said, ‘Yes, I want to encourage you to get started. So I’m happy to invest a million of my philanthropic dollars to kickstart your philanthropic journey.’ I’ve done that three times in the last few weeks and it works every time. It just gives the founder confidence.

Is there any reason why you’ve conducted a lot of this giving under the radar?

Yeah, I don’t want to take the limelight from the founder. The founder will decide if they want to disclose the gift. If they disclose the gift, I’ll say I’m happy to disclose mine too, or I’ll keep quiet. I just want them to get used to donating and if they want to do it quietly, I’ll do mine quietly. I’ll follow the founders’ lead.

There’s a component of your work that involves connecting with athletes and celebrities and empowering some of their work. When did that start? And why?

That goes all the way back to the very early days of Google. will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas visited Google. He talked about his goal of helping inner city youth and was just so passionate about it. I went up and introduced myself to him and told him he had a special calling to help inner city youth. I introduced him to Laurene Powell Jobs, who is the founder of College Track, which has a number of branches around the country that help inner city youth with college preparedness. Ten years ago, he started the College Track branch in Boyle Heights, where he grew up. Now, they’ve helped 1,400 kids get placed in college and they do another 400 every year.

And then Ashton Kutcher and I were doing some investing together. He said he wanted to find a charity that would be on his tombstone. Something that he would support for the rest of his life. We did some research and he said that human trafficking and child pornography are what he wants to solve. He went on to start Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children, which is is now a huge charity, stopping online child trafficking and pornography.

Kevin Durant—same type of story. He wanted to help his community in Washington, D.C. I introduced him to Laurene Powell Jobs, too. He’s in his second year into College Track in the D.C. area where he grew up. I [also] helped Goldie Hawn with her mental wellness cause.

So if a celebrity wants to do good, I want to be a facilitator of that. I want to make sure that they’re successful. So I introduce them to the right people who give them infrastructure.

What first got you involved with UCSF and why have you continued to support the school steadily through the years?

First philanthropy I ever did was at Ronald McDonald House at Stanford. We lived down there at the time. I was thankful my young kids were healthy. So I managed the first three capital campaigns for the Ronald McDonald House. When we became empty nesters, we moved to San Francisco and there were some folks in San Francisco I connected with. I was born in San Francisco. I was kind of moving back home, so to speak, and they said, ‘why don’t you get involved in UCSF?’ The largest donation we’ve ever made is at UCSF—$40 million.

Who was someone who helped you when you were coming up?

Well, Laurene Powell Jobs has been a real inspiration. will.i.am has been an inspiration. The people that I collaborate with, we all inspire each other. Chuck Feeney. He is a huge inspiration and he’s in the venture capital business. He came out of venture capital with Atlantic Philanthropies. Marc Benioff, massive inspiration. Benioff’s probably the first person that I had deep conversations with about the importance of philanthropy. We hosted founders at his home, evangelizing. You have to put a stake in the ground that your company’s going to be community-minded.

Originally posted: October 25th, 2021