Originally posted on Washington Post.
Corporate volunteerism: ‘Not charity. It’s good business.’
The one-day volunteering event — where employees give back to their communities by packing boxes of food or cleaning up a park or fundraising — is so ingrained in corporations that it’s long been lampooned by pop culture.
However, as the national decline of volunteerism deepens, both corporations and nonprofits are looking for something more useful.
“A leader calling up the nonprofit saying, ‘Hey, I have 20 people that can be over there in an hour. What do you want them to do?’ That’s not helpful,” said Kari Niedfeldt-Thomas, managing director of corporate insights and engagement at Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose, which advises companies on sustainability and corporate responsibility issues.
“What you want is for those volunteers to be part of an ongoing engagement, so those volunteers become embedded in the community,” she said. “They understand better what those participants needs are and they truly are then approaching their volunteerism work not as ‘I’m helping you,’’ but with a lens of ‘We’re in a partnership about making our community a better place.’ That levels the playing field. It doesn’t make it charity. It makes it a relationship.”
It’s the kind of relationship that more and more corporations are trying to cultivate with their philanthropy.
Tech giant Salesforce is a high-profile example of that connection, with its wide range of volunteer programs and funding initiatives that focus on education and workforce development, as well as climate and community resilience.
Ron C. Smith, Salesforce’s vice president of philanthropy, said giving back has always been in the company’s DNA, along with innovation.
“You have to be willing to hear what the community you live in — or the community you want to support — is asking for,” Smith said. “We start with the question ‘What can we do?’ or ‘How can we help?’ Then, we align to their strategic plans.”
The company is part of the Pledge 1% movement, where corporations promise to donate 1% of their equity, time, products and profit. Salesforce often supports nonprofits through several of those donation types, often stacking them as its relationship with the group grows.
Salesforce’s partnership with The Marcy Lab School, for example, began when some of its employees started volunteering at the New York nonprofit that trains high school graduates to become software engineers in one year at no cost to the students. Then, Salesforce started providing the school access to some of its software and is now looking at hiring some of the school’s graduates.
Last year, The Marcy Lab School became one of the first grantees of Salesforce’s Catalyst Fund, which provided $100,000 to emerging nonprofits that were led by a person of color and had operating budgets under $2 million annually.
Reuben Ogbonna, co-founder of The Marcy Lab School, said the Catalyst Fund allowed the nonprofit to nearly double its student body from 30 to 50. Students accepted at the school pay no tuition and receive a free laptop for their studies. Most graduates land jobs at top tech companies as software programmers, with starting salaries over $100,000.
“What was most interesting about it was that they were making bets on organizations that typically don’t get on the radar of a big funder like Salesforce,” Ogbonna said. “And what I appreciated about Salesforce is that there was this acknowledgment that our organization already had the seeds of competitiveness and impact.”
Ogbonna said Salesforce hasn’t exhibited the signs of doubt that other major funders have over whether an emerging nonprofit can handle a substantial donation properly. Instead, he says, Salesforce volunteers are helping make Marcy Lab School’s curriculum even stronger.
Marcy Lab School’s other co-founder Maya Bhattacharjee said that its impressive 16,000 square-foot campus in an 11th-floor loft space in Brooklyn, New York’s Industry City neighborhood, with views of the Statue of Liberty across New York Harbor was “beyond our wildest dreams.”
But their training program is exactly how they envisioned it. “I always dreamed of building a school that was just filled with a lot of love for students,” Bhattacharjee said. “Teachers are not thinking about students as numbers or test scores or things that needed to be fixed. To have educators around a table working to have programs work for every student is everything I dreamed of.”
For Enmanuel de la Nuez Carvajal, getting accepted into Marcy Lab School was a dream come true as well. Like a lot of the recent high school graduates who apply to join Marcy Lab School, he felt like he was languishing at LaGuardia Community College. But not everyone was convinced.
“Some of my friends were a little skeptical,” said the native of the Dominican Republic. “They said it sounds like it’s too good to be true. But I thought I don’t see how this could go wrong.”
After graduating from Marcy Lab School in 2020, de la Nuez Carvajal was hired by the project management software company Asana, where he is currently a software engineer.
Those are the kind of results that excite volunteers and keep them engaged to help their communities.
Naomi Morenzoni, Salesforce’s vice president of philanthropy strategy, said the company is an outlier in terms of volunteering, with about 87% of its workforce donating time each year. According to Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose, the average volunteer participation rate through company-sponsored initiatives was 17% in 2022.
“There’s a sea change that’s happened,” Morenzoni said. “We see that 50% of job seekers won’t take a job if a company doesn’t align with their values. All of that is driving value both for the company and for the community. The two are completely interconnected now.”
Salesforce sees its philanthropy program – which provides employees seven days of paid leave to volunteer and a company match for donations up to a $5,000 total each year – as a tool for recruitment and retention.
Morenzoni said Salesforce’s internal surveys show that 91% of its volunteering employees feel more engaged in their regular jobs.
“This is good for us,” she said. “This is good for our communities. It’s not charity. It’s good business.”
Not everyone agrees. In February, Strive Asset Management President Anson Frericks wrote a letter to Salesforce CEO
Marc Benioff urging him to “stop using your business as a ‘platform for social change’ and focus on serving your customers alone.” Frericks claimed five groups of activist investors who have reportedly purchased stakes in Salesforce “smell blood in the water.”
However, after Salesforce reported better-than-expected financial results in March, several activist investors, including Elliott Investment Management, supported the company’s recent business moves.
Though Salesforce declined comment on the investors’ complaints, officials said the company’s commitment to volunteerism will continue.
“I can’t speak to what the investors are looking for,” Smith said. “But I know we’re going to continue doing the good work that Salesforce has committed to. And we’re going to make sure that we bring our employees and partners and everyone else along with us – including our investors – so they can see the good work that’s happening.”
At Pledge 1%, we encourage and empower companies to donate 1% to ANY charity of their choosing. Today, we want to highlight Pledge 1% member Lookout which is committed to promoting Women & STEM. On May 18 and 19, Lookout and Secure Diversity are producing the eighth Day of Shecurity (DOS) conference, free for all women and nonbinary people to attend.
DOS is a Lookout’s homegrown conference that advocates for gender diversity in cybersecurity, uplifting and empowering women and non-binary individuals to share their personal and professional experiences and offering learning opportunities and company connections for those looking to start or grow their cybersecurity careers. Want to get involved?
Sponsorship opportunities are still open, and registration tickets are still available.
Sponsorship: https://www.dayofshecurity.com/how-you-can-help
Registration: https://hopin.com/events/dos-may-2023?utm_source=Pledge%201%25&utm_campaign=May%202023
Originally posted on ir.newrelic.com
New Relic Announces Goal for Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2030
New Relic, the all-in-one observability platform for every engineer, announced its goal to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030 and a commitment to set near-term science based GHG emissions targets. New Relic’s GHG emissions targets will be submitted to the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi), joining the more than 2,200 companies worldwide that are leading the transition to a net-zero economy through emissions targets grounded in climate science.
With this announcement, New Relic is the first observability company to set a net-zero emissions by 2030 goal and aims to inspire its peers in the industry to do their part in reducing global GHG emissions and building a resilient, zero-emissions economy. New Relic believes that by adhering to science-backed emissions targets, the business will be well-positioned for long-term growth and competitive differentiation in the market, while doing its part to slow climate change and pave the path toward decarbonization.
“We have spent the past three years transforming our product and business model. Establishing science-based climate goals is the right decision and next step as we continue to future-proof our business,” said New Relic CEO Bill Staples. “This also allows us to evolve alongside our global customers who are making similar strides toward a net-zero future and consider it a must-have when choosing their technology providers.”
By selecting 2030 as the target, New Relic is allowing for rigorous work around achieving and maintaining its goals through operational reductions and high quality carbon removals. This target aligns with guidance from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who warned that global warming must not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures by 2040 to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change.
Focus areas for reductions include:
- Vendor Engagement on Climate – Work with vendors across their operations to understand and reduce their emissions.
- Internal Efficiencies and Tracking – Continue to improve GHG emissions calculation with Watershed Climate to have a fine-grained understanding of the company’s footprint worldwide.
- Reduced Operational Footprint – Continually assess the operational footprint and ensure climate is part of its business criteria when it comes to operations.
- Internal Policy Setting – Introduce and update internal policies across the business to ensure climate is a shared responsibility.
Recent emissions successes include:
- Purchased reforestation credits from Trees for Global Benefits in Uganda to remove 100% of the carbon dioxide associated with New Relic global offices’ natural gas usage.
- Purchased renewable energy certificates representing 100% clean energy for New Relic global offices and employee WFH footprints. These included US Green-E certified renewable energy certificates from the Lindahl Wind Project and international energy attribute certificates from locally-sited projects aligned with New Relic’s international footprint.
New Relic is taking additional steps as part of its broader, comprehensive climate strategy. This includes reviewing its GHG emissions inventory with Watershed Climate, developing a plan to reduce emissions for facilities and assets, setting incremental targets, and reporting on its progress. New Relic is focused on improving the efficiency of its own cloud use and inspiring its customers, partners, and suppliers to do the same. New Relic has also contributed the Cloud Optimize app to the open source community to help organizations optimize cloud services, reduce costs, and improve the efficiency of their cloud usage.
New Relic released its inaugural ESG impact report in July 2022. The report encompassed New Relic’s approach to ESG, including making significant achievements in pay equity across race and gender, obtaining HITRUST certification to strengthen data security and privacy, measuring Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions, and providing more than $6.5 million in product and discounts to nonprofits and students to expand equitable access to technology.
To learn more about New Relic’s approach to ESG, please visit https://newrelic.com/about/environmental-social-governance.
San Francisco, Calif. – December 6, 2022 — During times of market turbulence, philanthropic giving can take a hit as corporate budgets shrink. Despite the downturn in the market and lower valuations across the tech sector, Pledge 1%, a global movement to inspire, educate, and empower all companies to leverage their assets for good, is adding outsized value to the companies with which they work. This year alone, the company has welcomed 2,000 net new companies that are utilizing Pledge 1%’s flexible framework to build their social impact programs, increasing overall membership by more than 13 percent. Additionally, Pledge 1% has ignited new equity commitments valued at over $300 million from high-growth companies including Contentful, Contentstack, Loop & Tie, Snyk, and Vidmob.
“In times like these, when cash is tight and exit horizons unpredictable, we’re seeing more companies formalize their equity pledge as a powerful vehicle to reinforce their corporate values and demonstrate their long-term commitment to social impact and ESG efforts,” said Amy Lesnick, Chief Executive and President of Pledge 1%. “By setting aside 1% of equity to fuel future corporate philanthropy, CEOs and Boards are signaling their confidence in the long-term success of their business and energizing employees around a shared vision to make a difference in the world.”
Pledge 1% is the go-to partner helping companies set aside equity to fund their long-term social impact and ESG programs, and has kept companies committed through the ups and downs of the market. Since Pledge 1% was founded in 2014, 44 unicorn companies have set aside equity prior to their exits, including industry leaders Atlassian, Braze, DocuSign, Okta, PagerDuty, Twilio, Upwork and Zuora. Additionally, Pledge 1% has supported 15 unicorns who have not yet exited to set aside equity to fund their long-term social impact, including BetterUp, Canva, Checkr, Guild Education, Lookout, SmartRecruiters, Snyk, and Vidmob.
“Since taking the pledge in 2018, Contentstack has made time and product commitments as well as a series of charitable donations,” said Neha Sampat, founder and CEO of Contentstack. “We were excited to add equity to the mix this year. We’ve worked hard to build a culture of caring and it is one of the things I’m proudest of as CEO. Pledge 1% provides a thoughtful balance of structure and flexibility that evolves with the company as we grow.”
“Since our founding, Contentful has cared deeply about social impact and built a program that includes employee-driven volunteer time off and giving our product pro bono to nonprofit organizations,” said Sascha Konietzke, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Contentful. “With our pledge of 1% equity, we are now positioned to do even more good in the world for many years to come. We know this commitment is important to our employees, customers, and partners, and we hope to be an example for other companies looking to make a positive social impact.”
“In this economy with delayed exits, contributing equity is not only the right thing to do, but also the smart thing to do,” said Sameer Dholakia, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “The commitment enables companies to build a culture of giving back from inception, allowing them to attract and inspire employees, and retain key talent to make the company stronger.”
To learn more about how to set aside social impact at your company or join this alliance of top VCs as a Boardroom Ally, email allies@pledge1percent.org or visit pledge1percent.org.
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About Pledge 1%
Pledge 1% is a global movement that inspires, educates, and empowers every entrepreneur, company, and employee to be a force for good. Over 17,000 members in 100 countries around the world have used Pledge 1%’s flexible framework to ignite billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours in new philanthropy. To learn more about Pledge 1%, and how your company can get involved, visit pledge1percent.org.
Originally posted on einnews.com
Qyral Partners with Pledge 1% to Empower Women
Qyral, the popular breakthrough skin care line, has partnered with Pledge 1%, giving 1% of profit from each sale to a charity that focuses on women’s issues. The partnership is an ideal fit as Qyral’s mission provides a pathway for women to change their skin, their incomes, and their lives for the better. Empowering women is a vital focus.
“Socioeconomic factors in the United States prevent women who lack resources from participating and progressing in the workforce,” says Hanieh Sigari, Qyral’s founder, a biochemist and anti-aging industry disruptor.
“True empowerment requires funding, and the funding dedicated to addressing this problem does not match the need. Currently, only 1.2% of philanthropic giving goes to women’s issues. On top of that, government funding for women is variable and fails to address their most basic needs.”
It’s one reason why Qyral is walking-the-walk and doing their part to not just talk about it, but do something. Sigari says, “Investing in women benefits all humanity. Our idea is to give back to nonprofits that support women’s issues, enabling more of them to reach economic independence.
“We wanted to embed this mission into the core of Qyral, right from the beginning. That’s why we have partnered with Pledge 1%, where 1% of the profit from each sale will go towards women’s issues.”
She adds that Pledge 1%, is not an individual charity, but a global movement that aims to inspire, educate, and empower every entrepreneur, company, and employee, by providing companies the tools and framework necessary to be a force for good.
Sigari points out that “Pledge 1% member companies are in total control of their programs and decide the causes and nonprofits they want to support based on their company’s interests.”
Originally published on hellomagazine.com
Prince Harry has inspired the world with his kind acts this year – particularly in getting people to open up and talk about their mental health.
The Duke of Sussex has always followed in the kind footsteps of his late mother, Princess Diana. His tireless campaigning to encourage people to get tested for HIV following on from his mother’s work to remove the stigma surrounding the virus has been inspiring to watch, and his decision to co-founded charity Sentebale with his friend Prince Seeiso of Lesotho to help children and adolescents struggling to come to terms with their HIV status is just one example of his commitment.
More recently the Prince has also been on a mission to help people seek the mental health support they need without fear of judgement. In his role as Chief Impact Officer for BetterUp, the inventor of virtual coaching, the Duke has talked bravely about his own experience with mental health and therapy, speaking to the hearts of many people across the globe. BetterUp is focused on coaching and what they call mental fitness.
Alexi Robichaux, BetterUp co-founder and CEO, told HELLO!: “Since joining BetterUp as Chief Impact Officer in 2021, Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex has been an integral part of our mission to elevate the global conversation around mental fitness.
“He helped spearhead critical initiatives such as defining our commitments to social impact, the Pledge 1%, and the work we do with active duty service personnel, veterans and their families. His kindness, authenticity and leadership at BetterUp, as well as through other organisations, has inspired many to seek the support they need to live healthier and more fulfilling lives.
“I’m grateful for the work he has done and feel energised by his vision and dedication to continuing to raise awareness for mental health.”
In a further act of kindness, the Prince will also donate some of the proceeds from the publication of his book Spare, due out in January, to children’s charity WellChild, of which he is a patron (a further donation will go to his charity Sentable). Recently, the Duke met with the young WellChild’s Award winners, surprising them with a wonderful zoom call after sadly having to miss their awards ceremony at the last minute, as it fell on the day his grandmother, the Queen, passed away.
WellChild’s chief executive Matt James told HELLO!: “We were delighted to hear the wonderful news of The Duke’s kind donation to WellChild. This will make a huge difference to the work that we do for seriously ill children and their families across the UK.
“The Duke has been Patron of WellChild since 2007 and has always taken great interest in our work. It is a particularly challenging time for the families we support, so this act of kindness has come just when we needed it most.”
Originally posted on digitaljournal.com.
Accentable Services Joins the Pledge 1% Movement, Commits to Donating More Than 1% of Profit to Organizations Providing Humanitarian Assistance
Accentable Services made its first donations to the organizations Feeding America and Doctors Without Borders.
According to the Global Humanitarian Overview 2022 from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 1 out of 29 people worldwide require humanitarian assistance.
“Accentable Services doesn’t just believe in helping people to communicate every day,” said Sarah Rogers, Operations. “People are what our business is about. Our team believes in doing what we can to help both here in the United States and around the world. That’s why it was so important for us to join this initiative and contribute to organizations that are making a real difference for people.”
Accentable Services has joined Pledge 1%, a global movement that galvanizes companies of all sizes and stages to create a positive social impact through their business. They have united with over 17,000 companies that have already committed to pledge 1% of their product, profit, equity and/or staff time to nonprofits, nongovernmental organizations and/or charities of their choosing. “We are excited to make this commitment,” said Ms. Rogers.
Accentable Services encourages other companies, no matter where they’re located or what industry they’re in, to take the pledge too and leverage their business as a force for good.
Originally published on Snyk.
Snyk, the leader in developer security, today announced that it has formally joined Pledge 1%, a global movement to inspire, educate and empower companies to effectively leverage their financial assets for positive social impact. With this announcement, Snyk has set aside 1% of its current equity to fund Snyk Impact initiatives long-term.
Launched in October 2021, Snyk Impact was founded with a mission to mobilize Snyk’s technology, resources and community in order to enable a more secure, inclusive and sustainable technology sector. In its first year, Snyk Impact has supported a growing list of compelling nonprofits including AIEDU, CareerVillage, DevelopforGood, FastForward, LearningEquality and UPchieve. By now pledging 1% of Snyk’s equity to Snyk Impact, Snyk is boldly reaffirming its long-term commitment to philanthropic leadership, bringing greater scale to this already successful foundational program.
“We founded Snyk Impact to ensure that our efforts toward making lasting positive social change became an integral, ongoing part of Snyk’s overall business strategy,” said Peter McKay, CEO, Snyk. “By joining the Pledge 1% movement, we’ve significantly accelerated that initial investment, doubling down on our commitment to give back within the communities where our global Snykers work and live.”
In recognition of Snyk Impact’s momentum to date, Pledge 1% has also named Snyk its 2022 Impact Award winner. This annual recognition spotlights one company from the industry’s prestigious Forbes Cloud 100 list that has most effectively demonstrated an outstanding commitment to social impact, serving as a leader to inspire their industry peers. On behalf of the Cloud 100 Pledge 1% Award, Salesforce Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners will donate USD $10,000 to Fast Forward in Snyk’s name. Fast Forward provides workshops, mentoring and seed money to a cohort of tech non-profits so they can scale solutions to our world’s most urgent problems.
“It’s an honor to officially welcome Snyk to the Pledge 1% community and acknowledge their philanthropic commitment with this year’s Impact Award,” said Amy Lesnick, Chief Executive and President, Pledge 1%. “Snyk now joins an esteemed group of former Impact Award winners such as Canva, DocuSign, Slack and Twilio, leading by example as they creatively leverage equity to make lasting positive social change.”
Snyk UK recently kicked off a partnership with 01 Founders by hosting 30 learners in its London office, while this summer Snykers around the globe participated in the company’s inaugural Snyk Week of Impact, a week-long volunteering initiative across five countries, offering over a dozen in-person and virtual volunteer opportunities. To get involved with Snyk Impact today, visit https://snyk.io/about/snyk-impact/.
Read the article here.
Originally published on o9 Solutions
o9 Solutions, a leading enterprise AI software platform provider for transforming planning and decision-making, announced today that it has joined the United Nations Global Compact initiative, a voluntary leadership platform for the development, implementation, and disclosure of responsible business practices.
The United Nations Global Compact initiative is one of the world’s largest and most impactful initiatives for sustainable businesses. Companies voluntarily pledge to align their operations with 10 universally accepted principles to help achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests. The initiative has more than 15,000 companies and 3,800 non-business signatories based in more than 160 countries and 69 local networks.
o9 Solutions will participate in the U.S. local network and leverage the United Nations Global Compact resources and network to adopt established best practices. The company will also use the reporting framework provided by the initiative to report on its performance based on the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact. This reporting framework is in addition to o9’s annual Environmental, Social, and Governance Impact Report, where the company reports on key performance indicators and progress in its sustainability and social impact initiatives. The inaugural ESG Impact Report highlights the following social impact activities of 2021:
- o9 was awarded a bronze medal in Sustainability from Ecovadis
- o9 signed the 1.5°C pledge as part of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)
- o9 joined Pledge 1%, a movement dedicated to empowering companies to donate 1% of their efforts back to the community
- o9 announced developing new sustainability capabilities in its platform
- o9 organized 17 social impact initiatives such as o9 Walks, o9 Cleans, and o9 Bikes to encourage employees to volunteer or raise awareness for social impact causes
Co-founder and CEO of o9 Solutions, Chakri Gottemukkala, said: “We are proud to join the United Nations Global Compact initiative, a prestigious and impactful global initiative. o9 was founded with a vision not only to become the most valuable platform for enterprises but also to have a meaningful impact on society and the environment through employee engagement and community actions. Initiatives like the United Nations Global Compact provide insightful resources for best practices on sustainable business while also holding us accountable for our progress on this important endeavor.”
Read the article on o9 Solutions HERE