As designers, we are tasked with creating and improving a brand’s identity and defining the unique position it has in the world. Our craft gives us a unique lens into culture and community and it fuels our passion and commitment to have a positive impact on the world we live in.
Community service and charitable giving are integral to the cultural backbone at Smith Design. Committed to giving back, President and CEO, Jenna Smith, has been diligent in her continued efforts to instill charity and social responsibility into the culture of Smith Design. “The leadership team decided to join Pledge 1% because we felt the initiative was a great opportunity to further encourage our employees to give back,” said Smith. “We’ve been committed to giving back for quite some time and Pledge 1% provided us with a platform to let our employees support various charities of their choosing and make a difference in people’s lives.”
Smith Design’s team holds firm belief in the importance of education and that everybody, despite differing abilities, should have the opportunity to reach their full potential. Smith continually donates her personal time to job-shadowing and internship programs for young women at local New Jersey Universities. Smith utilizes her and her staff’s knowledge, experience, and resources to provide guidance to young woman as they enter college and prepare for new careers. Upon learning The Nevada Blind Children Foundation (committed to scholastic and vocational education for the blind and visually impaired) was in need of graphic design services, Smith set to work and tasked her team with an important mission- the foundation’s 2018 After School Program Booklet.
The After School Program Booklet is an important material to the Nevada Blind Children’s Foundation as it outlines their large variety of programs offered throughout the year. We are proud to have partnered with the Nevada Blind Children’s Foundation to develop their 2018 After School Program Booklet.
The Foundation’s mission is to provide children “the essential building blocks including extended educational curriculum, extracurricular activities, social opportunities, and transitional skills to children who are visually impaired.” Their Programs are designed to: (1) Increase graduation rates and post-secondary education enrollment and/or vocation. (2) Increase employment rates for blind adults. (3) Increase quality of life for blind or visually impaired children with significant intellectual and/or physical disabilities that prohibit them from graduation and/or vocation.
“Working on Pledge 1% projects like these are nice for a change because you know that even in seemingly the smallest way possible, you are a helping hand in making a difference for someone else. That’s what’s so rewarding.”- Lexi Savino, Designer
“Through our active participation in philanthropic initiatives, our employees feel good about themselves and are proud to be part of something bigger than themselves. Whether we commit resources as individuals or as a team, we are creating a strong sense of community at Smith Design.” said Smith “We believe it is our responsibility to enrich the lives of others and to make the world a better place, in small and large ways.”
The mission of non-profits is to help and give back to those in need around the world. To be successful, these organizations have established fundraising and marketing programs using the data stored on their Salesforce platforms. OwnBackup supports non-profit organizations by guarding this Salesforce data against data loss and corruption with comprehensive Salesforce backup and recovery capabilities. As a Pledge 1% member, OwnBackup donates backup and recovery services to various non-profits, through product discounts, supporting world-renowned relief organizations in the healthcare, social and legal services, education, and environmental advocacy sectors. Busy non-profits need a reliable, efficient backup solution that can support their growing Salesforce infrastructure.
With OwnBackup, the Salesforce platform data of these non-profits are fully protected against data loss and corruption. This provides giving their teams peace of mind as they continue to run their organizations and integrate essential data onto the Salesforce platform. Non-profits trust OwnBackup to not only safeguard their data and provide better insight into data changes, but to also help them quickly and efficiently recover in the event of a data crisis.
It is the OwnBackup mission to ensure that no company operating in the cloud should ever lose data. OwnBackup provides daily, automated Salesforce backups and ensures rapid recovery of deleted or corrupted data with relationships, as well as sophisticated data compare tools to identify and scope any data loss or corruption. Whether the deletions or corruptions were caused by human error, malicious intent, integrations with external systems, or bad code or triggers, OwnBackup allows non-profits to quickly and completely recover. OwnBackup proactive Smart Alerts provide an additional layer of protection by ensuring data changes don’t go unnoticed.
People do not focus on what companies do, they focus on the reasons why they do it. Every organization, especially non-profits, set a mission and goals that demonstrate why they do what they do. OwnBackup prides itself on helping data-driven non-profits protect their data as they continue their missions to bring positive change in the world.
SaLisa Berrien, Founder and CEO of COI Energy Services, has over 25 years of experience in the electric power and smart grid space. From working in vertically integrated utilities (PP&L and PECO Energy) prior to deregulation to ConEdison Solutions a deregulated energy services company, and then on to Smart Grid, Clean Tech, Big Data Analytics, and SaaS Solutions, SaLisa has had a diverse career in the energy space. In her early career, she sold the first electric vehicle (G-Van) in her region. She later went on to help EnerNOC become a #1 Demand Response company in the industry. She credits her first company out of college for laying the foundation for a successful long-term career in the industry. PP&L (which is now PPL) ensured their employees put its customers first regardless of personal priorities. She has brought this practice to COI Energy with the “Platinum Rule – Do unto your customer as they would have you to do unto them.”
SaLisa is also the Founder and Board Chair of STRIVE Inc., a 501c3 charitable organization founded in 1995 which focuses on STEM leadership development training for students in 3rd thru 12th grades. STRIVE has three NSBE Jr. Chapters in PA and FL. In 2013, she established COI Ladder Institute to focus on delivering leadership and empowerment services to millennials and women. Annually, COI Ladder Institute hosts a conference in Martha’s Vineyard.
SaLisa’s personal and professional mission is to positively impact the space she occupies by leaving it better off than it was when she found it. She does this through her work in servant leadership, philanthropy, environmental stewardship, and with COI Energy. COI Energy mission is to make the world more energy efficient. We pledge 1% of our revenue to saving the environment through non-profit initiatives.
Our solution the COI OptimizerTM helps electric utilities and businesses of all sizes identify and manage existing energy resources in order to improve energy performance of buildings and monetize those flexible energy resources that can support the electric grid. The platform learns energy behavior utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques. It uses that information to predict future usage patterns, create energy saving and revenue generating opportunities. We offer four products in our suite of services including: OptimizeDRTM, OptimizeEETM, OptimizeRETM, and OptimizeIRTM.
Launching a startup is exciting, but it can also be an expensive and difficult environment to navigate. Stuck in the Sand’s mission is to give entrepreneurs a foundation, as well as easy access to tools to build on their ideas. For our 1% pledge, we have been giving back in the form of offering free mentorship and guidance to those who may not have as much money, time, or experience to begin navigating the startup world.
Each Tuesday, we host a free workshop known as “Unstuck Tuesdays” where aspiring entrepreneurs can come pitch their ideas to one another, give and get feedback from their peers, meet with a mentor, and have a free workspace at our offices for the day to continue building on their ideas. We strive to give everyone a chance to make their ideas a reality. Through the workshop, we have seen meaningful connections be made and first-time entrepreneurs find ways to progress their business through simple collaboration with other like-minded individuals. We also continue to give back by offering free services to college students who desire to start a business. We will go to college campuses to give a lecture about startups, offer guidance to students who want to start a business, and help build them a prototype or idea plan for free.
For a student, financial resources are limited but their ideas are big, therefore it is important to give them the chance to learn how to make their ideas into a viable business. At Stuck in the Sand, we believe you do well by doing good which is why we prioritize giving back because helping others is the best way to succeed.
In January 2017, I chose to let the shit hit the fan in my life. I had a clean slate ahead, in other words; I was starting from scratch at the age of 33. As an engineer with a Masters in Actuarial Science, I decided to begin a career as a fiction writer. You read it right, a fiction writer. With all the time in my hands, I decided to join a government supported volunteer group and teach at a local public school. I volunteered to teach ethics and scriptures to primary school children, particularly expatriates.
At that point in time, I was not a startup founder; but was strongly inclined to become one. I was working on establishing product-market fit. I had a strong purpose in hand, neither did I know what my product was nor my target market. All I wanted to do was change the world. Yeah, stupidly naive. In the startup spirit, I volunteered at SparkFestival’17. That’s where I got to know about Pledge 1% and immediately signed up. Because I believe in giving. I was super confident that my startup will take form. And it did 6 months later, I named it BlueTemple.
I continue to volunteer at the school and spend half an hour every Tuesday with primary school children. I help them stay in touch with the culture and tradition of their country of origin. This is my way of investing in the future. I think the more we help with refreshing the practices of various cultures, the more interesting the mosaic of perspectives could be. This may also help the future generation embrace diversity and add depth to their identity and background.
As the founder of BlueTemple, this giving helped me comprehend the enormity of the business opportunity. Though giving at the school began out of my personal interests, it slowly began to add value to the thought process of BlueTemple’s product strategy. The purpose of BlueTemple is to create a stress-free meaningful life for everyone, a little peak into the mindset of tomorrow’s consumers; helped me understand the depth of influence BlueTemple’s product can have on their lives. Giving-first helped me understand the true meaning of ‘give and take’. All this time, unknowingly I lived by ‘give and receive’; the complete meaning of ‘give and take’ occurred to me recently. It gave me a lot of clarity and strength, a much-needed quality for a startup founder. I want to think that this personal development is an accumulated result of my collective giving. I like to believe giving-first provides returns in twofold. Once when you are open to receive and again when you’ve found the strength to take righteously.
3 Cheers to giving
Horizon helps fulfill its Pledge 1% goals for both time and profit through its robust partnership with Perspectives Math & Science Academy (MSA), a high school located on Chicago’s south side focused on educating the whole child. Providing classroom instruction isn’t enough to help these students get and stay on a path of personal success. Daily, many students confront poverty, violence and trauma, which affects how they show up in the classroom and can derail them at any point during their academic journey.
Horizon’s partnership with MSA began in December of 2016, with a holiday donation drive for MSA’s 50 homeless students. Due to the generosity of employees, Horizon was able to provide the homeless students and their families a brighter holiday.
Since then, Horizon has expanded the partnership with MSA to focus on three main areas of impact: infrastructure support, programming support and employee engagement.
Horizon’s infrastructure support led to the addition of water stations throughout the school, so the students can access lead-free water. Additionally, Horizon was able to underwrite the cost of students creating and installing multiple large mosaics at the school, construct a peace and meditation room, a central front office, a technology lab, as well as paint the rod iron exterior fence.
Horizon underwrites several programs at the school, including the robotics club, a personalized math, science and humanities curriculum, an entrepreneurship class, a drone after school program, a poetry club, and a workshop series on storytelling and documentary film making.
Horizon employees have donated more than tens of thousands of dollars through its quarterly donation drives, as well as more than 100 hours of their time to help beautify the school and mentor the students. Employees are frequent visitors at the school, conducting mock interviewing sessions and talking with the students about their STEM career paths. Additionally, employees have leveraged their day-to-day jobs in creative ways that lead to impact. For example, our IT department has donated 133 refurbished laptops and 10 printers and our facilities team has donated more than 100 items of furniture no longer needed.
Providing resources that help meet the school’s infrastructure, programming and students’ social emotional needs has been incredibly rewarding, but the personal connection between students and Horizon employees has been the most inspiring. Students are encouraged to grow intellectually and explore STEM career options, while Horizon employees have internalized that they can positively influence the local community at a personal level with the support of their company.
We often wonder “how tough is my life?,” but if we look around, there are many people who are facing tougher challenges than us. It is not always about food, shelter, or clothing, but also getting the right education to stand on your own feet so that you can offer a helping hand to someone tomorrow. Giving back is not an act, it is a feeling which is beyond words, and the biggest reward is the realization that you’ve made a change in someone’s life.
When CEPTES joined the global Pledge 1% movement, we had only one thought in our mind, “Let’s try to feed every hungry soul.” There are hundreds of families who go to bed on an empty stomach. Every human deserves food, shelter, and clothing with education & healthcare. So in order to give it back to the community 1% of our time, profit and product, we started an initiative called “Community Fridge“. This initiative is being led by our co-founder Mr. Priyaranjan Panigrahy for CEPTES.
A community fridge is a small initiative which is enabling allies in and around the Indian city of Bengaluru to join hands in order to offer food to poor and needy people. We have placed a public fridge for those having surplus food to supply. Needy people can then come and get food from this community fridge. It allows us to feed people who are unprivileged without hurting their dignity.
This initiative soon caught the eyes of many local residents and nearby restaurants who are now keeping food inside the fridge. Initially, our community fridge was feeding 20-30 people every day, but with time the number of food donors has significantly increased, and our community fridge is now serving around 80-100 people every day. Whenever we see someone needy having food from our community fridge, it gives us great motivation and belief that we are really giving it back.
Sometimes the tiniest generous act can ignite change and spread a positive impact in the society by offering a revived sense of hope. The small community fridge which started serving food is now offering free books, as well as toys, to unprivileged kids. Every month, we conduct an event in our office for all our employees, where each one of them contributes their time in collecting food as well as books, clothes, and toys for our community fridge.
At Strillobyte, we strongly believe that businesses, no matter the size, have a responsibility to improve the world we are living in. A ‘giving back’ business culture is fundamental to us to fulfil our mission.
As a company that builds chatbots, websites and mobile applications, we see tech as a tool that can empower people to spread their messages of hope and change all around the world.
The importance of giving a voice to these people is a mission to which Strillobyte pledges.
How does Strillobyte do that?
We pledge at least 1% of our time to give back to the community. As a micro-business, this type of commitment is the perfect fit for us. Our staff have very specific skills in designing and building digital products. At the beginning of 2018, we decided to offer our expertise to the team of volunteers who run TEDxLondon.
TEDxLondon is a non-profit organization devoted to spreading ideas surfacing hidden stories of London and Londoners that might not have a voice otherwise. At a TEDxLondon event, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connections. All of our team have joined the organisation as volunteers, on average spending 2.5 hours per week on related activities. These include managing the TEDxLondon website, offering assistance and guidance with any tech-related issues and also helping with the communication strategy on the various social media channels.
Pledging part of our working hours to supporting TEDxLondon has helped Strillobyte achieve its goal of making a positive impact through our people. It has also improved our company culture, and we’ve had the opportunity to meet people with extraordinary stories and points of view that helped us grow as a team and as individuals.
We recommend joining the Pledge 1% initiative to all our fellow tech and creative companies around the world. Pledging 1% of your resources can be as a little as the equivalent of the time you spend in
your coffee breaks, but it can make a great difference to someone else’s life.