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.

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