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.
While these are clearly trying times, we see stories of generosity all around us as people and companies find new ways to show solidarity with those who are most in need. In an effort to help people and organizations throughout the global community find solutions to this crisis, many companies are making their products and services more accessible. From free technology tools for first responders and healthcare organizations, to assistance for struggling individuals and businesses, companies are doing what they can to support the cause and quicken recovery.
We’ve provided a roundup of resources being offered by Salesforce Ventures portfolio companies below. For more information about these programs, please reach out to the companies directly.
Benefits for first responders and healthcare organizations
BugCrowd is offering emergency response teams, hospitals, & care providers free access to their Vulnerability Disclosure Program and Attack Surface Analysis for the next 90 days.
Guild Education has partnered with Southern New Hampshire University and Penn Foster to build free training courses to assist workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic with staying safe.
JazzHR is providing JazzHR PRO for free to Primary, Emergency & Urgent Care providers.
Process Street launched COVID procedure templates for hospitals and clinics and offered free accounts for certain facilities.
Snyk’s cloud-native application security solution is free for six months to organizations in the healthcare, hospitality, travel and entertainment industries.
Free or discounted tools for organizations working on COVID-19 solutions
Algolia’s Pro Plan is free to any developer or team working on COVID-19-related, not-for-profit websites or apps.
Automation Anywhere has a free thirty-day trial of Automation Anywhere’s Enterprise A2019 to create bots for solutions to aid those affected by COVID-19.
CartoDB is offering its spatial analysis and visualization platform to private and public sector companies using maps to fight against the COVID-19 outbreak.
Copado announced the immediate availability of free access to its platform for anyone working on applications to fight COVID-19.
DropboxBusiness and HelloSign Enterprise subscriptions are free for a three-month period to nonprofits and NGOs that are focused on fighting COVID-19.
Helpshift is offering their technology to community, government and healthcare organizations at no cost, enabling them to leverage the power of automation to rapidly scale operations without additional staff.
PropelPLM launched the Healthcare Manufacturer Community, a free and open community built on Salesforce Care which contains easy to navigate medical device designs, sourcing and component data, and documentation that allows companies to pivot and manufacture ventilators, as well as other life-saving medical equipment.
Free or discounted access for schools, teachers, and students
AdmitHub is offering free access to the AdmitHub platform and its AI-powered bot to the government & educational community for 90 days.
FutureFuel launched a free service to help all student loan holders get on federal repayment plans that lower monthly payments, all the way down to $0 for 12 months.
Hustle’s texting platform is free through June 30, 2020 (up to 10,000 messages) to help governments, NGOs, and schools to connect with their communities.
Vidyard is offering free access to Vidyard for Schools to enable teachers and staff to record and share secure video messages for better engagement with students, parents, colleagues, and the community.
Zoom is free to all new users and has lifted the 40-minute meeting limit for free Basic accounts for K-12 schools. Zoom is used by businesses for meetings, by families to keep in touch, and by teenagers who want to hang out with their friends.
Services that make it easier to give back
Beliiveis using technology and time exchange to help individuals connect with one another. By sharing an hour of knowledge or experience with someone in the community, you receive a credit that can then be used to learn from someone else.
Catalant is waiving their fee on projects for qualified 501(c)(3)s that need to accelerate strategic work to help people affected by the pandemic.
Classy’s online fundraising software modernizes the giving experience and allows nonprofits to start fundraising in minutes with no subscription fees. They have enhanced their free platform offering through May 31, 2020.
UniteUs is offering an option for new communities to launch a rapid-response network for the immediate crisis that also provides the infrastructure to grow in the coming months.
Support for small businesses
Automattic’s WooCommerce has partnered with GoDaddy to offer3 months of WordPress e-commerce and hosting for just $1.
BringgNOW, a last-mile delivery solution to immediately launch or scale your delivery operations is free for SMBs.
Digital Asset’s world-class legal team is available free of charge to advise small companies who may be struggling under the current circumstances.
Gusto has put together a compilation of federal, state, and private resources to help small businesses find loans, grants, and credits.
SmartRecruiters SmartStart is available to make hiring easy for teams and smaller organizations of up to 250 employees. SmartStart is entirely free with an unlimited number of users and candidates.
Narvar is offering its Simple Returns solution to all retailers for free.
nCino’sSBA solution helps to quickly respond to regulatory changes as a result of the CARES Act and the Paycheck Protection Program by decreasing loan processing time and increasing capacity for new loan applications.
Ureeka has partnered with Salesforce for the Salesforce Care Small Business Grants as the grant application, judging and community partner. Ureeka will provide businesses with grant application support, ongoing resources, and counsel.
Tools to help companies take care of their employees and customers
Demandbase is offering two of its ABM Certification courses, available for free through July 31, 2020.
Dialpad is offering 2 free months of its business phone line and video conferencing products to help businesses impacted by COVID. Apply by May 31, 2020.
GO1 has made all COVID-19 related learning resources available for free to help teams continue to perform and feel supported during this time of disruption and change.
Odaseva launched DailyExport.io, a free product that automatically exports Salesforce data every 24 hours, retaining it for 30 days.
Pymetrics is offering two free solutions, Digital Interviewing and Internal Mobility to companies interviewing or looking to move current employees to different roles.
Simpplr is waiving implementation fees and offering a two-week deployment to support organizations with an enterprise-wide internal communications platform to keep the workforce connected and aligned.
SurveyMonkey launched new, free survey templates designed by their in-house survey experts to help business leaders and individual managers stay connected.
Thousand Eyes is offering free use of their end-user experience monitoring agents for 90 days to IT teams that need to support remote workers at an unprecedented scale due to precautions businesses are taking in response to COVID-19. Reach out to their team by June 30, 2020.
Vidyard is offering its new internal communications tool, free through June 30, to help companies adjust and stay connected to your remote workforce.
Information and other resources
Forter has created this weekly report to share insights on consumer behavior and fraud trends during this unprecedented time.
Gusto has a resource hub that provides SMBs with updated news, information, and advice as you navigate this difficult time.
Traction on Demand, through their initiative, Respond Together, is sharing an online inventory of response solutions that highlight rapid development projects they’ve completed and made available to others who might benefit from their use.
Re-entering the workplace
Finalcad is offering part of its product for free, helping construction sites return safely back to work by digitizing their HSE (health, safety, and environment)processes more effectively.
Traction Guest launched ZeroTouch to help enterprises safely reopen during the pandemic. ZeroTouch automates proactive safety screening and fully contactless access for employees and visitors, mitigating current and future risks.
Loop & Tie Founder and CEO Sara Rodell along with other technology leaders joined together to provide donated tablets to hospitals across the United States to connect critically ill COVID-19 patients with family members. Loop & Tie repurposed their operational structure to help receive orders from hospitals, device donations, and manage shipping and handling of devices to matching recipients.
Spearheaded by Rachel Carlson, CEO of Guild Education, Stop the Spread (STS) is a coalition of 1,500+ volunteer CEOs working to unlock the collective potential of US businesses to catalyze action and bolster the public sector in response to COVID-19.
Originally posted: December 1st, 2020
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 newVirtual Volunteering Playbook, which includes ideas and best practices on how to excite and inspire individual giving.
The summer of 2020 re-ignited an overdue conversation on the realities and effects of racial injustice in our country. We knew that we could not go back to business as usual when the protests, tweets, and news cycle died down. As part of Yelp’s commitmentto doing better and laying the groundwork for change, we launched efforts to support
Black-led and Black-serving organizations to help drive meaningful progress.
To start, the Yelp Foundation donated $500,000 to the Equal Justice Initiativeand NAACPLegal Defense Fund– two organizations whose work is uplifting and empowering Black communities across the country. To mobilize Yelp’s employees, the Yelp Foundation built on its employee matching program by raising the donation matching cap from $1,000 to $10,000 and double matching the employee donations made in the month of June to any of the following Black-led and Black-serving organizations:
We were impressed with the generosity of Yelp employees. They donated more than $335,000 to all the organizations listed above, and those donations were double-matched by the Yelp Foundation to bring the total contribution to more than $1.5 million. Since then, Yelp has continued to engage with these organizations by inviting them to participate in internal fireside chats with their employees to build awareness and share their work.
We’re proud that Yelp employee efforts will help build Black political power, improve Black communities, and lay the foundation for lasting change in our country.
Originally posted: December 1st, 2020
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.
ByNipa Nobel
At MTX, our impact does not stop after we implement our product or solution. The MTX family is committed to using our platform to make a positive impact on our community. Corporate responsibility is woven into the MTX DNA, inspiring us to partner with organizations devoted to creating positive change.
MTX is a proud member of Pledge 1%, committed to donating 1% of our revenue, time, and pro bono services to non-profit organizations and individuals in need. Through our Pledge 1% membership, MTX has contributed to groups like The Boys and Girls Club, St. Baldrick’s Foundation, Warriors on Wheels, the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and many more nonprofit organizations. Our donations accelerate causes that the MTX family believes in, including the advancement of science and research at colleges and universities like Siena College and the University of North Texas.
Our commitment to corporate responsibility does not stop with donations. We are devoted to creating a world where everyone can succeed, which is why we partner with nonprofits to provide funding and provide our time and resources. MTX is a proud partner of nPower, an organization that helps transition US military heroes and their families into the workforce. By hiring and training veterans and their family members, MTX helps bring our nation’s heroes toward economic success.
As we continue to grow rapidly as a company, we are dedicated to increasing our community impact. Our CEO and Founder’s humble beginnings have instilled in him a desire to use his success to impact the world, specifically through education significantly. Das plans to open 100 schools globally and has already begun accomplishing this with the first school: Kin Beh in Quintana Roo, Mexico. MTX has committed $1Million to this school and is excited to create more educational opportunities for children worldwide. Here at MTX, we invest in people.
Originally posted: December 1st, 2020
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 impacted all of us in different ways. For our nonprofit partner, 1951 Coffee Company, COVID-19 means that they may not be able to keep their doors open in 2021.
1951 Coffee Company, founded in 2015, is a non-profit specialty coffee organization that promotes the well-being of the refugee community in the United States by providing job training and employment to refugees, asylees, and special immigrant visa holders while educating the surrounding community about refugee life and issues.
With the upcoming presidential administration change in 2021, we expect the number of refugees being invited to the United States to increase 8 fold (15,000 people to 125,000). Being able to find and secure employment for refugees will be a crucial part of making the relaunch of the US refugee resettlement program a success.
As a hub designed to leverage the power of the coffee industry for the benefit of refugees, 1951 Coffee Company is the only industry specific training program that specializes in working with refugees in the Bay Area and one of only a few training programs for refugees in the whole country. We have an opportunity to do things better than they have been done before and secure refugee resettlement as a vital part of the fabric of this country.
For the first time ever, we are sharing 1951 Coffee Company as our Charity of Choice this GivingTuesday. Our employee base at Postmates, specific teams, and community members are encouraged to donatehereif you can.
Every year we celebrate GivingTuesday, but this year is different for all of us. GivingTuesday was created in 2012 as a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good. Over the past seven years, it has grown into a global movement that inspires hundreds of millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity.
Let us all do what we can to help get through this together.
Originally posted: December 1st, 2020
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 newVirtual Volunteering Playbook, which includes ideas and best practices on how to excite and inspire individual giving.
The Appfire team is excited to participate again in this year’s Giving Tuesday campaign, especially since this year has been such a hard one for so many around the world. We’ve been part of Pledge 1% since the beginning, and while we encourage our employees to give back all year round, we like to take this time in particular to rally around this important cause.
We launched our first-ever “Be Human” month this time last year, and to highlight all the ways our team participated, we started an internal Slack channel called #LivingThePledge. This channel continues to be a space for our team members to share philanthropic organizations they’re passionate about, volunteer opportunities they participate in, and other ways they give back. As our team has grown this year, with many joining us through several exciting acquisitions, it’s been amazing to see how both new and old members of the Appfire family have joined in on the fun!
Here are some of the inspiring ways our employees have already started giving back this month in preparation for #Pledge1Gives GivingTuesday:
(Nashville, TN) — “I donated an old Xbox and PS4 to a local children’s hospital to provide a fun outlet for the kids.”
(Glasgow, KY) — “I am planning on donating to our Boys And Girls club to help get some of the kids there some chromebooks, so they can have a better machine to do their school work on!”
(US) — “To help kick things off a bit early, we’ve just made a helpful donation to Covenant House which helps to protect homeless youth from the impacts of COVID-19.”
(Boston, MA) — “We sent a big Instacart grocery delivery today to the Food Pantry based upon their November wish list.”
(Boston, MA) — “Happily made a trip to Tharros House today to donate a huge box of puzzles and games to those in recovery and stuck indoors during a strange time :).”
(UK) — “My dear photographer friend Ed is leading this initiative to help live music event technicians who have been affected by the cancellation of 2020. Prints for Music has been set up so you can buy prints of over 100 music artists taken by world renowned and celebrated photographers. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Stagehand’s Covid-19 Crew Relief Fund, the only UK charity specifically dedicated to providing hardship funding for music stage crew who have fallen on tough times.”
(Hyderabad, India) — “There is a young nurse who treated my grandmom like a dedicated family member. She would attend work anywhere between 8-12 hours and then come home to monitor the IV fluids for hours together. I am funding her nursing course she wishes to pursue, which she has been putting off due to financial constraints.”
(Sofia, Bulgaria) — “At the beginning of September 2012, a charitable initiative called “Knit Warm” was launched. It targets a group of people who are often overlooked by such initiatives, namely homeless people and those in need. For most of us, the cold winter days come with a small wardrobe change of clothes; sadly, others should fight the cold in streets and shelters, needing the same basic things – light, food, warm clothes. This charity campaign is focused on building a bridge between those who seek and those who give. This is my small contribution to the cause, which I hope to warm not just someone’s day but its heart.
(Boston, MA) — “This month starting today, my Etsy shop has a 20% off sale. Proceeds support donating to Transition House, Embrace Race and also to charities via The Appfire Foundation. Also this winter wear gets donated to many.”
We know the team is just getting started and can’t wait to see what other causes our employees donate to today and in the future.
There are so many ways you too can integrate the pledge into your life. So this Giving Tuesday, remember that you can start anywhere, no amount of giving is too small — you too can take the Pledge.
Originally posted: December 1st, 2020
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 newVirtual Volunteering Playbook, which includes ideas and best practices on how to excite and inspire individual giving.
By Heather Jin, Global Head of Social Impact at Medallia
#GivingTuesday is a special day, mobilizing the world for acts of generosity, and this year’s means that much more. COVID-19, racial equity movements, and natural disasters have caused tremendous disruptions to the educational, health, and economic systems that we all rely on. As a result, nonprofits and social enterprises are more vital, yet more vulnerable than ever, and Medallia.org’s commitment to supporting them has deepened.
Back in June 2019, we became one of the first experience management companies to join Pledge 1%. We began by committing our two superpowers — employee time and product — for social good. As a natural evolution of Medallia.org, we’re excited to extend our pledge to monetary resources and start our fund.
We have done philanthropic giving previously, but this new fund allows our grant-making to be more mindful, sustainable, and swift. That is why we have partnered with Tides, the leader in corporate philanthropic strategy and management, to help us identify the greatest need in the community, provide the most streamlined experience for grantees, and grow our fund as our company expands.
We will be using this fund for three grant types and purposes:
Strategic grant-making — to support causes dedicated to creating equitable citizen, learning, and patient experiences. As a leader in experience management, we promote diversity + inclusion and embrace the power of technology in scaling the voices of the most vulnerable. For example, we are one of the inaugural members of Full Circle Fund’s “Social Justice in a Post-COVID World” Accelerator to enable tech-forward nonprofits working on solutions to systemic issues behind the disproportionately detrimental health impacts of COVID-19 on communities of color.
Emergency relief — to deploy immediate funds during emergencies, such as natural disasters and global human rights violations. For example, we donated direct relief to the Australian Red Cross during the 2019 wildfires, and have donated $200,000 to Black Girls Code, Black Girl Ventures, Code2040, and Equal Justice Initiative following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery.
Gift matching — to support our employees in the organizations they are passionate about. For example, we currently match fundraising by our Employee Resource Groups to nonprofits that support identities typically underrepresented in a business context (read about our 2019 partners).
Stay tuned as more information about our fund, grant rounds, and partners will come soon, and I wish everyone a wonderful #GivingTuesday.
Originally posted: December 1st, 2020
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.
Justice reform in America has never been more vital to our country’s health or more urgent than it is today. There are 2.3 million incarcerated individuals in the U.S.¹, who together make up 20% of the worldwide prison population.² When formerly incarcerated people are released in America, they’re confronted by a harsh and unforgiving job market, with unemployment rates nearly five times as high³ as those faced by other job seekers. But there are actions we can take to create new opportunities for these individuals and change that statistic for the better.
As Bryan Stevenson, the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, says, “Proximity has taught me some basic and humbling truths, including this vital lesson: Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.”
That’s why Slack co-created Next Chapter, an apprenticeship program designed to bring formerly incarcerated individuals into highly skilled engineering roles. And today we are announcing that Dropbox and Zoom are joining us to launch Next Chapter within their own organizations.
“We are thrilled to welcome Dropbox and Zoom to the Next Chapter program,” says Natrina Gandana, the project director for Next Chapter. “The two companies’ involvement in the program is critical to helping advance justice reform. Our focus is not only to help formerly incarcerated individuals secure these positions. Our goal is to transform the tech sector and make it an equitable and inclusive space in which to work.”
Eight apprentices are starting the program this year and will receive financial support, professional and technical mentorship, and reentry services. The apprentices will begin working with their respective companies this summer and fall.
A partnership for change
“If you want to solve any problem, you have to understand what the problem is first. You have to get close to the issues in order to do that,” says Kenyatta Leal, the reentry director for Next Chapter. “With the addition of Dropbox and Zoom, we’re going to be able to make an even broader impact together.”
This partnership is a small but meaningful step toward addressing the long-term, systemic changes that are needed to make our companies and our country more just and inclusive places to work and live.
“Providing a critical investment in the skills and potential of formerly incarcerated people and working closely with employers to shift how they work to be more equitable and welcoming are key to Next Chapter’s success,” says Tameshia Bridges Mansfield, a program officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, a Next Chapter partner. “It is this combination of individual investment in the people and partnership with leaders in the tech sector that creates the conditions for systemic change necessary to realize the vision that we hold for children, families and communities.”
A small but significant step in the right direction
Since graduating from Next Chapter’s pilot last year, all three former apprentices have joined Slack full-time as engineers.
“All three are thriving in their roles within Slack Engineering and are making significant contributions to the company,” says Drew McGahey, a senior engineering manager at Slack. “Our former apprentices, now engineers, are on different teams: building our product design system, working on our product onboarding flow, or building tooling for our Engineering Productivity organization. The work ethic and determination displayed by all three of them is inspiring and a stark reminder that there is untapped talent just waiting for an opportunity.”
“If you want to solve any problem, you have to understand what the problem is first. You have to get close to the issues in order to do that. With the addition of Dropbox and Zoom, we’re going to be able to make an even broader impact together.”
Charles Anderson, a former apprentice who is now a full-time Slack engineer, observes that program participants bring more than coding skills to the table. “We’re hardworking, we’re passionate about change, and we’re going to try and give back in so many different ways,” he says.
Besides excelling as engineers, the former Next Chapter apprentices have found ways to give back to their communities. Shortly after finishing the program, Anderson began tutoring young adults from local youth detention centers.
“I let them know about my experience and that no matter what, if you truly want to change, that it’s possible, and there are people out there who care about you and support you,” he says. “My hope is to get a group of kids prepared, get them into a coding boot camp, and then, with the connections that I’ve built, get them a job in engineering.”
Apprentices, and the communities they serve, aren’t the only ones who benefit from the Next Chapter program. Participating companies stand to gain engaged, committed employees—a huge boon in tech’s hyper-competitive talent marketplace.
“We might not have the same education as the typical engineer, but we haven’t been given many chances in our life,” Anderson says. “Every chance that we now have, especially after we’ve decided to change and do something with our lives, we don’t take lightly.”
While the Next Chapter program has a significant impact on the lives of the apprentices and their families, we recognize that it is just one small step forward for participating companies and the broader technology industry.
Call to action: How can you help?
“For companies committed to making a difference for formerly incarcerated people, simply donating isn’t enough,” says Slack co-founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield. “You have to create opportunity, and you have to start by looking inward. Through programs like Next Chapter, we believe the technology industry has a chance to design new pathways to skilled, high-paying jobs that can create a better future not only for people leaving prison but their communities.”
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 newVirtual Volunteering Playbook, which includes ideas and best practices on how to excite and inspire individual giving.
Or, a beginner’s guide for launching a global Social Impact strategy during a global pandemic … and why I should have made it happen earlier.
In the midst of a global pandemic, a massive recession, civil unrest, and the end of “normal” as we know it — combined with an upcoming IPO — Unity decided to create and launch Unity Social Impact. The following is a hazy account of what went down, including my mistakes, and where we knocked it out of the park.
It All Started on a Flight
In February, 2020, I was traveling for work and had the fortuitous coincidence of being seated next to our CEO, John Riccitiello, for the long flight. We discussed everything from physics to US election politics to “enlightened capitalism,” a term John coined to mean essentially “doing well by doing good.” During the flight, we reflected on “enlightened capitalism,” noting that it had been the soul of our company since Unity’s founding, with a focus on democratizing access to Unity’s technology.
This belief has enabled thousands of Unity creators to leverage the platform not just to create 3D content, but experiences that encourage and inspire social change. We see experiences that run the gamut, from education to sustainability to health and well-being. This evolution solidified our company philosophy: “The world is a better place with more creators in it.”
On this flight, we realized now was the time to structure and proactively propel a focus on social change, within Unity and beyond. By the time we landed, there was a sketch of an approach in our heads, which we would “get to at some point.”
Four weeks later, most of our company (in 40+ offices around the world) went on lockdown in our homes while trying to seamlessly carry on with business as usual. The evolving pandemic, recession, and civil unrest fueled our company’s passion to make a much more significant, structured commitment to Social Impact. We went from “get to it at some point” to “launch fast.”
A Timeline for the Overly Ambitious
Despite my best efforts to find the “How to Set up Corporate Social Impact …Fast” CliffsNotes, I quickly realized no such manual existed. Instead, I doubled down on our vision to keep Social Impact deeply rooted in our core business (not a side CSR program) and called on a few trusted advisors to mentor me (Dr. David Washington and Jan D’Alessandro were critical).
April, 2020 — Roll out the vision internally at a company All-Hands. Vision includes structure our Social Impact work by combining existing, related programs like Education, Unity for Humanity, Safety, and Accessibility.
May, 2020 — Landscape analysis to quickly figure out who is doing what in our peer groups and make as many friends as possible. Pledge 1% was and still is my go-to. Reorganize existing team members into Social Impact.
June, 2020 — Present to the board of directors a top-level approach to Social Impact strategy while asking for a significant pre-IPO equity donation 3 months before IPO. Learn that Pledge 1% was in the process of releasing the ”how-to” manual that I sought and get early access to their methodologies.
July, 2020 — Not going on holiday anyway in a pandemic, double down with our core team of big thinkers to create the strategy (Theory of Change, Logic Model, Landscape Analysis, Program Strategies tied to UN SDGs, Business Model and Financial Model. Yes, this is about both making money and giving away money).
August, 2020 — Do all of this simultaneously:
— CEO aligns board on significant equity donation
— Align all key stakeholders (almost 200 people: employees, exec team, external partners) on the strategic plan with slight adjustments.
— Set up DAF for pre-IPO donation with the Tides Foundation, saving both significant time and money to focus our efforts on impact v. paperwork
September, 2020 — Oh yeah … and go public virtually with all employees virtually ringing the bell together while showcasing our creators making social change.
October, 2020 — Hold our first post-IPO virtual event with new investors, the inaugural Unity for Humanity launch event, with 150 speakers from all over the world, more than 12,000 attendees, most new to Unity, from over 7,000 companies. More than 100 countries are represented, with both executives and students making up most of the attendees (more on this in my next article).
November, 2020 — Bring onboard key hires to round out the team. Ours were in Sustainability, Employee Giving, and Social Impact Outcomes Analysis.
My Mistakes
Here’s where I screwed up and wish I would have done things differently:
Start Earlier — I should have structured a formal approach earlier. Our equity donation would have been easier, our strategy would have been clearer, and our employees would have felt deeper engagement.
Company Impact is Not Personal Giving — The company Social Impact playbook is not well known, and as a result, stakeholders often default to their personal giving approach as opposed to what is best to drive the business forward. I should have started off with a clearer hypothesis on how our Social Impact approach propels our business forward so it wasn’t subjected to personal experience. Once I learned about Pledge 1%’s 1–1–1 model of corporate philanthropy (time-product-profits and/or equity), I quickly got up to speed on how to formalize our equity pledge and educated our CEO. He embraced the concept and built board consensus around donating equity to a corporate Donor Advised Fund that would fund our Social Impact work for years to come. (To be confirmed, but our view right now is that our approach generates more creators, more experiences, and essentially more revenue opportunities.)
Start with Employees — We should have launched a structured employee giving approach with employee volunteerism first. At Unity, we have the most passionate employee base I have ever had the privilege of working with. And we do a lot of ad hoc giving — employees volunteer sporadically, and we dedicate pro bono teaching, support, and development time when teams see fit — but we are just getting around to a global, structured program that provides access and engagement to all employees. At 40+ locations and almost 4,000 employees, we missed out on the massive impact their passion can fuel.
Our Wins
Here’s what made all the difference in the world:
Doing Even Better by Doing Good — we structured our strategy with a focus on both impact and incremental direct revenue that will be created by the Social Impact strategy. It’s not just about increased employee engagement, elevated brand perception, ESG ratings, etc. — we committed to annual direct revenue we would generate as part of our strategy by selling discounted licenses for our products to nonprofits.
CEO Champion — ESG informed investments by asset managers are real, but too early-stage for some to take seriously. I’d love to think that the hours or days of due diligence to make our board case for pre-IPO donation made a difference, but really it all comes down to the CEO’s passion and commitment to see it through.
Killer Team — I’m the luckiest. I have the incredible privilege of supporting the most amazing team focusing on education, sustainability, health, and Social Impact. But even more, I’m so lucky to work with the most passionate, talented global team of global change-makers: Unity employees.
Mentors — it takes a village … but really for me, it was two key people:
Dr. David Washington is the founder of Partnerships for Purpose, a Social Impact consulting firm leveraging our shared culture to unify and align the superpowers of influencers, policy, philanthropy, frontline non-profits, and corporate Social Impact to make a scalable change. If you need a silo breaker who understands how to empower each of us to make social change, he is the best.
Jan D’Alessandro is the co-author of the Pledge 1% Equity Playbook, in addition to this treasure trove, she is a proven corporate Social Impact executive and investor. When going toe-to-toe with a seasoned Board and CEO, there is no stronger partner to aid you in the negotiations, and no better advisor to help you build your Social Impact program.
Telling the World — We announced our Social Impact strategy in the longest speaking slot at our IPO debut and followed up six weeks later with our two-day Unity for Humanity event, showing the world that our Social Impact program is core to our business — and we mean business.
Originally posted: December 1st, 2020
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.
On this Giving Tuesday we’re reflecting on how grateful we are to the organizations that provide critical services and support to those in need. Not only are we offering employee donation matching and virtual volunteer opportunities, but we wanted to feature and raise awareness around some of the organizations we’ve worked with this past year.
This year has challenged us all, in very complex and different ways, and to address this we launched our first Community Impact grant cycle earlier this year. We encouraged non-profits that are addressing their communities highest needs and barriers to economic participation to apply for a grant of up to $50,000, and the response we saw was huge.
The Impact Fund Advising Committee, made up of 10 ZEOs (Zuora employees) from all across Zuora, selected recipients with two criteria in mind. As we looked at applications, we identified organizations that were providing immediate and emergency relief to those most negatively impacted by COVID-19. This relief includes disbursement of food, rent relief, affordable housing placement, and individual and small family micro grants. And secondly, organizations shifting their delivery models to accommodate the new COVID-19 world we live in. These shifts enable organizations to more effectively and safely reach their constituents virtually or through social-distanced delivery methods.
(staff from Hospitality Helps)
One of our recipients, Hospitality Helps, a San Francisco catering company teamed up with Meals on Wheels, transformed their 9,000sq-ft catering kitchen and rehired vital furloughed kitchen staff to deliver safe, healthy, nutritious family-style meals to those in need. Since March, they have delivered close to 100,000 meals to San Francisco’s District 10 (Hunter’s Point/Bay View), a community disproportionately affected by COVID-19, living in the “food desert” of San Francisco and cut off from school based nutrition.
We’re inspired by Hospitality Helps and were proud to name them one of our Community Impact Grant awardees.
Here’s a full list of our 2020 recipients:
Aruwe: Serving Tamilnadu, India, Aruwe provides emergency relief such as food and household items to those most negatively affected by COVID-19. Working closely with local families they provide knowledge on how to stop the spread of the virus and provide programs to help these families regain their livelihood.
Farming Hope: Farming Hope is a San Francisco based farm-to-table nonprofit social enterprise empowering and promoting self-sufficiency for people who have experienced homelessness or incarceration through job training and employment in the culinary industry.
Hack the Hood: Hack the Hood launched with a mission to build a tech sector that works for everyone. They do this by providing technology education and workforce opportunities to early career youth of color, ages 16-25. To deepen their technical skills and career development, youth serve as digital marketing and technology consultants to local small businesses. They build websites and leverage analytics to help entrepreneurs drive revenue. As one of the first organizations in this field, Hack the Hood has a commitment to implementing a project-based, rigorous curriculum that is relevant to the communities they serve.
Hospitality Helps: Hospitality Helps/Taste Catering (in partnership with Young Community Developers, Inc.) is producing and delivering delicious, fresh and ready-to-eat family meals to SF’s District 10 (Hunter’s Point/Bay View), a community disproportionately affected by COVID-19, living in the “food desert” of San Francisco and cut off from school based nutrition.
Monthly Miracles: Monthly Miracles saves the Tri-Valley residents from homelessness every month by mobilizing the community through $1/month donations.
NPO e-Education: Serving Bangladesh, e-Education provides emergency educational support to underserved high school students by matching them with local university student tutors who are out of work due to COVID-19.
Oasis for Girls: Oasis for Girls partners with young girls of color, aged 14-18, from under-resourced communities in San Francisco to cultivate the skills, knowledge, and confidence to discover their dreams and build strong futures.
Open Heart Kitchen of LIvermore: Open Heart Kitchen serves prepared, nutritious meals free of charge to the hungry people of the Tri-Valley, California. They are the only hot meal program of its kind in the Tri-Valley area and given new COVID-19 demand, have increased meal delivery to people experiencing homelessness or escaping domestic violence.
SFMade: SFMade’s mission is to build and support a vibrant manufacturing sector in San Francisco and the Bay Area, that sustains companies producing locally-made products, encourages entrepreneurship and innovation, and creates employment opportunities for a diverse local workforce including for women and people of color.
Tri-Valley Haven for Women: Tri-Valley Haven creates homes safe from abuse, contributes to a more peaceful society one person, one family, one community at a time. Together, they build a world without violence.
We are also excited to announce the Zuora Impact Fund has received another $1,000,000 of funding to fuel our philanthropic work. For more information on Zuora’s philanthropic work, visit Zuora.org.
