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.

Project Sunshine is an international nonprofit that partners with medical facilities to help pediatric patients feel like  the kids and teens they are during the course of their treatment. Their programming supports patients and families  by providing opportunities for play and authentic engagement with a network of trained volunteers. 

We made giving back a fundamental part of our Silverline Cares initiative by partnering with Project Sunshine. And  when the COVID-19 pandemic forced their volunteer and patient interactions to go virtual, we jumped in to help them  coordinate their efforts. 

Since Project Sunshine was already using Salesforce to manage volunteers, donations, donor information, and  grants, it only made sense to double down with Silverline’s CalendarAnything application. 

The challenge: scheduling  hundreds of volunteers  

Project Sunshine already had their work cut out for them  when it came to scheduling volunteers. Each chapter works  with a specific hospital partner, in groups that vary from 30  to 70. Smaller groups of 5-7 volunteers would coordinate  visits directly with the hospital, sending emails between one  another and collecting RSVPs in spreadsheets. 

This kind of back-and-forth took a lot of administrative effort  on the part of the chapter leaders, but also for Volunteer  Engagement Director Kaitlin Garzia. Garzia helps organize  patient visits, but also works to train volunteers and monitors  how the programs are doing within each hospital. 

After COVID-19 hit, Project Sunshine took their volunteer  efforts virtual, creating a program called TelePlay, where  volunteers play trivia, bingo, and other fun word games over  Zoom. Since anyone can dial in from anywhere in the country  to participate, things got complicated pretty quickly. She  knew that there had to be a better way to organize everything. 

“We started thinking about this in late March,” she said.  “What we’ve done over the past six months is develop this  new program that brings together small groups of patients  and families, using trained volunteers to facilitate programs.  We needed a way to streamline everything.” 

Coordinating with ease 

Silverline helped Project Sunshine implement  CalendarAnything, a Salesforce application that allows users  to create easy-to-use customized calendars. Patients and  volunteers alike can find open slots for upcoming Zoom  sessions and RSVP directly within Salesforce.  

The team uses CalendarAnything in two ways: 

Training effective volunteers 

“Every volunteer gets trained, so we have multiple training  sessions across national chapters and time zones,” said  Garzia. “CalendarAnything is way more seamless, and it saves  Project Sunshine a lot of time creating sessions.”  

In addition to standard training sessions, using  CalendarAnything gave Garzia and her team the flexibility  they needed to meet volunteer needs, particularly now that  everything was going virtual. She started running office hours  for lead volunteers to answer questions as they came up,  making it more accessible for everyone as they’re not only  learning how to engage with patients effectively, but also how  to use new technology to do so. 

By consolidating everything in Salesforce, Project Sunshine  also has a record of each volunteer, noting which sessions  they’ve attended and what additional training they need.  Meanwhile, volunteers can access RSVP information and  input any session feedback directly into the database, making  the program much more transparent.  

“Not only has it made it easier to schedule things, it’s also given  us more flexibility,” said Garzia. “We need volunteers to report [attendance], and before, we just had to depend on them to  go in and make a report. Now, with CalendarAnything, it’s  much easier to just generate it.” 

The more quickly volunteers get up to speed, the easier it is to  focus on what matters: bringing joy and a sense of normalcy  to pediatric patients. 

Giving patients easy access to play 

CalendarAnything makes it easier for patients, too. 

Because the majority of patients are minors, before any patient  attends a Zoom session, Project Sunshine has to collect a  consent form signed by the parent or guardian. Now, chapter  volunteers can double check that they have the right forms  from any patient in the system in real-time. 

“It’s allowing us to streamline our processes and make it  easier for the volunteers, but also to be able to have a 

more  direct line to patients and families,” said Garzia. “It allows us  to have more direct contact with patients while complying  with HIPAA regulations.” 

Now volunteers can log into Salesforce directly and add  upcoming program sessions onto the calendar, generate their  Zoom link, and add capacity for the number of attendees at  a particular session. When patients log in, they can easily see  all the available games and options that suit their schedule.  

“Now we can collect the number of registrants and attendees,  which is critical to the success of the program.” said Garzia.

“It’s not back-and-forth in personal emails anymore.” 

Not only does this help patients, but it gives the Project  Sunshine team more insight into what programs resonate  the most with patients and families, so they can tweak their  offerings accordingly. 

“It’s a whole new world for us,” said Garzia. “It’s all in  Salesforce, so I have more insight into what programs are happening that I never had before. Reporting is so much  easier and more streamlined.” 

Bringing a little bit of sunshine to patients,  even when meeting virtually 

All of this makes it easier for Project Sunshine to focus on what matters: patients. 

Adding CalendarAnything to their existing Salesforce  implementation streamlined their various efforts and lifted the  administrative burden off of volunteers and staff members.  Every piece of information they need is all in one place, so  whether it’s volunteers looking for training sessions or patients  looking to add a bit of play into their day, everyone knows  where to go. 

“The different levels of how our system is organized makes  it complicated,” said Garzia. “It was such a pleasure to work  with the Silverline team to help us build this. I can’t say enough  about them!

About Project Sunshine 

Project Sunshine’s TelePlay program is open to any pediatric patient facing any medical challenge, mental or physical.  To learn more visit ProjectSunshine.org/TelePlay 

About Silverline 

Silverline has real-world expertise in the Healthcare industry, including industry sub-segments such as Provider, Payer,  Medical Device, and Life Sciences. We combine strategic planning, implementation, and ongoing support to help clients  realize continuous value with the Salesforce platform. We also offer CalendarAnything, a popular AppExchange application,  and accelerators. To find out more, contact us at healthcare@silverlinecrm.com.

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.

CommonTeri Services is a proud Pledge 1% member and participates with extensive pro-bono work and volunteer hours with Literacy Texas. Literacy Texas is a statewide organization that aims to equip adult and family literacy providers with education, networking and advocacy. Teri Walker, CommonTeri’s  company founder and CEO has been involved with Literacy Texas since 2015 and has served as the  board president from 2017 through 2020. We provide the organization with a free support plan for  ongoing Salesforce managed services helping maintain donor lists and maximize promotional opportunities to expand the membership. We also are a continued sponsor of the organization’s annual conference, an important gathering of Texas Adult Educators. Our team even helped the organization with creative social media promotion of the event to help engage with the membership on their first ever virtual conference this past August.  

Adult and Family Literacy is such an important cause to Teri and the whole team at CommonTeri Services. When Teri was serving as the executive director of an Adult and Family Literacy nonprofit, she was thinking of all the ways that she could optimize an app for literacy nonprofits with Salesforce. She  founded CommonTeri with a commitment to not only giving of time, talent, and a percentage of profits to helping nonprofits use Salesforce more efficiently, but also creating services that would be affordable and sustainable for such organizations to build a long-term relationship and continue their growth for many years. While she could have continued to work to build and improve one nonprofit, no doubt  improving the community surrounding her, Teri saw a way to help communities all over the country and the world by assembling the right team of people to help hundreds of nonprofits.  

CommonTeri is made up of a team of tech savvy Salesforce experts with a passion for helping nonprofits and we live that every day through both providing affordable Salesforce managed services and  maintaining our program management app, Literacy Nimbus. We attend literacy conferences  throughout the country, and often present to adult educators on a number of topics including was to  manage data to maximize student outcomes, and more!  

We’ve found that while this year, we can’t get together, we are hyper focused on using our tech-savvy  to help communities everywhere. On any given day we could be leading a board meeting of literacy  professionals in Texas, presenting to a group of adult educators in Maine, and supporting a Salesforce  consultant based in Louisiana who’s working for a school in Africa, and we love it that way! 

CommonTeri Services 

Literacy Texas

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 December, New Relic is creating a moment of global goodness with our newest NewRelic.org Global Impact Campaign! Over the course of two weeks, offices around the globe are coordinating a variety of efforts that support their local communities and give Relics the opportunity to give back right where they live. We’re hoping to build a sense of (mostly) virtual togetherness and connection by engaging in activities like virtual volunteer opportunities, nonprofit lunch and learns, and donation drives. 

From virtual volunteer sessions to sending care packages to homebound seniors to learning from nonprofit organizations about how to get involved in their efforts, Relics around the world are proud to be supporting 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.

By Julia Maples, co-founder and General Partner at FYRFLY Venture Partners

Today, FYRFLY Venture Partners officially joined Coach K’s Dream Team. No, Philip Stauffer and I have not been drafted to play basketball for Duke. Rather, we are making a significant donation to the V Foundation for Cancer Research Endowment, which enables the organization to mobilize 100% of direct donations towards finding cures for cancer. In doing so, we have fulfilled part of our commitment to Pledge 1%, a global movement to build philanthropy into the DNA of companies.

We are sharing this news because we want to see more founders and investors Pledge 1%.

Today, humanity faces a once-in-a-generation challenge. Unemployment, civil strife, food insecurity, and the grief of losing loved ones to COVID-19 have stricken too many communities. However, 2020 has been a boom year for technology startups, an unusually high number of which are going public. The many liquidity events of 2020 have given entrepreneurs and their investors the opportunity to make a difference at this crucial juncture in history.

If you’ve been graced by fortune this year, I encourage you to Pledge 1%. How you fulfill your pledge is a personal decision. I’d like to share why FYRFLY pledged and how that led us to Coach K’s Dream Team.

When Philipp and I founded FYRFLY in 2015, we didn’t see ourselves as an “impact” fund, but wanted to make philanthropy a core of our identity and mission anyway. We took our lead from Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, whose 1-1-1 philanthropy model was gaining traction through Pledge 1%. Philipp and I committed to donate 1% of our carried interest, 1% of our time, and 1% of our product to charity. Many of our portfolio companies have also adopted these practices, which have become a crucial part of their brand identity and success. We encourage our founders to focus on issues that have impacted their lives.

So, why did cancer become one of FYRFLY’s main areas of support? And why The V Foundation?

Founded by the legendary college basketball coach and commentator Jimmy Valvano, who passed away from cancer in 1993, the V Foundation is on a mission to cure cancer. Coach K (aka Mike Krzyzewski), a dear friend of Jimmy’s, is leading the charge to sustain the V Foundation in these chaotic economic times.

My father produced the first Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly (ESPY) Awards in 1993. Jimmy V received the Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award that day. During his acceptance speech, Jimmy announced that, with ESPN’s support, he was launching the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research and stated his famous edict: “Don’t give up…Don’t ever give up!”®

Nearing the end of his life, Jimmy did not give up. Instead, he asked the audience for research funding. “It may not save my life. It may save my children’s lives. It may save someone you love,” said Jimmy.

I lost my mother to cancer at a young age and connected deeply to Jimmy’s cause. Philipp lost his mother to cancer as well. Worldwide, more than 9.5 million people will die of cancer in 2020. It is the second leading cause of death globally.  But thanks to world-class research funded by The V Foundation and other nonprofits, we have drastically better treatments for cancer today than we did in Jimmy’s day. Now more than ever, there is HOPE for cures.  

Today, I am the chairwoman and co-founder of the V Foundation Wine Celebration, which has raised over $118 million for cancer research. When I founded the event, I wanted to give my time and effort. Yet being a part of “The V Team” and serving alongside Coach K and other esteemed members, I’ve learned that sharing a mission to change lives has given me far more in return.

Pledge 1% was one of the most important decisions FYRFLY Venture Partners has made. It has defined the spirit of our work, reminding us always to consider the impact of our investments and our advice to founders. Indeed, we believe that ‘Impact’ Investing is the Only Kind Left.

In joining Coach K’s Dream Team and being explicit about our Pledge 1% commitment, we are proud to honor our mothers, Jimmy V, and our mission at FYRFLY Venture Partners to align commercial success with the common good. 

If curing cancer is a cause dear to your heart, join us on Coach K’s Dream Team. Either way, Pledge 1%, pick causes that fill you with passion, and use your resources to do good. Your leadership and support matter.

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.

Energy Terrain’s vision is to see a world powered by renewables. Our service in delivering Solar Power Purchase Agreements (Solar PPAs) allows businesses to share in this vision by reducing their operational carbon emissions. While we believe Solar PPAs are a great way to achieve this vision, Energy Terrain wants to go a step further and reach beyond our borders to accelerate the development of renewable energy. In order to support these different approaches to reducing carbon emissions, Energy Terrain has made a commitment to the Pledge 1% movement. 

The Energy Terrain team made the pledge in 2017 and since then each member has sought a not-for-profit cause of their choosing to which they can dedicate 1% of their time. We at Energy Terrain are passionate about improving the renewable energy systems available to communities both nationally and internationally.  Our team members all enjoy dedicating their energy towards this goal outside of our efforts at Energy Terrain. We are therefore able to offer our expertise and enthusiasm as assets to these not-for-profit organisations in order to support their visions also. 

Renew

Renew is a residential, government, and industry sustainability consultant based in Australia which services those seeking to reduce their carbon footprint. Beyond their direct influence in communities, Renew also participates in social and environmental policy advocacy, and conducts research on energy, water, and transportation for the benefit of market consumers. 

One of Renew’s major projects involves increasing local communities’ access to clean, renewable lighting and energy in Timor Leste. So far, solar energy has been supplied to more than 2,000 homes and 1,000 community centres, orphanages, schools, and hospitals. This has helped to not only reduce the villages’ carbon emissions, but also improved their local economies by providing training to over 180 technicians. These activities seek  to cultivate independence within these communities. 

Energy Terrain has partnered with Sassafras Group to assist in Renew’s Timor-Leste Plastic Plant Project. This is focused on improving a local plastic recycling plant’s efficiency. Currently, the energy required to operate the plant is limited to grid electricity which is only accessible during nighttime hours. The team is  conducting a detailed solar system analysis in order to enable the plant to operate at full capacity during daylight hours, powered by clean energy. Our engineers are participating in the planning and optimisation of the plant’s solar system. 

Enova

Enova Energy is Australia’s first community-owned and managed energy company, which aims to decentralise distant, large-scale energy generation. They are opting instead for integrating the generating, storing, and sharing of solar energy into their local communities, thus promoting self-sufficiency and locally circulated capital. Enova’s vision is to relieve energy poverty and economic stresses by motivating and aiding residents in their shift towards embracing renewable energy. 

Enova’s not-for-profit branch, Enova Community, receives 50% of the company’s profits in order to redistribute it back into the community to fund projects, education, and energy efficiency services. Some of their current projects include: 

• Installing solar gardens on medium-sized business rooftops in order to provide energy to those who cannot themselves host panel systems; and 


• The McKenzie Lofts Project.  fit-for-purpose clean housing project. The objective of this project is to construct 12 minimal-carbon footprint homes to enable accessibility to affordable housing for those experiencing or at risk of homelessness, which includes a collection of rooftop solar panel systems. 

Energy Terrain has assisted in the research of funding opportunities and ways in which Enova can reduce energy stress in low-income households in order to progress the development of the McKenzie Lofts Project. 

Climate for Change

Climate for Change is an incorporated association and registered charity which is currently the only organisation in Australia specifically aligned to improve climate change discourse. They promote awareness for climate change by engaging in educational conversations within a range of communities. Their mission is to support a national shift towards sustainability and climate conscientiousness with the aid of community, business, and government unity. 

The method of participating in informed conversation with peers regarding climate change is now considered to be a predominant variable in bringing about effective policy and behavioural improvements. Energy Terrain has been involved in Climate Conversations, for which Climate for Change is known, as well as encouraging seminar attendance, and fundraising efforts. 

Conclusion

Energy Terrain is committed to seeing a world powered by renewable energy. When we say the world, we mean it. The only way to achieve this is by working with others. That is why we donate our time to organisations that are reaching out to all corners of the world to help make a positive difference for communities not yet able to achieve it for themselves. All so we can truly move towards a sustainable world. 

References

“Pledge 1%”. (2020). Home Page. [Online]. Available: https://pledge1percent.org/ [Accessed 13 November 2020] 

“Renew”. (2020). International Projects. [Online]. Available: https://renew.org.au/what-we-do/international-projects/renews-international-projects-group/ [Accessed 13 November 2020]

“Enova Energy”. 2020. Not for Profit Page. [Online]. Available: 

https://www.enovaenergy.com.au/not-for-profit [Accessed 13 November 2020]

“Climate for Change”. (2020). Home Page. [Online]. Available: 

https://www.climateforchange.org.au/ [Accessed 13 November 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 new Virtual Volunteering Playbook, which includes ideas and best practices on how to excite and inspire individual giving.

2020 has been a tough year with a dizzying amount of disheartening statistics coming at us daily.

What’s striking – and heartening – is despite the worldwide turmoil, philanthropic movements and charitable donations are on the rise. We’re seeing that evidenced right here at Riva.

Riva is a proud member of the Pledge 1% movement. We are dedicated to upholding the challenge to pledge 1% of our equity, product, and employee time to our communities.

Even with Covid-19 restrictions, our team has demonstrated an altruistic spirit – creating a selfless wave of giving that is felt throughout our community. 

Both individually and working together with peers, we have donated our time and money to positively impact local organizations supporting those in need.

As an organization, Riva has encouraged our employees to donate one hour of their salary each month and is generously matching those donations.

Together, we have given over 146 hours, served 17 charitable organizations, and raised almost $19,000 over the past seven months to support those in need! 

There are so many reasons to focus inwardly right now. Turning our attention to supporting others can be healing and empowering to both those giving and those receiving. 

Please take the challenge along with our team to help those in need in your community.

Want to make a difference with us? Join our world-class team.

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.

DataColada is extremely proud of our team’s commitment to #Pledge1 in 2020. Despite the slowdowns that the pandemic presented the world with, our small team has continued to support new and familiar charity partners. Just under half of our team members volunteered for a variety of not-for-profits, including a range of activities such as providing on-site and remote pro bono technology support, packaging up goods for Australians in COVID-19 lockdowns, and restoring forest areas destroyed by the 2019 bushfires. In addition to individual volunteering, our team also implemented or supported three technology Go-Lives completely for free, and donated company dollars to worthy causes.  DataColada is honored to work with these charities and looks forward to witnessing their impact this GivingTuesday.

 

At DataColada, we are a values based business with a focus on the triple bottom line – people, planet and profit. We work with fundraisers, healthcare providers and educators, many of whom are registered not for profits. This focus allows us to attract individuals whose personal ambitions include contributing to social good with sustainable solutions in addition to monetary rewards. We see our role in helping organizations succeed in their mission by delivering innovative solutions that add economic and social value in sustainable ways.

 

This goal of creating social benefit is also part of our formal company culture, the “DataColada DNA”, and is represented by our participation in the Pledge 1%. DataColada has pledged to give 1% of our equity, time, profit and product back to the community. We usually significantly over-deliver against these goals. One example of how we implement this pledge is our Time component – each of our staff are encouraged to spend up to five days per year outside of work helping the charity of their choice without incurring any cost against their vacation time.

 

 

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.

 

We make it our business to do good. From tile donations to community funds to paid volunteer days, we believe our business has the power to change the world. We’ve had the privilege of donating our products to schools, community centers, and more to help create safe and beautiful spaces that help change lives.

 

A project that is especially close to our hearts is Detroit Prep. Established in 2016, Detroit Prep’s mission is to, “provide a world-class, equitable education that will give all students a foundation of academic excellence and character development while fostering a love of learning and passion for exploring and fulfilling their extraordinary potential as learners, leaders, and world-changers.” Which is a mission we can definitely get behind.

 

With help from our Non-Slip Tiles, Detroit Prep students can now safely enjoy their brand new building as they set out to change the world. When Detroit Prep’s brand new building safely opened its doors this fall, students and staff were greeted with colorful tiles that work as hard as they do. We had the tremendous honor of helping Detroit Prep turn a 100-year-old building into a safe and beautiful place to learn through our Fireclay Gives initiative.

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.

Rock.org was founded in 2019 with the mission of sharing knowledge to accelerate social transformation and turn Rock Content into a corporate social responsibility leader.

Via educational actions and support for non-governmental organizations, the project also aims to inspire other companies to invest in impact initiatives.

More than 400 rockers have already volunteered their time towards the actions carried out by Rock.org, which now have international reach.

With the expansion of Rock Content’s operations between 2019 and 2020, the project gained volunteer employees from Mexico, the United States, and Canada.

In 2020, the project’s highlight was Volunteer Week, a remote global event that helped raise donations to NGOs supporting women, LGBTI+ community, black community, and people with disabilities.

Keep reading to know all the details of this action, its results, and the lessons we learned:

• About Volunteer Week: a new reality and great challenges


• The mission: proposals and objectives of the action


• Contexts and projects: reality faced head on


• The event: bringing people together and creating opportunities


• Results and achievements: the impact generated by Volunteer Week


• Learning: lessons we learned from the first event in this format

About Volunteer Week: a new reality and great challenges

Volunteer Week took place between the 5th and 9th of October, 2020, and was the first global action focused on volunteering promoted by Rock Content and carried out remotely.

The initiative mobilized 200 rockers scattered among Rock Content’s offices worldwide and raised more than R$ 14,000 (approximately US$ 2.650) for NGOs in Brazil, Mexico, the United States, and Canada.

The first edition of the event was Volunteer Day, an entire day dedicated to volunteering.

During this first event, the company’s employees participated in a competition where the prize for the winning team was the opportunity to choose a Third Sector institution (NGOs, foundations, community associations, philanthropic entities, and other non-profit organizations) to receive a donation.

In 2020, the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic represented a new challenge for the project, but the desire to make a difference was stronger than ever.

The event needed to gain a new format, this time, 100% online and with volunteer employees participating from their own homes.

In addition, the action also needed to reflect the new global reality of Rock Content that, in the last year, had established its operations outside of Brazil with the acquisition of the American ScribbleLive. The answer to all of these challenges was Volunteer Week, a week-long event dedicated to volunteering with actions of international impact.

The mission: ideas and goals of the action

Rock.org’s idea is very simple: dedicate 1% of all rockers’ time for education and employability actions for minority groups.

Therefore, one of its pillars is to create volunteering opportunities, promoting experiences that benefit the community, strengthen involvement, and contribute to the personal growth of each employee.

To meet these propositions, Volunteer Week presented the following objectives:

• expand efforts for gender equality, inclusion of people with disabilities, racial equality, and LGBTI+ rights beyond Rock Content offices;


• generate growth opportunities for minority groups, both in terms of education and in terms of employability;


• promote integration among the entire community of rockers, especially between teams located in different geographic areas.

Contexts and projects: reality seen as it really is

The fight for a social cause, regardless of which cause, starts with understanding a certain group’s reality, often ignored by a large portion of the population.

With regards to discrimination and inequality — topics that set the agenda of the event in 2020 — the following data should be highlighted:

• 61% of LGBTI+ Brazilians need to hide their sexual orientation from the companies where they work for fear of losing their jobs (Center for Talent Innovation, 2016);


• 17% of Mexican women (about 4.6 million people) are unemployed in Mexico (INEGI – Encuesta Nacional de Ocupación y Empleo, 2020);


• 54% of working-age disabled people in Canada are looking for a job (Canadian Survey on Disability, 2017);


• as of July 2020, 14.6% of non-white people in the United States (about 4.6 million individuals) were unemployed (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020).

Inspired by Rock Content’s commitment to inclusion and equality, Volunteer Week embraced causes of enormous relevance to society.

Support organizations for women, the LGBTI+ community, the non-white community, and people with intellectual disabilities in four countries were the ones to receive our support this time.

Get to know each one of them in the following topics!

TODXS (Brazil)

TODXS is a Brazilian non-profit startup that fights for civil rights and inclusion of LGBTI+ people.

Among its various educational, research, awareness, and security projects, TODXS Escola stands out.

Their main goal is to avoid school eviction by transgender and transvestite students; and TODXS Impacto, a social business accelerator focused on diversity and inclusion.

CREA: Empreendedoras Sociales (Mexico)

CREA is a Mexican NGO working for more than 12 years to promote female empowerment and qualify women entrepreneurs in socio-economically marginalized areas.

In addition to providing support, the organization offers educational programs to develop professional skills and small businesses.

Community Living Toronto (Canada)

Founded in 1948, Community Living Toronto helps people with intellectual disabilities and their families in Toronto, Canada.

The organization’s goals are to promote employment and educational programs and also to help their members to become more self-confident and independent, so that they can have a better social life.

Beyond 12 (USA)

Beyond 12 is a non-profit organization from the United States whose mission is to increase the number of low-income, first-generation students from historically underrepresented groups graduating from US colleges.

The NGO’s work is based on a digital platform that connects students and professionals who want to help them study and succeed in academic life.

The event: bringing people together and creating opportunities

The use of game dynamics and mechanics outside their original context is a technique known as gamification.

This is a way to increase engagement, facilitate problem-solving, and improve learning — benefits that are especially relevant in an event that involves a large number of people.

In order to achieve all the goals set for Volunteer Week, we created a competition.

Four teams, which we called “communities”, were challenged to raise donations for participating NGOs, each being responsible for one of the recipient organizations:

• Rosa Parks (Beyond 12);


• João Nery (TODXS);


• Frida Kahlo (CREA);


• Terry Fox (Community Living Toronto).

Each community formed four squads, and each participant received their mission.

Each achievement was awarded a value in Rock Social Coin’s (R$C) — fictitious currency created for the event that was eventually converted into actual figures for donation.

This was the event’s schedule:

• Day 1. Prepare donation plans and get to know the NGOs: initially, the communities got to know the work of the NGOs and defined how they would raise funds and arrange public communication;


• Day 2. Find influencers for crowdfunding campaigns: in the second stage, the squads had to unite and get support from digital influencers. Each community received rewards according to the number of followers of each participating influencer;


• Day 3. Posts on the Rock.org profile: on the third day of the Volunteer Week, the participants published posts on the official Instagram profile of the project to increase donations;


• Day 4. Elevate the strategy: on the fourth day, the teams’ communication strategy was enhanced to raise more donations for all communities;


• Day 5. Closure: on the last day, a closing ceremony was held with a presentation of the results.

The Volunteer Week was announced to the participants at an all-hands meeting (general meeting with everyone involved), and emails were sent one month before the event. Slack messaging channels were also created, and an official informative online page was developed using the Ion tool.

In addition, an Instagram account was created with videos and photos for dissemination.

Results and achievements: the impact generated by Volunteer Week

After four intense days, Frida Kahlo community, which represented the NGO “CREA: Empreendedoras Sociales” took the lead with R$C 9,090 raised.

Then, there were João Nery (TODXS), Rosa Parks (Beyond 12), and Terry Fox (Community Living Toronto). Check out the community ranking!

The action mobilized hundreds of Rock employees and was supported by prestigious digital influencers. The event was also mentioned in one of the most longstanding newspapers in the state of Minas Gerais (Brazil) and raised more than R$ 14,000 (approximately US$ 2,600) in donations. See the official figures below:

• 11 influencers posted about the campaign on their social media profiles;


• a story about the action was published in “O Tempo” newspaper.

In addition to all these achievements, it is worth mentioning the creation of a webinar by one of the event’s teams, in which donors had access to exclusive content produced by Rock professionals.

The gamification strategy, therefore, not only strengthened the fundraising campaigns, but also allowed the general public to benefit from the event.

Lessons: what we learned while hosting an event in this format for the first time

Carrying out work of this magnitude in such a troubled year is a huge challenge, but everything is possible when you have commitment and the right strategic orientation.

Volunteer Week brought valuable lessons that apply to any type of event and demonstrate the importance of good planning. Among the lessons we have learned in practice, some are worth mentioning.

1. The quality of communication is vital (especially for a remote global event)

Having cohesive communication is essential in any context, but an event involving many people from different geographic locations collaborating remotely deserves special attention.

You need to create an attractive communication strategy capable of engaging the participants.

It is also necessary to start the communications in advance (at least one month prior to the event), adopt clear language, present the information in detail and create different channels and ways of accessing the information.

During Volunteer Week, we learned a lot about the importance of communication, and we understood that videos, moments of conversation, and meetings are essential.

2. Testing is key to success

An event of this magnitude cannot be carried out blindly. It is vital to put your plan to the test to prove the effectiveness of the communication, tools, and dynamics that will be executed.

Thus, it is an interesting choice to invite a group of people who were not involved in planning to validate strategies and gather feedback. This is also a way to experience new things in a safe and controlled way.

3. Pay attention to cultural diversity

One of the biggest challenges when running a global event is to deal with cultural differences in a productive way.

This involves the language that will be used, the time zone, local habits, traditions, and the economic and social reality of each country.

Several aspects must be taken into account, and your job is to ensure that the action contemplates this diversity and allows everyone involved, especially those from different regions, to share in an integrated experience.

This means that we must act globally, but we must not forget local actions.

4. Your schedule should enable full participation by all

Likewise, the event schedule should be defined so that the differences in time and activity in each country are respected.

Also, by stipulating a fixed period for action, participants can engage in activities carried out with greater dedication.

The new format adopted by Rock was fundamental in enabling the realization of a global event with the participation of rockers from the four countries where it is present.

Although it was the first event of this scale developed by the company, the results were extremely positive.

Volunteer Week was rich in both lessons and achievements. We hope to inspire people and organizations of all kinds to also develop initiatives to support society. Real social transformation depends on all of us.

Discover all the actions promoted by Rock Content’s social impact project at Rock.org!