This story was submitted as part of the #Pledge1Gives GivingTuesday campaign, which celebrates the many ways our member companies are having an impact around the world.

About Us: Metaoups Technology Pvt Limited, established in 2018, a salesforce partner, is delivering salesforce based digital solution and products for various industries. 

About Our Client: An NGO for education. Bal Utsav provides holistic intervention to revitalize Government schools benefiting millions of children by making focussed and sustainable interventions in infrastructure, Teacher development, Wash, and Scholarship programs. For the last couple of years, Bal Utsav has been responding to natural disaster across India.

Challenge: In response to a natural disaster, a major disconnects between what is need on the ground and what is getting supplied. This gap gets worsen in case of dynamic needs.

Impact Created: There was a major water flood in the western and southern parts of India. Which caused around 150 life and heavy casualties.  Many have lost their homes and livelihood. Bal Utsav took up a major rescue and relief effort, especially in Karnataka and Kerala states. They had challenges managing the complete operation like fulfillment centers, warehouses management, collection centers, request for material, shipment, SMS, Email and tracking at such a large scale. Metaoups was onboarded and thought leadership from both the parties put up a solution in a quick turnaround.

Outcome: Bal Utsav realize their operation effectiveness folded 5 times with technology support.

To know more about Metaoups, Bal Utsav, and our solution, please refer below links:

https://metaoups.com/

https://balutsav.org/

This story was submitted as part of the #Pledge1Gives GivingTuesday campaign, which celebrates the many ways our member companies are having an impact around the world.

2020 – The year that has changed the entire world. Corona has redefined each and every aspect of our living. The philanthropic activities and socio-economic projects are no exception to the changing landscape. Infostretch Ignite has responded to the Corona challenges and recalibrated it to the new realities. The growth of Infostretch family and passion of Infoneers has ensured great progress in 2020 and a firm footing for aggressive growth in 2021. 

Let’s have a quick recap of 2020:

1. Mission Ahaan – Commitment Redefined: 

Infostretch Ignite expanded its Project Ahaan with the opening of an additional new centre. The unique model of providing education and recreational activities to street children continued to expand. Corona created new challenges as the families had to relocate to rural areas. The social distancing and closure of physical spaces created further disruption in the learning process of the children. Team Ahaan’s Ashok Karania and Geetanjali Sahni and our NGO Partner Shwas’ Kinjal Shah continued the interaction with multiple visits to understand the ground situation. A slow and cautious restart was made with new ideas – creating ambassadors within children, connecting with digital mediums, usage of painting and creative ideas, more offline work etc. Once the lockdown eased, the frequency of visits increased. With the closure of schools and changed  life, Ahaan team played an important role in continuity of education, managing anxiety and stress in children and ensuring positive attitude for the challenging times. 

2. Project Navrachit: 

Infostretch Ignite opened a second centre for the construction workers with Navrachit Balvikas Trust. The Corona pandemic created a challenge for the construction workers as well and the first challenge was to address the immediate loss of livelihood questions. Infostretch Ignite provided food and general supplies for the less privileged families and helped them deal with the immediate crisis. As the lockdown eased, the team worked on providing education and engaging activities to children via digital and non-digital mediums. Ignite Team’s Xama Trivedi and Devang Tripathi have ensured the success of the initiative even in pandemic situation. 

3. Mission Roshni: Working with Visually Challenged Families: 

Infostretch Ignite identified the new areas of intervention. One of the biggest affected communities were the visually challenged families. Corona robbed them of their meagre economic activities and lockdown brought never-seen-before challenges. The very survival was at stake. Infostretch Ignite collaborated with Omkar Andhjan Mandal, a grassroot organisation, to work with the visually challenged families and help them. The initial intervention was to ensure steady supply of food and general rations. It was followed with engagement for families and children in different activities like painting, games and exploring new vocational skills. Corona continues to be a challenge as we explore new economic avenues for these families. 

Infostretch Hackathon Winners donated their prize money to the cause of visually challenged families and helped in food and ration kit distribution. 

4. ConquerCorona – Digital Campaign for Infostretch Members:

Infostretch Ignite was working with the external world but it was equally important to ensure the Infostretch family was doing well. Corona Lockdown and Work From Home have been the new normal. All of us are learning to deal with Corona Anxiety and stress every day. Infostretch Ignite created a campaign called Conquer Corona to ensure every Infostretch member was staying positive during these challenging times. To defeat Corona with positive attitude, healthy mind and fit body. The message was simple: find time for exercise and mindful activities to make our immune system strong.  

The campaign leveraged the power of digital and social media. It was created as a challenge where one had to upload one video of self doing exercise and challenge 3 more people to do the same. It was a massive hit and achieved its purpose of spreading the message of staying fit and being mentally strong.

 

5. Mission Senior Empowerment: Priya Living Centre

Infostretch Ignite team has been working with the senior citizens in Priya Living Centre in USA. Ignite US members Mona Shah, Ketki Mathuria, Avani Makwana, Falguni Shah, Bina Patel, Rhonda Wallace and others have been spending lot of time and engaging with the centres through different initiatives. 

Our gifted and talented Infoneers and family members showed their “creative sides” by colouring, drawing and writing letters to Senior Citizens that live in and around the Silicon Valley.  Many of these seniors have little access to family members due to Covid-19 and social distancing regulations. Our Infoneers brought “loads of sunshine and love” in their lives through their paintings and letters. Senior citizens were touched with our gesture and the entire idea was  an overwhelming success.

Infostretch Ignite Team brought joy to the lives of senior citizens through a specially designer musical event “Zindagi Ek Sunahara Safar”. Our leaders and energetic champions created a magical evening for the Priya Living elderly members to celebrate Diwali and to celebrate the festival called “Life”! Manish Mathuria, Rutesh Shah, Mona Shah, Ketki Mathuria, Padmini Murthy, Avani Makwana, Deepak Parmar, Dharminder, Shraddha Agarwal, Kinjan Shah, Bina Patel and others created a lasting Diwali memory for the seniors. 

Ignite Team has been is planning to work with other senior citizen shelters. Our support goes beyond the sharing of our time and helping with different activities. 

6. Mental Health Matters:

Our world is changing disruptively at a rate faster than ever experienced in the entire humankind. Our life is getting busier, demanding and more stressful. This affects our productivity, relationships and happiness. Left unattended, it creates anxiety, depression and serious mental health issues. One in four people suffer from mental health issues globally. The most alarming is the rise of mental health issues amongst the youth. The time to address the mental health challenges is NOW!

Keeping this thought in mind, Infostretch Ignite introduced a new initiative to create awareness around mental health and well- being. Infostretch Ignite is working on the following ideas: 

1. Mental Health Awareness Session 


2. Collaboration with National Alliance On Mental Illness (NAMI) – Joint Activities, NAMI Walk


3. Online Forum for Sharing and Connecting


4. Curated Content 

Ignite’s Mental Health group collaborated with National Alliance on Mental Illness and participated in the NAMI Virtual Walk on Oct 10, 2020. The walk was successful in raising funds as well as awareness – Feelings & Thoughts Are As Important As Our Fitness! Cheers to Ignite Team’s Ketki Mathuria, Niraj Pendal, Kavneet Kaur and others. 

7. VOSAP Art for Heart 2020 Collaboration:

Infostretch Ignite Team had partnered with VOSAP for showcasing their wonderful initiative “Art From Heart” Contest 2020 to Ignite NGO partners in Gujarat. 

The Contest was a great success. The Contest took VOSAP’s global theme to the grassroots. It created awareness and initiated conversations around disability amongst kids and youth. A message of hope, sensitivity and empathy was communicated beautifully. 

Salient Features:

1. More Than 200 Registrations 


2. Workshops For Awareness on Disability & Contest


3. Surprise For All Participants


4. Partner NGOs – Robinhood Army, Shwas, Omkar Andhjan Mandal & Navrachit. 


5. Prizes For All Individual NGOs 

The highlight of the campaign has been the association with Omkar Andhjan Mandal.

Omkar Andhjan Mandal organised a workshop for children of the visually challenged and less privileged members for ‘Art From Heart’ initiative. The location was Indira Nagar, Lambha, a place on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. On a hot summer afternoon, the children assembled and discussed the topic of disability. Infostretch Ignite Team’s Ashok Karania, Geetanjali Sahni and Omkar Andhjan Mandal’s Vikram Rajput interacted with children and chatted about different disabilities, impact on lives and how to help the specially abled brethren. This helped to take VOSAP’s global theme to the grassroots. It provided a new perspective to the people on the fringes – who usually take disability for granted. It opened up conversation and dialogue amongst the generation next. A message of hope, sensitivity and empathy was communicated beautifully. 

8. Happy Periods: Building For Scale 

Ignite Sheroes-driven Happy Periods Campaign goes national! After the overwhelming run in the inaugural state of Gujarat, Ignite’s highly popular Happy Periods Campaign saw its successful launch in Pune, Maharashtra. The highly enthusiastic Ignite Happy Periods team continued their interactive and engaging sessions in multiple schools. Happy Period’s success was attitudes to its unique format: The delicate topic of menstruation being discussed through a mixture of fun activities, experience sharing, open Q&A and distribution of ‘Happy Period’ kits. The campaign is paused as schools are working in digital format and the nature of workshop is best suited to personal and intimate interactions. But the Happy Periods Team of Zil Shah, Mansi Dave, Ashwani Singh, Pooja Shah, Aarti Tanna, Krunal Sagan, Geetanjali Sahni and others are planning new avatar of the Happy Periods campaign. 

9. Infostretch Movember – Mo2:

Movember is an annual event of growing of moustaches and beards during the month of November to raise awareness of men’s health issues like prostate cancer, testicular cancer and men’s suicide.  Infostretch Ignite brings the Movember movement to Infostretch. 

Infostretch Movember is about discussions and actions for promoting men’s health. The inaugural edition of Movember was a grand success with strong participation from Infoneers across the globe. The second edition is under action in November 2020 – The second edition has more prizes, launch of running club and top-down participation! The energy, the creativity and the overall awareness created is amazing!

10. Ignite Running Club

Taking the spirit of Movember to next level, Infostretch Ignite introduced Infoneers to one of the most effective way to boost our health – Running! Ignite Running Club is our commitment to make Infoneers healthy – through sessions, WhatsApp group, solo runs, group runs, sharing, tips and other means! The joys of running are manifold and nobody knows it better than super talented Infoneers – marathoner Harish Nair and dashing Hoshedar Daboo who are spearheading the initiative. Harry and Hoshi are champion runners who have a first-hand experience of the benefits of running and they are committed to boost Infoneers health and well-being through Ignite Running Club

11. Corona Compliant: 

In lieu of the extraordinary circumstances due to Corona Virus situation, all employee participation activities of Ignite have been paused. The partner NGOs are taking ground actions as per situation – street kids live in many centres and our partner NGOs are taking all precautions. Ignite also supported other causes like:

– Ignite Pune’s Rohini and team have been working local Samaritans like Sanchita for supporting the basic necessities of visually impaired, differently abled and less privileged citizens. 

– Infostretch Hackathon Prize Winner Med-Techies donated their prize money for the old age home in rural Gujarat – Jalaram Gharda Ghar

Ignite Team’s actions and initiatives in 2020 prove that extraordinary circumstances require us to renew and recommit ourselves to our causes with more energy and zeal. Giving up is easy, staying and supporting is the difficult but right thing to do. The leadership, team spirit, innovation and commitment of Infoneers has been very vital to ensure that the Ignite vision keeps shining bright and the larger community goals are achieved. Corona Time is the time for reprioritising, consolidating and getting ready with new flights of imagination and giving back!

This story was submitted as part of the #Pledge1Gives GivingTuesday campaign, which celebrates the many ways our member companies are having an impact around the world.

Empower your employees to give back at the individual level by downloading our new Virtual Volunteering Playbook, which includes ideas and best practices on how to excite and inspire individual giving.

Following the example set by Pledge 1%, Nextep is committed to donating time, dollars, and services to organizations bettering the community. Each year, the Nextep Charitable Foundation donates $100,000 to various organizations. In 2020, Nextep decided to dedicate a large portion of those funds to organizations that support the Black community.

In early June of 2020, Brian Fayak, Nextep founder and CEO, announced the Nextep Charitable Foundation would donate $50,000 and match employee donations to organizations supporting the Black community. 

“I believe that at Nextep, we get a lot of things right as an employer and as a thought leader in our community. That being said, I have no delusions of perfection — we can do better,” Fayak said. “We’re a team full of passionate, intelligent, and action-oriented people. I’m optimistic and hopeful that we’ll come together to drive positive change in our organization and community.” 

As part of this commitment, Nextep pulled together a committee to research and find organizations that aligned with their initiatives and could use support to further their mission.

The committee chose five organizations to receive $10,000 to further their efforts and projects. Through this initiative, Nextep hopes to support these organizations and bring awareness to the great work they’re doing in the community.

The first organization to receive a donation was Grand Gentlemen. It’s dedicated to “uplifting, encouraging, and inspiring young men of color to secure their future.” (Grand Gentlemen) The organization does this through mentorship, culture-based artistic entertainment, and their “Man of the Year Award” scholarship program.

The next donation went to Knowing Your Worth. The nonprofit offers workshops, support, and mentorship to girls ages 11 to 18 in an effort to build strong, confident women.

Nextep also donated to Progress OKC, an organization working to revitalize underdeveloped communities and create opportunities for low- to moderate-income individuals and families. Along with their partners, Progress OKC does this through community development, affordable housing, and economic development. 

The fourth donation went to The Education and Employment Ministry (TEEM). The organization uses job training, education, mentorship, and social services to help individuals who are or have been incarcerated get back on their feet.

Nextep’s most recent donation was made to the Urban League of Greater Oklahoma City. The nonprofit works to accomplish its mission through workforce and career development, education and family development, housing and financial literacy, and community convening and social justice.

These donations are only the beginning. Nextep is committed to finding more ways to support the Black community and partnering with organizations that are doing the same. Learn more about each organization on Nextep’s blog page.

This story was submitted as part of the #Pledge1Gives GivingTuesday campaign, which celebrates the many ways our member companies are having an impact around the world.

This Giving Tuesday, we here at Digital Additive want to take a moment to recognize a project we’re honored to support: The Harvard Diversity Project. This unique and impactful program is an Atlanta-based pipeline of the Harvard Debate Council that recruits, trains, and matriculates highly motivated black youth into a summer debate residency at Harvard. 

From thousands of applicants, they select a cohort of bright young minds to work together every weekend for 10 months. During these sessions, students are introduced to debate through the exploration of academic disciplines that foster critical thinking, public speaking, and argumentation. The program culminates with a summer residency at Harvard College, an undergraduate program within the university, where students study academic debate alongside and compete against hundreds of gifted scholars from around the world. Since the project’s founding in 2017, the team has won each of the three consecutive Harvard International Debate competitions, and alumni are continually accepted to top-tier universities across the country.

Meet the Harvard Diversity Project

Giving back to the Harvard Diversity Project was a perfect fit for Digital Additive. Our core values as a company align seamlessly with the educational and leadership goals the Harvard Diversity Project instills in its students. Digital Additive sponsors a participant of each year’s cohort, but our engagement goes beyond fiscal support to forge a true partnership. Digital Additive and the Harvard Diversity Project both champion reciprocal communication and strive to forge meaningful connections in all that we do. 

Members of the Digital Additive team engage with each year’s HDP cohort to discuss relevant topics and real-world examples of data security and privacy.  This year our team received a first-hand look at the training received by the scholars with a Critical Thinking & Communication for Critical Times workshop led by founder and CEO Brandon Flemming and Director of Operations Kelly Britton.

We here at Digital Additive are thrilled to share a hometown with such an impactful program and to see it flourish year after year. We urge you to find out more about the Harvard Diversity Project now

About Digital Additive: At Digital Additive, we understand that real relationships – ours with our clients, our clients with their customers – are at the root of effective email marketing. Founded in 2012, we’ve built a team of 48 people who are passionate about email marketing. And yes, we believe you can (and should) be excited about email.

This story was submitted as part of the #Pledge1Gives GivingTuesday campaign, which celebrates the many ways our member companies are having an impact around the world.

When Doug Lessing, founder of Phin, saw the economic destruction being caused by COVID-19 visually represented in lines of cars snaking for miles at food banks, he recognized it as the “Moment Everything Changed”. He knew that Phin had to play a part in addressing the pressing social challenge that had many people in our country requiring help getting basic needs covered. The Phin Food & Shelter program was born harnessing the time, energy and passion of Phin employees and our wonderful sponsors to raise funds and awareness for food banks and shelters across the country.

Focusing on the areas hit hardest by COVID-19 and/or lockdown economics, Phin’s impact team found 15 amazing food or shelter providers whose impact and innovation made them stand out. The creative team put together several events with music ranging from New Orleans jazz to acoustic guitar to rap and fun segments on oyster shucking and specialty drink mixing. These events helped to raise awareness and give thousands of people the opportunity to learn about the causes and direct the sponsored donations to those that spoke to them the most. The Phin team volunteered on a food distribution day for one of the causes, Island Harvest. In the end, what positive impact did all of this have?

At Phin, we discuss impact a lot, how to define it, how to measure it, how to present it in an engaging and illustrative way. We research facts that help illustrate the positive social change created by a campaign like Phin Food & Shelter. For this project, we have created an infographic to show this impact “by the numbers”.

The true social impact of the Food & Shelter project and other campaigns however go far beyond simple measurement tools. While these do a great job of showing the primary impact in the number of people fed and sheltered, it doesn’t tell the story of the secondary positive effects, the effects these actions have on society beyond those directly impacted. 

When people in need are fed and sheltered for a day, those close to them have that burden lifted a little. The food being shared sometimes comes from local farms which need the income to survive especially while restaurants are not operating near full capacity. Sometimes people preparing the food are getting paid which helps lift the whole community economically. Employees working for the causes can continue their demanding work knowing they are supported and valued. The audience for the live events not only discover music that can uplift their days but also the satisfaction of knowing they helped direct sponsored contributions to important causes. They may be moved to contribute to the causes by volunteering their time, spreading awareness to others or donating themselves.

While it is exciting to come up with reports, graphs and fun infographics to show social impact for Phin campaigns, even more satisfying is knowing the true social value is broader and deeper than anything that could be measured.

We try to capture some of these stories behind the numbers for our curated causes on the Phin Stories “Featured Cause” posts. To learn more about a few of our Food & Shelter causes and see what really goes behind a night of shelter or a prepared meal, check out Cultivating Community:  The Story of Mobile Loaves & Fishes and Reimagining Community: The Genesis of CommonTable.

This story was submitted as part of the #Pledge1Gives GivingTuesday campaign, which celebrates the many ways our member companies are having an impact around the world.

Empower your employees to give back at the individual level by downloading our new Virtual Volunteering Playbook, which includes ideas and best practices on how to excite and inspire individual giving.

This year had its fair share of struggles and challenges, and the need to give back has never been greater. Back in May, we shared how Fluxx had been selected to power the new state-wide Colorado COVID Relief Fund. Driven by the Colorado Governor’s Office and supported by our client The Colorado Health Foundation, this initiative was formed to provide grants up to $25k to help support Colorado communities most disproportionately impacted by the crisis.

And now for this Giving Tuesday, we’re sharing the creative ways that our team is getting into the spirit of a safe, yet still impactful, day of giving. 

We’ll start by saying that Fluxx is headquartered in San Francisco. Our team is now fully remote, but many of us are still based in the Bay Area where we are actively working to stop the spread of COVID-19 through social distancing, adhering to the statewide stay at home order, and increased sanitation measures. So while each Giving Tuesday we normally donate our time to the Alameda County Community Foodbank, this is not feasible this year.  

Instead, in the spirit of giving, our team is encouraged to give by donating time and/or money to the organizations and causes dear to them. We’ve created a spreadsheet where team members can anonymously share information about the nonprofit organizations and causes they love. Team members can find information about which nonprofits are accepting virtual volunteer activities, which are hosting small, localized in-person activities, along with information about the organization and where to leave a donation.

As a fully remote team as of March, we felt that it was important for everyone to have the opportunity to showcase their favorite organization and volunteer activity no matter where they are currently residing. Some of our team are volunteering for local Thanksgiving meal delivery services in Hawaii, others are calling older adults throughout the holidays through the Little Brothers, Friends of the Elderly organization, and some are even knitting warm clothing for local families with Hamilton Families Bay Area. 

We’re thrilled to see such a variety of causes and activities listed. There’s truly something for everyone and every interest and it’s amazing to see the power and impact and team can have across the world.

Along with our virtual giving Tuesday activities, our team has also engaged in virtual gift matching programs in April and October. Led by our CEO the gift matching programs supported 19 different organizations worldwide. And lastly, our team will also be donating laptops and iPads to RRRcomputer.org. The organization is dedicated to refurbishing technology so it can then be donated to low-income students.  

This Giving Tuesday we’re looking forward to supporting a number of causes and communities. This day of giving is a reminder to all of us all that we can (and will) come together, even when we’re spread apart. Stay safe this year!

This story was submitted as part of the #Pledge1Gives GivingTuesday campaign, which celebrates the many ways our member companies are having an impact around the world.

Originally published on udemy.com

Three years ago, Sasha Green wasn’t expecting to get an email that changed her life, but she sure did need it. “I had hit a low point and desperately needed for something to change,” says Green, who at 39, recently had lost her job and her home. It seemed unbelievable, but suddenly she, her husband, and their two teenage children were homeless. Even though she had just gotten an MBA, Green wasn’t finding the kind of well-paid position she expected would provide her a secure future. Just to get by, Green was working three jobs: driving for Uber, delivering Postmates, and teaching at an elementary after-school program.

Then came a life-changing email. A newly launched mission-driven startup called SV Academy was inviting Green to apply to their tech job-training program. If accepted, she would go through their intensive training that includes mentorship and career support to launch a people-focused career in the tech industry. No coding required.

An offer that’s too good to be true?

The offer sounded so good, almost too good. “I was worried it could be some kind of shady program,” says Green. What’s more, she wondered how a woman of color in her late thirties would fit into the tech industry which, to say the least, hasn’t been known for its racial or gender diversity. “Although I have pride being a black woman, in corporate America I didn’t think I could be my authentic self.” Despite her doubts, she took a leap of faith and applied. After all, says Green, “at that point, faith was all I had.”

In the months that followed, she went through SV Academy’s program with flying colors. After landing a position in Business Development, she was later promoted to Customer Success, one of tech’s fastest-growing careers. She discovered that it was a perfect match for her warm, outgoing personality and talent for problem-solving and creating long-term relationships.

“The fellowship was phenomenal,” says Green, who, like all SV Academy graduates, was provided with a career coach who she regularly met with throughout the first year in her new role. Green says she had honest conversations with her mentor about how to find her place as a woman of color in a work environment that may have few people who look like her. With all of the support, Green said she was ready and excited by the challenge. “My SV Academy teacher named me ‘Sasha Sunshine,’ because I bring the sunshine with me to any workplace. I decided to embrace that moniker. Yes, they teach tech skills, but they also teach human skills. SV Academy showed me how to find my voice and be my true self and succeed at work because of who I am.”

This is exactly the kind of enthusiastic feedback Rahim Fazal, SV Academy’s Co-Founder and CEO, loves to hear. “We are all about giving people the complete set of tools they need to succeed,” says Fazal, who notes that it’s also about finding the right kind of person who brings with them people-focused skills that the software and technology industry desperately needs.”

“Customer Success associates need skills like empathetic listening, conflict resolution, and self-awareness,” says Fazal. Ideal candidates are often those with experience in the retail and education sectors. Teachers, front desk hotel employees, restaurant workers, and others in people-centric jobs have the customer service experience, skills, and outgoing personalities that are in high demand given that Customer Success is one of the industries fastest-growing career paths.

Far beyond traditional customer service workers who often fix short-term problems, Customer Success Associates work to cultivate ongoing relationships with a company’s customers. “Retaining customers is as important if not more important than obtaining new customers,” says Fazal.

The strategy to pair a talented workforce with this quickly growing profession is creating a win-win for the companies that hire from SV Academy and for the graduates who find not just a new job, but secure a future-proof career.

A civil rights movement inspired the tech world to change

Fast forward three years after SV Academy’s start in 2017 to 2020, a tumultuous year to say the least. Millions, particularly those in service-based industries like hotel and restaurant workers, became under- or unemployed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. What’s more, following the George Floyd tragedy, the country has been reeling through the greatest civil rights movement in decades.

But where there is a crisis, there is also an opportunity for change. So believes Nadav Shem-Tov of Gainsight, a Customer Success software company that wanted to push for real change in the tech workforce. “Given that only about 8% of Customer Success Manager positions in the US today are held by Black and Latinx individuals, our goal is to create opportunities for an underrepresented population through Customer Success careers,” says Shem-Tov. “Diversity and inclusion have always been part of our mission, but we wanted to go beyond just adding more diverse talent to our company. Our impetus has been Black Lives Matter. We want to build something substantial and long-lasting and impactful, to open doors for underserved populations, whether they are people of color, those from a low-income bracket, immigrants, or the LGBTQ+ community. The idea is to have a more diverse workforce that brings their unique skills and talents that have been missing from the tech industry.”

Too many disenfranchised people, he says, don’t have the advantage of four-year college degrees, networking that opens up new jobs, and other opportunities so many in the tech field take for granted. Gainsight could give opportunities to a diverse and underserved population in a booming industry by partnering with SV Academy.

With an initial investment from Gainsight and from Insight Partners, a Gainsight Investor, the CS YOU program was born in partnership with SV Academy. The goal is to invite top-tier tech companies to sponsor one or more associates. So far, they’ve brought in more than 30 corporate partners like Athenahealth, Box, Boomi, Udemy, Refinitiv, Checkout.com, and Hootsuite to be CS YOU sponsors. Each student receives a $10,000 full-scholarship covering the month-long program and the opportunity to secure a two-month internship that pays $10,000 in one of these participating employers, and ideally leads to a permanent placement as a Customer Success Associate, an entry-level role.

A rare opportunity for free training and job placement

This November, the first group of 20 will start CS YOU, they’ll live the SV Academy experience just as Sasha did, except that they will access a first-of its kind program focused specifically on preparing individuals for the Customer Success role. CS YOU comes with the addition of full scholarships and the opportunity for an 8-week paid Customer Success internship at the end of the training. SV Academy’s award-winning curriculum is combined with new hands-on training specific to Customer Success and driven by Gainsight’s thought leadership in the area. It’s the first-ever apprenticeship program designed to help underrepresented job-seekers land a job in the #6 fastest-growing career track, according to LinkedIn. CS YOU is now accepting applications (that you can find here).

By partnering with Udemy, all CS YOU participants will have access to over 7,000 courses from Udemy for Business—a curated list of the most in-demand skills taught by real-world experts and practitioners on Udemy. These skills will help each participate build a successful and long-lasting career in Customer Success and include: functional Customer Success training, DEI, leadership, and other soft skills such as communication, time management, and more. To help ensure managers at all participating organizations are equipped to create a safe and inclusive work environment, Udemy will sponsor access to Dr. Victoria Mattingly’s course, “AllyUp: Using Allyship to Advance Diversity and Inclusion,” for all hiring managers in the program.

“We are proud to sponsor the CS YOU program and provide all program participants with access to the most in-demand skills via Udemy for Business,” said Stephanie Stapleton, Vice President of Customer Success at Udemy. “Our Customer Success team members are critical to helping Udemy cultivate effective relationships with our customers. We are thrilled to be part of CS YOU and to connect with underrepresented Customer Success candidates that reflect our diverse
global customer population.”

Like Green, CS YOU graduates will receive career coaching up to the first 12 months of their first job.

“With the benefit of our training and supportive community, our graduates can get on the fast-track to be of influence and move up the Customer Success career path, so they’ll be the ones hiring the next generation of Customer Success Managers, who will hopefully be more diverse, just like them,” says Shem-Tov. “That’s how we are going to create a more equal tech industry and world in the long term.”

Today, Green is such a fan of SV Academy that, after working in the high tech sector for a little more than a year, she returned to the organization that gave her a life-changing career opportunity when it seemed no one else would. “Today, I have the chance to bring my sunshine to those like me, to talk to and help people who are right where I was three years ago,” says Green. “They are looking for an opportunity, especially in the midst of this pandemic, wanting something to turn out right, hoping for someone to take a chance on them.”

Learn more about this life-changing opportunity.

This story was submitted as part of the #Pledge1Gives GivingTuesday campaign, which celebrates the many ways our member companies are having an impact around the world.

COVID-19 has been nothing if not a time of uncertainty and worry for workers and businesses around the globe. For freelancers in particular, that uncertainty can feel ratcheted up as budgets get cut and project pipelines dry up.

Despite that, their resilience has been so inspiring. They’ve leaned into these challenges and adjusted their hustles to lend expertise and remote work savvy during this time. Which is why we’re using all of the tools at our disposal to continue improving our platform, to give independent talent plenty of visibility, and to fast-track clients and talent alike to the best opportunities available.

Some programs we’ve participated in and launched so far include:

• The Freelancers Relief Fund. Upwork is a founding partner of the Freelancers Relief Fund alongside the Freelancers Union, which is helping assist independent workers experiencing financial hardship during the pandemic.


• Work Together Talent Grants are helping create economic opportunities for independent talent engaged on grantee projects that have missions directly tied to mitigating COVID-19’s impact. The program offers $1 million in talent grants to selected organizations (up to $25,000 in talent credits each) to be used on Upwork, where they’re matched directly with remote professionals who have the skills they need.


• Partnerships with companies around the world to help match remote talent to urgent, high-value projects. The focus is on projects and skills that are helping further business continuity and other critical COVID-19 initiatives, so we’re working to fast-track projects in web and mobile development, e-Learning, sales, content writing, UX design and more to help businesses and independent contractors get matched to the opportunities they need.  View current COVID-19 jobs


• A virtual event series to promote remote work and Upwork talent. We’ve launched monthly webinars to offer tips and guidance for working in the new norm, and we’re hosting virtual talent showcases to introduce Upwork talent and open the floor for them to discuss how they’re succeeding during COVID.


• Branded ad campaigns and email campaigns. To boost visibility of talent on Upwork and the stellar work they do, we’ve ramped up our digital marketing campaigns. Now is the time to show the world what independent talent can do!

We’ve also made improvements to Upwork’s platform based on feedback and the evolving COVID situation, including:

• Direct Contracts to help independent contractors grow their business with non-Upwork clients. New Direct Contracts let independent talent easily create fixed-price contracts with clients who aren’t on Upwork, while still benefiting from features such as escrow services, dispute assistance, simplified contract management, and instant payments. Learn more about Direct Contracts here. 


• Faster access to payments on hourly contracts. We heard from our community that faster payments would be helpful right now so we implemented a change that allows all Top Rated freelancers and agencies working on hourly contracts to receive their funds in half the time.


• Better, faster onboarding. Huge numbers of new professionals are joining Upwork every day. We streamlined the talent onboarding experience so we can better identify qualified professionals with in-demand skills and fast-track them to open opportunities.


• Improvements to voice and video calls. We’ve smoothed out the UX and improved call and connection quality to make it easier to collaborate and communicate on Upwork.

Also, we’re publishing freelancer-focused articles weekly on the Remote Work Resources page, including a recent profile of Upwork talent helping businesses get through COVID, as well as

• Freelancer’s Guide to Navigating Project Opportunities During COVID-19


• 10 Ways to Manage Your Freelance Business During Times of Crisis


• How to Pitch to Clients During a Crisis

As we navigate the challenges ahead, our commitment to supporting the freelance community remains our top priority. We’re working around the clock to ensure that the independent professionals have the best access possible to the opportunities they need.

This story was submitted as part of the #Pledge1Gives GivingTuesday campaign, which celebrates the many ways our member companies are having an impact around the world.

Originally published on cashrewards.com

Cashrewards is proud to announce our participation in ‘Big Change for Little Champions,’ a fundraising effort held by the Starlight Foundation in conjunction with Channel 9’s The Footy Show.

The telethon event, which aims to raise $500,000, will be held on the evening of Thursday September 14 and broadcast live on The Footy Show, which airs from 8:30pm AEST.

All funds raised will go towards brightening the lives of sick children and teens and will support innovative programs aimed at their recovery.

How far will the funds go?

With $500,000, Starlight – Australia’s most trusted and broadest reaching children’s charity, will be able to help 12,500 sick kids.

These kids include little Austin pictured with The Footy Show’s Beau Ryan, below. Austin loves watching the footy with his dad, but cheers for his mum’s favourite team, the Cowboys. Austin has been diagnosed with cancer and had to be kept in isolation while undergoing chemotherapy. When Austin was well enough, he was able to mix with other kids again in the Starlight Express Room, where he could also hang out with Captain Starlight.

If you are unable to donate out of your own pockets, we will gladly donate on your behalf. During the Telethon and for 24 hours after, Cashrewards will donate $10 to the Starlight foundation for every new member who signs up for free to

Cashrewards.

Cashrewards would also like to recognise the amazing contributions from other companies involved in the Big Change for Little Champions telethon fundraising event, including of course The Footy Show and Channel 9, as well as Oxipay, F45 Training, the NRL, Soul Origin, Canterbury Leagues Club, Jaycar and Parramatta Leagues Club.

About Cashrewards’ partnership with the Starlight Foundation

Cashrewards is very proud to have joined Pledge 1% as of June 1st, 2017. We have pledged to donate 1% of product, 1% of equity, 1% of profit and 1% of employee time to the Starlight foundation. Our goal is to help 10,000 seriously ill children by the end of 2019. Besides rewarding you for every purchase you make with cash in your pocket, we donate an additional 1% of your Cashrewards on your behalf from our pockets. At the time of publishing, with your help we have been able to give back and help 512 children.

Proudly supporting