Salesforce.org, the philanthropic arm of Salesforce, is one of Pledge 1%’s founding partners. Over the years, their 1% commitment to charity has grown and they have been–and continue to be–a key partner for Room to Read. Since its earliest days, Room to Read has been able to leverage Salesforce’s technology, people, and resources to help them reach as many children as possible throughout Asia and Africa.
As a way to thank Salesforce employees for their dedication to volunteering, Room to Read hosted a group of Salesforce employees from around the world on a trip to Cambodia. Together, they visited Room to Read’s Literacy Program schools as well as Girls’ Education Program participants, volunteering in local communities and learning about Room to Read’s work.
Thanks to partners like Salesforce, Room to Read is able to further their mission to support children, providing them educational opportunities to help them succeed in life. To learn more about Room to Read, and to donate, visit www.roomtoread.org.
Originally posted: November 29, 2016
Watch this video to hear why Michael Carter, co-founder at Kahuso, decided to Pledge 1%.
Originally posted: November 29, 2016
The holiday season brings with it the season of giving, and at Comalatech that means fondly remembering the opportunities we’ve had to give back to our communities. We are ardent believers that our success as a team comes with an obligation to return some of that good fortune to the places we call home. We are all so proud to share the various ways we’ve supported charities and non-profit organizations this year, including an update on our “Pledge 1%” promise we made last year.
Spreading Joy Worldwide
Since 2008 Comalatech has been fortunate enough to contribute over $130,000 to a variety of local and international charities. This year, as a part of our Pledge 1% initiative, we expanded our efforts to include more charities, in more countries, than we’ve ever been able to help before.
We chose seven Canadian charities to support, including the Crisis Centre of BC, David Suzuki Foundation, Union Gospel Mission, Sierra Club of BC, RAVEN Trust, Greater Vancouver Foodbank, and BC Children’s Hospital Foundation. In Spain we are proud to have donated to the Fundación Nido, Fundación Masnatur, Sant Joan de Deu Hospital, Asociación Navarra de Autismo, and Fundación Barraquer. Somewhere on the coast of Australia there are 40 turtle hatchlings that will be protected thanks to our sponsorship of the Queensland Trust for Nature. And we are also contributors to charities active around the globe, such as Médecins Sans Frontières, Amnesty International. and Proactiva Open Arms.
All told we contributed to sixteen different charities in 2016, and that doesn’t include the free product licenses we provided to more than 140 non-profit organizations, bringing our active total to over 600. The entire Comalatech team is pleased to have helped so many people, but we’re not done yet.
100% Committed to Pledge 1%
At the end of 2015, Comalatech followed the lead of tech companies like Atlassian, Salesforce, and CA Technologies to make a vow regarding our corporate giving – we committed ourselves to Pledge 1%. For our objective we chose to pledge 1% of our profits to charity, and we’re proud to report that we met and actually exceeded the 1% mark in 2016! We are such big believers in this movement that we are once again publicly committing to Pledge 1% in 2017, and we would encourage other business in our space to do the same.
Our CEO, Roberto Dominguez, is a proponent of corporate responsibility and he feels strongly about the vision of Pledge 1%.
We’ve been committed to corporate giving since the day Comalatech opened its doors. When I saw the organizations that were the driving force behind Pledge 1% I got excited about the possibilities of the movement. It’s been very gratifying to see other like-minded businesses in the tech space take part, and I have no doubt that even more will join us in 2017.
As 2016 draws to a close we are simultaneously proud of how we’ve helped our communities, and also aware that there’s still more to be done. 2017 will bring more milestones for Comalatech, including our 10 year anniversary, but our commitment to Pledge 1% will always be one of our highest priorities.
Originally posted: November 29, 2016
How did you hear about pledge 1%?
As an add-on developer for Atlassian’s JIRA product, we are very familiar with a lot of what Atlassian does. The Pledge 1% movement caught our attention before incorporating ThinkTilt, as a great and straightforward way to encourage corporate philanthropy.
What have you pledged?
During the initial planning stage of ThinkTilt, I was considering the various options for structuring the venture that might help us succeed. The two other people that I wanted to entice to join me to lead ThinkTilt had worked with me at a large social enterprise in Australia, and I knew from experience that being part of a social enterprise was one of the big rewards for doing the work we did. I considered seeking BCorp certification; however, the administrative and compliance burden was such that we did not think it was appropriate for a new enterprise. That is why we looked to the Pledge 1% movement as a means of demonstrating our commitment to supporting the communities we operate in.
So as I drafted the business plan and made the pitch to my now fellow directors, we incorporated a provision stating that we would pledge 5%. Initially, the pledge only covers 5% of equity (on a non-diluting basis); however, as our operations expand we will incorporate time contributions and also product contributions.
Why did you pledge 5% instead of 1%?
We wanted to bake into our organisation’s DNA that giving back is a key value. We felt that 5% was of a sufficient size that it would impact how we manage our team, especially when we take on more staff and have to provide for their contributions of time. Also pledging 5% was no different to allocating 1% of equity at the outset, as the actual value of the pledge was negligible. We have also made a binding commitment that, if we take on outside investors in the future they will be similarly bound by our pledge.
What are your plans for the future?
As we take on more employees we will have to look to incorporating their contribution of time. We will probably look to direct their time contribution to give back in the fields that they are experts in. For us, that is software development, and process and form design. We are also looking to work with Atlassian to explore different options for allowing the contribution of our product through the Atlassian Marketplace.
Originally posted: November 29, 2016
By Jessie VanderVeen, CMO, Tempo
Tempo has been a partner of Room to Read for more than six years now as part of our corporate culture of community service and philanthropic leadership to empower others within the global community.
To date, we have donated more than $75,000 to Room to Read through Tempo’s Starter License Program–$100 for annual 10-user starter licenses for Atlassian JIRA–which has provided approximately 1,800 children with education.
“Like many of our peers, Tempo is experiencing rapid growth. With that growth comes a responsibility to help those in
our industry and the communities we serve,” said Agust Einarsson, CEO, Tempo.
Sharing is Caring: Tempo Gives Back
As one of the largest, award-winning, and top-selling developers in the Atlassian Ecosystem, Tempo has at our core a
focus on collaboration.
“Building solutions that help teams extends naturally to our corporate desire of helping others – whether customers or individuals living in various communities around the world,” Agust said.
A Small Act of Kindness Goes A Long Way…
At the beginning of this year, the Tempo staff was given an opportunity to vote on a country where Room to Read would publish a book in honor of Tempo and we went with Nepal.
Hence, the birth of Mom Became Happy in Nepali.
Written by local author, Krishna Dip Sigdel, the story of Mom Became Happy was brought to life by Ubahang Limbu with his beautiful and heartwarming illustrations. The first print of the book counts 5,000 copies and is distributed in Room to Read libraries and schools in Nepal.
We were so thrilled to flip through it when we received our copy of the book at the Tempo office. A few of us even had difficulties putting it down!
Originally posted: November 29, 2016
Joining Pledge1 has helped us to engage our employees and be more transparent in the way we give to charity – Co-founder Jimmy Lundström
We want to create a workplace people are proud to work at – CEO and Co-founder Emil Sjödin
At RefinedWiki we aim to instill ‘effective altruism’ into our company culture, and joining Pledge 1% has given us the means to do so. You may or may not have heard of the term ‘effective altruism’. The premise of the movement is that we use evidence and reason to help others with our time and money. Highly regarded philosophers William MacAskill and Peter Singer have both written books, given many talks, founded organizations and spearheaded the effective altruism movement. In line with this, RefinedWiki want our work and charitable giving to have a well reasoned and targeted positive impact on society. Pledge 1% has helped us to bring effective altruism into focus.
In order to bring our pledge into action and engage employees in the process, we decided this November to arrange a forum from which each staff member had the opportunity to pitch a charity they would like to support most, and why.
Following the pitches we voted on the top charities we want to support. This was a great way of:
- Working as a team to decide which charity we want to support;
- Targeting our efforts towards worthwhile (and effective) causes;
- Increasing the awareness of the charities we support, and;
- Feeling a part of the giving culture in the company.
We are proud to be Pledging1% and supporting four wonderful charities; Doctors without Borders, Charity Water, The Hunger Project and UNHCR.
By an Atlassian volunteer.
I have a son and a daughter attending public school in Sydney. As an Aussie transplant having grown up in Czechoslovakia, when I moved to Australia, I wanted to learn as much about the Australian education system as I could to try and understand how it is preparing my kids for life in the 21st century. And in my research I identified an important skill set that was missing from public education: computer science.
And I’m not the only person to notice the growing importance of technical skills in our world today. Technology has changed all of our lives at a fundamental level, and at a speed not seen by any other advancement before it. Tech companies have added billions to the economy, creating products that are used around the globe. These companies are shaping the future of how we live, work, and relate to each other.
But the reality is that our education system hasn’t really caught up to the break-neck speed of the technological changes we are experiencing. While computer science education is available on an individual basis through online classes and summer camps, it is only just becoming required curriculum at the national level. Schools realize the need to teach these skills, but they’re struggling to get started.
And then I thought of my workplace at Atlassian. As a technology company, we are literally bursting with computer science talent. I started to wonder what it would be like to bring the knowledge that we have to schools and teach kids the basics of computer science skills.
Teaming up for education
I started by rallying up my colleagues in the Sydney office who were passionate about this subject too, and we launched a grassroots program in concert with local Syndey schools. The response was astounding. In the first 24 hours of launching the program, over 7,000 kids from Sydney schools were signed up for the program. We realized we needed to quickly recruit other Atlassians in order to serve the needs of the schools and students clamoring for computer science classes.
With the help of the curriculum from CS first, we started sending Atlassian employees into schools for an hour a week over the course of 8 weeks to teach computer science. Because of Atlassian’s pledge to donate 1% of employee time to volunteering and community involvement, it was easy to find people who had the time and passion to volunteer in local schools. The kids loved the classes, and it’s been a very enriching experience for all of our Atlassian volunteers.
Teaming up with teachers
While we were teaching computer science to local Sydney school kids, we noticed that the teachers started to get interested in these topics, too. What began as a resistance to, or even fear of, technology, turned into knowledge and excitement from teachers who were presiding over these classrooms. It then dawned on us that by training up teachers, we could reach far more students with computer science education, and extend our impact far beyond the limits of the a single computer science classroom. Based on this, we started a training class for local Syndey teachers and we’ve now trained over 100 teachers in CS First.
It’s been so rewarding to see teachers who previously knew very little about computer science acquire their skills through our training and actually relish being able to teach computer science in their classrooms on their own. If you think about the impact of one teacher over the course of their career, they have the capacity to reach thousands and thousands of students with computer science education.
Where we are today
Now, just 10 months later, we have over 100 Atlassian volunteers in the Sydney office that have reached over 1,400 students with computer science education. Teaming up for education together has not only benefited our local communities, and ourselves, but made us a stronger and more committed team in the office, too. The camaraderie among us volunteers is palpable, and we have a lot of fun comparing notes and stories from within the classroom. For many volunteers who deal with technology all day long, it’s great for them to be able to share their skills with the next generation, and hopefully, future computer science professionals who will create great things.
Pledge 1% is proud to partner with SRS Acquiom, an M&A service provider, to launch EscrowUP, a new program that creates an effortless way for the broader M&A community to give back. It’s mission: to provide a pathway for those involved in M&A to come together and significantly boost a diverse and talented pool of next generation entrepreneurs.
EscrowUP is the first program of its kind and uses an innovative method tailored for companies in the midst of a merger. If a deal party chooses EscrowUP, SRS Acquiom will donate up to 24 basis points of return on escrow deposits to nonprofit organizations that give next generation entrepreneurs a leg up. The nonprofits that benefit- Springboard Enterprises, Endeavor, Girls Who Code, Patriot Boot Camp, and Pledge 1% – all empower entrepreneurs that stand to provide diverse perspectives and strong leadership.
Huge Potential for Impact
Approximately $250 billion is invested in M&A escrows each year. If even a fraction of deal parties choose EscrowUP, we can spark lasting change in the lives of countless emerging entrepreneurs. The program provides the M&A community with the opportunity to create meaningful impact by unlocking millions of new philanthropic dollars, without taking away from the bottom line.
It’s Easy
With EscrowUP, there’s no financial consequence on the deal and no additional effort required for merger parties, so it’s not only good—it’s easy.
Additionally, parties involved in deals that select EscrowUP receive a toolkit that helps them share their positive impact, providing an opportunity for your company to talk about their giving program and the communities they support. SRS Acquiom will also promote the program and highlight participants.
Get Involved
EscrowUP is a great opportunity for the M&A community to come together and significantly boost a diverse and talented pool of next generation entrepreneurs.
Please join us and help spread the word. Leverage this trailblazing program for your own deals. Share this opportunity with those who influence and/or make decisions regarding the placement of M&A escrows including large corporations that make acquisitions, private equity and venture capital funds, founders of companies that are being acquired, and M&A lawyers that support the previously mentioned groups.
The EscrowUP program is an excellent example of a Pledge 1% member company creatively leveraging its own resources to make a difference and furthermore inviting others to join in the impact.
Pledge 1% is delighted to announce this new partnership and to work with SRS Acquiom on providing a new and easy solution for companies to give. To learn more, visit the EscrowUP website.
Last Thursday, the newly launched Salesforce Incubator invited member companies to come together in person to talk about how they are building Pledge 1% into the DNA of their business.
During the event, 3 new companies and 3 Ambassadors joined Pledge 1%. But what was even more exciting was to hear leaders like Chuck Liddell of Kapuhonu speak about how giving has transformed his company’s culture. Kapuhonu has focused their giving program on enhancing the local tech environment in Honolulu. Their team mentors local tech entrepreneurs and volunteers directly with the homeless. Chuck even brought a bag of subway gift cards and granola bars to the event and asked attendees to join him and his team in reaching out to the local homeless population on their commute home.
Chuck was joined on stage by Propel‘s Miguel Tam, who talked about how his team volunteers at food kitchens in San Jose and how by pledging 1% of time, they are building a stronger company culture and character.
The enthusiasm for giving was contagious. Not only were these startups helping others, but they were realizing the immediate internal impact of pledging 1% within their companies.
The event would have not been successful without the amazing help and leadership of Ludo Ulrich, Melanie Picard, Michael Kreadan, and Julia Barrett. Their team is taking Pledge 1% to a new level by building it into the application for startups to join the incubator. This is a great example for how companies can #PledgeItForward and inspire younger companies to make giving a core part of their business. And, as we learned last Thursday, the impact both on the communities served and the teams involved, can be tremendous.