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.

Being welcomed into the  Pledge 1% global community validated  my founder’s resolve – by example – and helped us to give back to 5 non-profits fighting homelessness in San Francisco and Toronto.

Seriously having contemplated suicide on US Thanksgiving 2018, it is a miracle that I share my Pledge 1%  UNITED.cool growing mental health UNITY @work social enterprise GIVING story. We are set to officially launch March 11, 2020. 

In front of me, as I type these words is a well-worn magazine article ripped from the May 2014 issue of San Francisco Magazine.  I have read it many times, during hard times, and each time it validates my  childhood passion of giving back and helping unite the world with whatever gifts we are given to share, despite almost 20 years of social entrepreneurial failure.

The article? The People’s Mogul. The mogul? Marc Benioff. My inspiration and infusion of hope? The Salesforce 1:1:1 philanthropic approach. 

By example, Mr. Benioff showed/s  the world that everybody matters, and everyone should give back, of whatever they have. At the time, I had every reason to think that the upward trajectory of my  (then) kids’ creativity start-up, (createKIDity.com) would allow me to give the 1:1:1 pledge  one day.  ( Pledge 1% was formally launched December 2014). 

I never thought then, that 5 years later: I would hit rock bottom, depressed, living in transitional housing after being homeless and finally accepting my mental health battles as very real – and STILL be applying to Pledge 1%.  When I applied, I was living in transitional housing and going to crisis counselling.  

I never *really* thought UNITED.cool would be accepted into the 1% Pledge fold. I applied anyway, hoping against hope. When I got the welcome  e-mail on May 31, 2019 – UNITED.cool’s  mission to grow mental health unity@work – by OPEN example™ – was validated.  Next to finding my mentor, Dr. Kevin Stolarick (or him picking me out in a job interview) nothing had validated or fueled  UNITED.cool more to  keep moving forward, no matter how impossible things seemed than that welcome e-mail ! Kevin, btw: became my Co-Founder as I could not have created the foundation of UNITED.cool we have now,  without his guidance, patience, business savvy and generous spirit.  

To date, we were able to give back to 5 organizations (3 Bay Area and 2 Toronto) and we have not even launched yet!

 

 

A Woman’s Place –  San Francisco, CA

• Donated: 12 boxes of new art supplies; my HEART artwork (to decorate their walls!) 


• EVENT: Held a ShelterSALON™  WORD ART workshop and donated the supplies as well. 

Bright Horizons – Novato, CA

• Donated 2 boxes art supplies and a brand-new easel

YWCA of Sonoma County, Santa Rosa, CA

• Donated 1 Art Supply Box

Margaret’s  – Toronto

• Donated two pieces of art for Annual Gala auction – one piece sold for $200

St.Clare’s Multifaith Housing – Toronto 

• Donated items:  5 boxes of almost new cookware for our community kitchen

Events:  

ShelterCHEF™ Eggspirational Community Meal – catered the entire meal for 50 people by myself with Nancy – volunteer and community activist helping me serve   (ShelterStartUP.com Inc.  Pledge 1% time) with funds from UNITED.cool and Loblaws (Canada’s largest grocery chain) to augment St.Clare’s budget. Loblaws Dupont store generously donated a gift card and was a co-sponsor with UNITED.cool 

 

Halloween Pumpkin Carving:  we created the flyers for the building, customizing each one by hand, shopped for the art supplies ( no more to donate!), and led the Pumpkin Carving ShelterARTSY™ party volunteering time and lots of passion and energy. 

These events may be small. There is no million dollar giving, but UNITED.cool gave more all it had, because this whole time I was battling with depression, homelessness, financial ruin through “maxxed” credit cards and losing my credit rating and STILL facing stigma even as I try to launch a mental health initiative.  

Despite these obstacles, UNITED.cool grew – and will be launching March 11, 2020 with a lot of giving before introducing our first product: a culture change consultancy to help organizations grow mental health unity – by OPEN example™. Thank you Pledge 1% – looking forward to sharing our growth next Giving Tuesday 2020, too! 

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.

Building sustainability into the core of elenest was decided upon before elenest was born. Having worked in sustainability and built women’s health programs in Asia, it was important to elenest’s founder to have a mission beyond product from the beginning. Pledge 1% has a flexible model that can be adapted as the company grows. The adaptability of the model encourages commitment to giving back in a way that’s unique to your brand.

Bathing a baby is no easy job. Wet babies are delicate, slippery, wiggly, and need to dry off and stay warm immediately because of their inability to regulate their body temperature well. Shortly after becoming a mother, our founder realized traditional hooded baby towels were impossible to use. She could never bathe baby without her husband there to hold the towel, she seemed to get more wet than baby, and the towels simply didn’t work. So she made a better one — the elenest handsfree wearable baby towel — and it’s patent pending.

Our towel makes bath time fun, easy, safe, and provides parents with confidence as they pick up baby from the bath tub — keeping everyone dry. It’s made from sustainable bamboo and organic cotton. It’s better for the environment, and better for baby. Place your hands through our towel, and with just one swoop of the hood, baby is wrapped up in seconds. From bath to changing, our hassle-free towel makes it all a breeze. No need to call the whole family to bathe baby!

We’re on a mission to elevate parenthood with smart, natural products for your nest, making parenting easier. And elevating women is part of our DNA. It’s even in our name: ‘ele’ comes from elevate. Bringing a life into this world is no small feat, and every mother should have access to quality care to keep herself and her baby safe and healthy.

Pledge 1% enables elenest to support maternal health causes as the outcome of product sales, but also helps to frame other aspects of the business like sourcing and manufacturing. Using organic cotton and sustainable bamboo for our products means they are environmentally friendly and sensitive on baby’s skin. Our elenest baby towel and elenest washcloths are sewn in the USA by a manufacturer who provides skills training to workers with employment barriers. All of our products are designed in California. With each sale of our baby towel, we’re not only helping out at bath time, but also committing 1% of profit to moms. 1% for moms brings everything full circle.

Our nonprofit recipient, Every Mother Counts, works to achieve quality, respectful, and equitable maternity care for all while mobilizing communities to take action.

We’ve launched just in time for the holidays. The elenest handsfree wearable baby towel is the perfect gift for any parent, grandparent, or caregiver wanting an easier, safer, and fun bath time with baby. With each purchase, you’re supporting mothers around the world in many ways — not only on Giving Tuesday, but every day through Pledge 1%.

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.

LaunchDarkly has joined Pledge 1%, a global movement to create a new normal for companies of all sizes and stages to have a positive social impact through their businessLaunchDarkly is conscious of the impact it has as a tech company locally and globally. We created the LaunchDarkly Foundation to tackle problems at a local and global scale by partnering with several non-profits through donations and/or staff time. We are committed to supporting education for the underserved, homelessness relief, and moving towards having a net-zero carbon footprint.

Our current programs include donations and group employee volunteering engagements. Donations go towards two non-profits – one in Oakland and one with a global impact. Group volunteering engagements will focus on Oakland nonprofits that address homelessness and poverty. 

 As the company grows, the LaunchDarkly Foundation will expand its programs to include donation matching and a carbon off-set system/partner.

What we have been up to with our Oakland partner – CodeNation

This fall will be LaunchDarkly’s third year partnering with CodeNation.

Code Nation is a not-for-profit organization operating in NYC, the Bay Area, and Chicago. They explain their mission best: We equip students in under-resourced high schools with the skills, experiences, and connections that together create access to careers in technology.

LaunchDarkly teaches the Foundations Course, where our volunteers go to schools in Oakland and teach introductions to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. We also host the Fellowship  Course at LaunchDarkly’s HQ office, where students from an Oakland highschool review and build upon what they learned in Foundations and complete numerous projects over the school year.

LaunchDarkly participates in CodeNation’s professional development day. Students spend the entire day practicing their networking skills, working on their resumes, thinking about their personal story and brand, practicing their interviewing dos and don’ts, and having professional headshots taken for their portfolios.

LaunchDarkly sponsored CodeNations Bay Area Hackathon 2019, which was hosted at GitHub HQ and judged by our very own CEO Edith Harbaugh. The 2020 hackathon will be judged by our CTO John Kodumal.

In the summers, LaunchDarkly welcomes two interns from CodeNation for five weeks. We are proud to hear the news that the 2018 interns are both in community college, and the 2019 interns are finishing up high school.

 CodeNation Volunteer Spotlight:

“I feel it is our responsibility to share the things we’ve learned with students whose path into the industry may not be clearly defined. Each student should be able to decide whether they want to join the industry or not. They should not be locked out.”

– Alexis Georges, LaunchDarkly Engineering Manager

LaunchDarkly is proud to join the Pledge 1% community and encourages other companies to take the pledge and leverage their business as a force for good.

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.

Last year, GivingTuesday, the global movement that celebrates generosity worldwide, asked, “What if everyone around the world, gave together, on one day?” At ActiveCampaign, when we give together, to us that means having an active impact on our community around the world.

ActiveCampaign has been fortunate to grow in so many ways. From the size of our team, revenue, customers in over 150 countries who grow with us, and offices, our reach has truly gone global – and for that we are growing with so much gratitude. As a global, distributed company, ActiveCampaign will give around the world this #givingtuesday, and we are humbled to be in a position to do so.

Last year, we formed ActiveImpact, the vehicle by which ActiveCampaign gives back. What started as a committee to organize volunteer opportunities and collective giving, has blossomed to become a fundamental part of ActiveCampaign’s identity and culture. It’s not just what we do, it’s who we are, so it was without hesitation that we joined Pledge 1%. Since taking the pledge, we’ve launched a number of new initiatives to drive our #ActiveImpact.

1. Volunteer time off

Every employee at ActiveCampaign gets 3 paid days a year to volunteer!

● 1 day dedicated to a passion project

● 1 day for team volunteering and community outreach

● 1 company organized service day

2. Mentoring

We are committed to supporting youth entrepreneurship and empowering the next generation of founders.

3. Fundraising

Instead of giving out swag at our Dreamforce conference booth, ActiveCampaign gave back to the Tech Community! We handed out tokens around our booth – and for every token returned to our booth we donated $5 to Girls Who Code.

ActiveImpact is all about staying engaged. This GivingTuesday, we’ll kick things off in our Chicago headquarters with the #ChiTechFoodDrive, benefiting the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

Follow along as our campaign travels the world throughout the day, from Brazil #DiaDeDoar to Ireland and Australia #GivingTuesdayAUS! How will you make an #ActiveImpact on the world this #GivingTuesday?

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 Giving Tuesday, we’re sharing how we like to Give – we call it Fireclay Gives. From tile donations to good causes to volunteer work, we like to Give back to our community, both near and far. If you’re on a mission to design for good, we want to hear about it. Whether it’s a park, school, or support center in the face of a natural disaster, we’re open to all types of causes in our neighborhood and beyond, including yours.

 Financial Support:

In November 2018 we launched our 1% Brick Give Back to The National Parks Conservation Association(NPCA) for all our Glazed Thin Brick sales. The NCPA has worked to protect and preserve America’s favorite places for nearly 100 years and we couldn’t be more proud to partner with them.

Pledge1%

We joined the Pledge1% movement in 2015 when we pledged 1% of our Equity, i.e. ownership in Fireclay Tile, to non-profits. In November 2018, we began Pledging1% of our Product to non-profits and organizations in need. Thus, for every 1,000 square feet of tile we sell, we will donate 10 square feet of tile. In 2019, we anticipate this to equate to roughly 6,000 square feet or roughly enough tile for 600 backsplashes!

One standout project of 2019 was our partnership with 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 a little help from our Non-Slip Glazes and Foundations Collection, this incredible school will have durable, beautiful tile that its current and future students will enjoy for years to come.

You can learn more about this project and Detroit Prep here, but we’ll share a full reveal of this beautiful school in 2020!

We love it when design does good and we’re are happy to donate tile to a good cause. If you have a project in mind, please let us know!

Here are a few other donation projects we’ve worked on in recent years:

For the past 41 years, the San Francisco Decorators Showcase has raised over $16 Million to benefit the San Francisco University High School financial aid program. This even allows for hundreds of deserving Bay Area students access to a world-class college preparatory education.

Here’s the bathroom from the previous year at the SF Decorator’s Showcase:

This non-profit ice cream parlor, Alphabet Scoop, doubles as a job training program investing in NYC youth:

 

Give, You Get

In May of 2017, we kicked off an innovative new giving program called “Give, You Get.” Give, You Get is a program that gives part of your purchase to our team members—the ones making your beautiful tile—and in return, you get money back. The best part? All you have to do is pay with eCheck or Check. We’ll take care of the rest.

When you pay by eCheck, you’ll receive 0.5% back on your order (the Get) and another 0.5% will go towards our Khai Lam Fireclay Tile Family Fund (the Give). This is a sustainable model with no extra cost to anyone that enables a massive giving opportunity to both our clients and our team members and their families.

Volunteering

Fireclay Tile offers one paid Volunteer day per team member per year. Our team members have numerous interests, and this allows them a full day each year to dedicate time, paid by Fireclay, to organizations in need.

We’ve also recently “adopted” The Aromas School, our local public elementary and middle school, with both financial and volunteer support.

And we aren’t going to stop here. We have more initiatives we will soon be announcing, as we believe fully in our Core Value of “Always Be Improving” and that there is so much more Giving we can do!

Want to learn more about how Fireclay Gives? Get in touch here.

 

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.

A few months after my divorce, I hit rock bottom. Curled into the fetal position on the bathroom floor, crying onto the tile, my stepmom gave me the best advice you can get, “Go do something for someone else.”

I’d always been a huge animal lover so getting involved in rescue was an obvious choice. I knew “fur therapy” would help me get out of my funk, but what I didn’t realize at the time, is that not only would supporting a nonprofit help my personal life, it would also help my career.

For years, I worked random jobs and spent my free time organizing animal rescue events, handling speaking engagements and television appearances, and creating content (website pages, newsletters, blogs) to support the animals. In fact, if there’s an animal pun to be made, I’ve probably made it.

When I was laid off from my job, it occurred to me that maybe it was time to start my own business.  The skills that I’d learned while volunteering became my products and services. Having found my voice speaking up for homeless animals, I became a professional speaker and writer. Now, I have the honor of helping businesses and nonprofits tell their stories and stand out from the competition.  Even better, I get to help spread the message of how you can actually improve your business by supporting nonprofits.

When I started my business, Sheryl Green Speaks, continuing to support Hearts Alive Village animal rescue was a no-brainer.  A percentage of my speaking engagements, my book sales, and my writing projects go to support the animals and I continue to donate my time to be a voice for these fuzzbutts. I also share my platform with rescues, bringing adoptable dogs on stage when I speak to give them more chances of being adopted.

Hannah is one of the pups I’ve been able to help. She’s a 9-year old shepherd mix who lost both of her parents last year. Their daughter tried to help find her a home, but with a life and family of her own, she couldn’t keep Hannah and this poor pup ended up at the shelter.

Due to her age and the arthritis in her hips, Hannah wasn’t going to make it out of the shelter alive. With just a day left, Hearts Alive Village swooped in to give this girl another chance at life. She became the greeter at their Oldies But Goodies Senior Adoption Center and entertained visitors with her lovely singing voice. I know it’s beautiful, because I howled on live television right alongside her. Hannah is now in a foster home but she’s still looking for her furever family. Visit http://www.heartsalivevillage.org  for more information.

While I love what I do helping businesses, supporting animal rescue has brought new meaning to my life. Whether you’re a new entrepreneur or have been in business for years, supporting a nonprofit may be the best decision you ever make. (And please adopt, don’t shop!)

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.

Slalom is a modern consulting firm focused on strategy, technology, and business transformation. Slalom does what is right by their clients, and strives to do the same in their local communities. They’ve just joined Pledge 1% a few months prior, and have a group within Slalom called Slalom.org that focuses on giving back to the local community and the non-profits that serve it.

Slalom San Francisco

At Slalom San Francisco’s annual conference earlier this year, Slalom.org, sought to take advantage of the large gathering of local clients, partners, and employees. With the goal of creating a unique, San Francisco-themed piece of art, Slalom.org crowdsourced words that captured “What does community mean to you?”. As submissions poured in, Christo Oropeza, a local artist hired by Slalom, hand-painted a large-scale mural live, while utilizing the words given to him by the attendees. 

The finished mural is a map of San Francisco, with descriptions like “resilience,” “support,” and others in multiple languages representing the diversity of the city. As the city has always been a hub for creativity, culture, and inclusion, Slalom.org felt that the piece of art should be shared with a local non-profit that also celebrates and provides support to this diverse community. That was found in The Women’s Building, a women-led community space that advocates self-determination, gender equality and social justice. To celebrate the unveiling of the mural and The Women’s Building’s tremendous impact to the local community, Slalom.org hosted a bar fundraiser, donating proceeds to organization.

Slalom Silicon Valley

This year Slalom Silicon Valley hosted a food drive that raised $8,761, exceeding their goal. This was only made possible by the generosity, enthusiasm, and sense of community demonstrated by all of the members of their office. The entire SV community contributed in kind, cash, dancing, bartending, and marathon walks.

Their Food Drive this year had some truly memorable moments for everyone involved. They organized a Salsa and Cocktails evening fundraiser that was met with great enthusiasm. SV employees taught Salsa basics to their peers, and had skilled bartenders handpicked from their leadership teams to make sure that all participants were served top-quality, hand-crafted cocktails.

The money raised in the drive funded 3304 hot meals to those in need in the Bay Area. Also, through their volunteer work with Loaves and Fishes they celebrated the spirit of teamwork and community by preparing 547 lunch brown bags in a record time of 40 minutes!

 

These are just a couple of the many ways Slalom.org gives its employees opportunities to give back to their local community. Slalom looks forward to continuing to lend their skills and time and leverage future events to give back to the community and Pledge 1%!

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, SurveyMonkey is partnering with Pledge 1% share a few stories from our long legacy of giving back. What began as a “good idea” has grown to $14.7M program supporting nonprofits across the globe. This article is part of a series highlighting the impact some of those donations have made. 

 SurveyMonkey for Good, a social impact and diversity, equity and inclusion program, is on a mission to use People Powered Data to improve our world and give everyone a voice. One of the ways we do this is through a program called SurveyMonkey Contribute.

When people sign up for Contribute, they become part of a survey panel. Companies can send you surveys about new products, their branding, or other market research topics. For every survey you take, SurveyMonkey donates $0.50 to the charity of your choice. With over 65 charities on the platform, survey-takers can raise money for their favorite causes including Doctors Without Borders, Boys & Girls Club of America, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Special Olympics and even small local organizations like Larkin Street Youth

Since 2014, GLIDE has received $155,500 through SurveyMonkey Contribute. That equates to 38,682 people receiving three meals per day—a total of 116,046 meals served. (Our employees also served some of those meals during our 2019 Week of Service.)

 

There are more refugees and displaced people worldwide than any time on record. Contribute supports International Rescue Committee, an organization that supplies asylum-seekers from Syria to South Sudan and beyond with clean water, healthcare, education, economic empowerment, and protection programming. It operates in 40 countries, including supporting resettled refugees, survivors of trafficking, and other vulnerable populations in the United States.

Since 2012, SurveyMonkey has donated more than $3.6M in general support to Humane Society of the United States. That support has translated into a wide variety of efforts from rescuing thousands of displaced animals after natural disasters to saving animals in crisis.

Clean Water Fund has been fighting climate change effects with the support of SurveyMonkey Contribute since 2011, raising over $842,000. Climate change impacts the most vulnerable, and Clean Water is working to ensure that communities of color and low-income areas have equitable access to water. As protections for water and health become more dire, Clean Water Fund will continue its fight for climate solutions and to provide clean, healthy water for all.

All SurveyMonkey Contribute grant funds are unrestricted. This means that our partners can use the money they receive from SurveyMonkey to work on the most pressing and urgent needs in their communities without artificial limits. SurveyMonkey looks forward to continued partnership and an expanding social impact, as we continue to support organizations doing the best work—both here in the United States and across the world—one survey at a time.