By Melynnie Rizvi
At SurveyMonkey, our goal has always been to make the communities where we live and work better, safer, and healthier. And as a survey company, we’re uniquely suited to help. Throughout the crisis, we’ve poured resources into not only supporting our employees and customers, but also helping build a better world at large.
Here are the ways that we’re looking out for our users, our employees, and everyone else who’s been affected by these tumultuous times.
Providing Free Public Resources for Organizations of Every Size
Every company and organization has been affected by the virus. Many are suddenly and urgently coping with less revenue, while also trying to keep business operations going in a quarantining world.
SurveyMonkey launched new, free survey templates designed by our in-house survey experts to help business leaders and individual managers stay connected. Our Coronavirus Leadership Check-In template enables executives and small business owners to assess employees’ wellbeing and address potential challenges, our Work From Home template enables individual managers to check up on employees at a regular cadence, and our B2B customer pulse survey enables users to check on customers.
SurveyMonkey is also constantly publishing new research about social sentiments around the coronavirus, including the number of people quarantining, top concerns, changes in buying habits and more. Since February, we’ve polled more than 600,000 people across the U.S., U.K., and Canada. We publish this data weekly to help bring more clarity about these world changes to our customers and other readers.
Supporting our Nonprofit Partners
SurveyMonkey is currently offering extreme discounts to nonprofits, educators, and students to enable them to continue their important work and enable remote education.
And the work that we’re seeing from nonprofits truly is inspirational. Here are a few examples: the American Red Cross is using SurveyMonkey technology to recruit blood donors who have already recovered from the virus (and therefore have coronavirus-fighting antibodies in their blood), so that sick people can recover more effectively. Meanwhile, the Boys and Girls Club of San Mateo uses SurveyMonkey to check in on community needs, and created a food distribution station for needy families as a result of their research.
We’re also promoting broader use of SurveyMonkey Contribute, a platform that enables people to take surveys in exchange for a SurveyMonkey-sponsored donation to a nonprofit of their choice. For every survey taken, SurveyMonkey donates 50 cents, many of which—like Doctors without Borders and American Red Cross.—are directly supporting virus relief efforts. Our hope is that people can use SurveyMonkey Contribute to help support positive change, even if they can’t afford to give money themselves during this time. Historically, the platform has raised over 15 million dollars for worthy causes.
Enabling Healthcare Breakthroughs and Other Research
Some of SurveyMonkey’s most exciting work right now comes from partnerships with healthcare and other public health organizations.
COVID Near You is an organization that is tracking symptoms across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, helping communities understand whether they are at risk and how the virus works. It provides real-time public health updates using survey data. Almost 600,000 people have made reports to the site in order to help spread awareness.
Another powerful new partnership is with the state of Rhode Island, which is using SurveyMonkey to check in on people who tested positive, track changes in symptoms, identify problem areas where illness is spreading, and research possible solutions.
Taking Care of Our Troop
The health and safety of our employees (affectionately known as our Troop) remains a top priority at SurveyMonkey. That’s why SurveyMonkey was among the first companies to implement a work-from-home policy in early March 2020, helping establish the norm that is attributed to saving lives in California before the state safer-at-home order was in place.
During this time of instability, SurveyMonkey has strengthened our commitment to protect our employees. Our CEO, Zander Lurie, took a public pledge to do no layoffs for 90 days starting April 1, and we are committed to paying hourly workers and contractors their regular wages, despite a decreased need for services.
As we began remote work, one of our first steps was to check in with our Troop to understand their concerns and the support tools that would help them navigate this new landscape, using our leadership check in template. Based on their feedback, and in recognition of the challenges associated with caregiving and homeschooling, we provided all employees with a stipend to set up a comfortable and effective remote workspaces and help support childcare, dependent care, educational learning subscriptions, and more. We also added emergency paid sick leave for any employee who is personally affected by the virus, so that they won’t be depleting any sick days.
We sent our Employee Resource and Social Impact Groups (ERG & DIGs) the guidance and resources they need to host virtual events and Community Chats to maintain connection, collaboration and morale during this time of physical distancing. These groups are also tackling the new challenges facing individual communities at this time, including xenophobia and racism against the Asian American community, the disproportionate health and economic impact the virus is having on the African American and Latinx communities, and the mental health impact of this new world order.
Additional Advocacy
In addition to our CEO’s pledge not to do any layoffs for 90 days, SurveyMonkey has been involved in other social initiatives that aim to support our communities through this crisis.
To support small businesses that are particularly vulnerable during this time, SurveyMonkey joined the #OpenWeStand Coalition of more than 30 companies to help small businesses sustain during and recover after from the financial impact of COVID-19.
Before becoming law on March 18, 2020, SurveyMonkey advocated for the passage of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which provides funding for free coronavirus testing, 14-day paid leave for American workers affected by the pandemic, and increased funding for food stamps.
Like everyone else, SurveyMonkey has had its share of challenges in a rapidly changing world. But we truly believe that we can work together to make a positive impact, and we commit to continue working toward that impact in whatever ways we can.
Australia is experiencing one of the worst fire seasons ever recorded. The rapid pace of the burn along with heavy smoke has made it extremely difficult for emergency services to evacuate certain communities. Over a billion animals and dozens of human lives have been lost. More than 2,000 homes to date have been destroyed, and the long-term impact on the environment and people’s lives has yet to be calculated.
As a global community, Pledge 1% has many valued members in Australia. Today, we are calling our global network to come together to help support the efforts in Australia. With help from Atlassian and some of our other Australian members, we’ve collected the following list of charities and organizations you can give to to support the fire relief efforts.
The main firefighting organization in NSW directly fighting the fires. Many of these volunteers have been battling against these fires for months now and are risking their lives in the process. NSW has pledged that it’s donations will go not only to the Fire Service but to victims of the fires as well.
The Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery teams are assisting communities that have been affected by the fires. They help provide evacuees of over 69 different areas with water, food and comforts. In addition, they are arranging emergency accommodations, helping connect missing loved ones and beginning a cash grant program that is intended to help support local businesses and help people meet their immediate needs.
WIRES is dedicated to helping rescue and rehabilitate the animals impacted by the fires. Survivors need all the help they can get in the wake of such intense habitat destruction. Donations to WIRES helps support their immediate recovery, along with longer goals such as habitat restoration and food shortages.
St. Vincent de Paul Society is helping the thousands of dislocated people who need emergency housing, along with providing other essentials such as food, water and clothing. They’ve launched the Vinnies Bushfire Appeal to directly help families who have been evacuated.
Much like the Red Cross and St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Salvation Army is supporting members of communities that have been affected by the fires. They are providing clothes, food, water and shelter along with emergency service teams in response to loss of life and property.
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.
Horizon champions socially responsible change internally and externally, encouraging other companies to follow suit by speaking to the potential for companies, regardless of size, to give by leveraging collaborative partnerships and employee engagement.
One of Horizon’s most profound partnerships is with the Perspectives/IIT Math and Science Academy (MSA), a school in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago which embraces the idea of educating the whole child. Since launching the partnership in 2016, Horizon has provided it’s profit and time in infrastructure and programming support, as well as over 1,000 hours of employee volunteering.
To date, infrastructure projects have included the installation of water filtration stations to eliminate exposure to lead-contaminated drinking water, constructing a central front office to increase student safety, and creating a peace and meditation room for students to decompress from environmental stressors and practice healthy coping skills.
Horizon’s financial support has also enabled a number of new programs and curriculum to be available for students, exposing them to new ideas and potential career paths. With these programs, Horizon employees generously contribute their time. Employees mentor students through programming with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Illinois Science and Technology Coalition STEM Challenge, as well as Horizon’s own STEM career speaker series. Students not only hear about various STEM career trajectories from employees, but also have the opportunity to interview the employees participating in the speaker series, developing their public speaking and leadership skills. As MSA reflects Horizon’s core business values, Horizon recognizes the potential to draw from the next generation of STEAM oriented innovators it is currently investing in.
Horizon’s various business units (BUs) also integrate volunteer events at MSA. The BUs have set up equipment, organized hygiene and college kits for students in temporary living situations (STLS), presented interactive chemistry workshops to classrooms and conducted mock interviews.
Because our employees show up for our community partners, such as MSA, Horizon was able to became one of the first biopharma companies to take the 1% Pledge, joining over 6,000+ companies in over 100 countries. Horizon views the components of the pledge as a means to realizing its CSR mission of going to incredible lengths to positively impact the communities in which we live and work.
This story was submitted as part of the #Pledge1Gives GivingTuesday campaign, which celebrates the many ways our member companies are having an impact around the world.
By Twilio.
Empower Others. Those words are not just a catchphrase at Twilio. Instead, they have been the foundation of our core values and products since the very beginning.
Twilions know that unleashing human potential — both within our company and throughout our communities — is key not just to our success, but to the greater good we wish to see in the world.
As we’ve grown as a company and our culture evolved, so has our desire to do our part in creating a better, more just world. We saw this with Twilio’s commitment as a company to Pledge 1% of our time, equity and funds to doing good.
And we see it in the personal passions of Twilions. Like Kathryn Shirley in Atlanta, who donates her time to the Make-a-Wish Foundation of Georgia, providing Wishes for children with life-threatening, critical illnesses to enrich their human experience. Or Alex Alleyne in London, who gives money to organizations like the Hackney Learning Trust, educating and empowering students from low-income neighborhoods. Both wanting to scale their impact beyond their individual contributions.
But let’s face it, there are real barriers in people’s lives that can get in the way of making the positive impact they’d like. Some of us have more time, some less. Some can give more money, some less. On top of that, our lives, hearts, families, and communities are all touched by an array of issues. With all this in mind, determining how to make a positive impact isn’t always easy, and the scale of the issues we want to take on can feel daunting.
Introducing Twilio’s WePledge Program
That’s why we created WePledge. WePledge is our new employee impact program empowering Twilions to take action as individuals, leading to a meaningful global impact as a whole. Like Pledge 1%, WePledge provides a framework for giving in ways that fit the lives and schedules of individuals and enables people to create impact in meaningful ways important to them.
Through WePledge, Twilions make a commitment to contribute 1% of their individual time, money, or both to the causes they personally care about. In turn, Twilio provides an employee engagement platform, matching funds, coordinated volunteer opportunities, and the ongoing support of being a part of something bigger than ourselves.
Making an impact with WePledge is easy:
Volunteer time. Twilions are encouraged to donate 1%, or 20 hours, of our work time throughout the year to causes individuals care about at organizations that could benefit from our energy and expertise. Everyone has 20 hours of paid volunteer time off (VTO) to make this possible.
Donate equity or income. Twilions are encouraged to donate 1% of their equity or income to charity(s) that are meaningful to them. Donating equity often means charitable organizations receive more financial support than they would through a standard donation, and our internal equity systems are set up to help Twilions do this with the click of a button.
Get matched. Twilio amplifies the employee contributions through matching gifts for personal volunteer time, equity, and monetary donations up to a $500 annually per employee.
Global Weeks of Service. Twilio coordinates a week of global volunteering events twice per year which give employees diversity in volunteer opportunities to increase our social impact and connect more deeply with organizations in our communities — and other Twilions in the process. This makes finding ways to use VTO is easier than ever.
Twilions are already out in the world doing good however they can, and with the support of WePledge, Twilio will help magnify the impact of Twilions like Kathryn and Alex.
WePledge is one more way for Twilions to Empower Others. It’s how we empower the organizations working on social issues we care about, it’s how we empower the communities we serve, and it’s how we empower each other to realize the full potential of what we can achieve together.
When we pledge our time and money as individuals, our collective efforts have the potential to make a meaningful impact on a global scale. And this is just the beginning.
This video 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 story was submitted as part of the #Pledge1Gives GivingTuesday campaign, which celebrates the many ways our member companies are having an impact around the world.
by Box.org
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.
As a founding member of Pledge 1%, Atlassian is committed to giving back to every community we live and work in. Atlassian donates volunteer time, financial contributions, skills and products to charities in our communities. Giving back is part of who we are as a company. To date, Atlassian has donated over $13 million USD to charitable organizations, given 61,000+ licenses to our products and employees have volunteered over 38,000 hours. Join the Pledge 1% community with Atlassian!
Originally published by Silafrica.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug. 20, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — This global campaign is dedicated to creating a new normal, whereby giving back is integrated into the DNA of companies, regardless of their size. Comprised of more than 8,500 companies in over 100 countries, it encourages and challenges these companies to pledge one percent of equity, profit, product and/or employee time to their communities.
In making the announcement, Akshay Shah, Group Managing Director of Silafrica, stated, “We applaud the positive spirit upon which Pledge 1% was founded. Their goals and their mission of community service and support parallel those of Silafrica, whose similar vision and principles were set forth at our company’s founding more than forty years ago.”
In recent years, Silafrica has enacted a formal set of guiding principles, which outlines the company’s vision for creating sustainable success and service. Entitled “The Silafrica Way,” it provides a roadmap for serving corporate customers and trade partners as well as community channels in Africa through the application of innovation, professionalism and entrepreneurial energy. This corporate platform is comprised of seven core values: trust, respect, integrity, passion, humility, excellence and teamwork. Shah added, “What also inspired us to join Pledge 1% was that in doing so, we could set an example for our industry peers in the region to follow.”
Peer-to-peer networking among CEOs and entrepreneurs has been a large part of the spreading of movement. However, while the Pledge 1% presence is very strong in the US, Australia, India, and Europe, it is just beginning to make inroads in Africa. Silafrica’s recent pledge is intended to accelerate that. “We’ve already been speaking with our industry’s supply chain partners and colleagues in the region, and encouraging them to become part of the movement,” Shah said.
Upon being notified of the Silafrica pledge, Amy Lesnick, Chief Executive and President of Pledge 1%, commented, “We’re delighted to have Silafrica as partners in the movement, as they represent a sizeable organization in a part of the world where we hope to have a significant impact. What’s most notable about Silafrica and their participation is how it reflects who they truly are as an organization.”
In aligning itself with Pledge 1%, Silafrica is designating one percent of its corporate profits, product and personnel time to a variety of regional charities, service projects, and community organizations. “We see this as an opportunity to raise awareness and are calling on companies large and small to do their part for their respective communities,” Shah concluded. “Silafrica looks forward to becoming a promotional voice across Africa, helping companies to recognize what we’ve known to be true for some time: that our workers are our friends and neighbors. They are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters. When people and families flourish, our communities flourish and create stronger organizations within them.”
ABOUT PLEDGE 1%
Pledge 1% is a global movement that encourages and empowers companies of all sizes and stages of growth to give one percent of either their profit, equity, staff time or product to any charity of their choosing. Pledge 1%’s founding partners include Salesforce, Atlassian and Rally, three companies that know first-hand how pledging a small portion of future success today can have an enormous impact tomorrow. In 2014, they joined with the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado to accelerate a shared vision of every business around the globe, integrating philanthropy into its corporate DNA. In 2016, Pledge 1% became a special initiative of Tides, a leading global philanthropic partner, and non-profit accelerator.
To learn more or to take the pledge, please visit http://www.pledge1percent.org.
ABOUT SILAFRICA
Silafrica is an award-winning manufacturer and supplier of plastic and packaging solutions for corporations, CPGs and consumers alike. With headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya it has manufacturing hubs in Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia, and serves clients in these countries as well as Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and others throughout Africa. Its client roster includes leading global and African CPG brands who use packaging applications for primary and secondary consumer and industrial rigid packaging, and secondary flexible industrial packaging. Business sectors served, include the fastest-growing segments within the FMCG space such as food, beverage, personal care, home care, the construction space such as paints & chemicals, as well as the general logistics needs of the distribution and supply chains in the agricultural and consumer sectors.
VP Business Operations
Pledge 1% is a global movement to create a new normal where companies of all sizes and stages integrate social impact into their DNA and leverage their assets to solve the world’s toughest social issues.
Pledge 1% inspires, educates, and empowers entrepreneurs and companies to contribute 1% of their employee time, product, profit, and/or equity to ANY cause of their choosing.
Founded 4 years ago by tech luminaries such as Marc Benioff (Founder/co-CEO of Salesforce), Scott Farquhar (co-founder/co-CEO of Atlassian), Ron Conway (Founder and co-Managing Partner, SV Angel), Ryan Martens (Founder and CTO of Rally), Brad Feld (co-founder of Techstars), Seth Levine (Co-founder, Foundry Group), and Suzanne DiBianca (EVP Corporate Relations & Chief Philanthropy Officer, Salesforce), the movement has quickly grown to over 8500 members in over 100 countries. Fast Company named Pledge 1% the most innovative non profit in the world and one of the top 50 most innovative companies.
Pledge 1% members have ignited over ½ Billion dollars in new philanthropy and we’re just getting started. Pledge 1% member IPO’s, acquisitions, and mergers in the last year alone, including Docusign, Zuora, Pluralsight, Sendgrid, Survey Monkey have ignited tens of millions of new philanthropic funding. And thousands of Pledge 1% members such as Flexport, Slack, and Postmates are having substantial impact long before their liquidity events.
Pledge 1% is now at an exciting inflection point. We’ve demonstrated a powerful proof of concept are now looking to scale our organization to drive truly transformational change. We’ve recently raised growth capital, refined our strategic plan, and are looking to build a world class leadership team to unleash the full potential of this movement and create a new global business paradigm whereby social impact is integrated into the DNA of all companies.
YOU have the opportunity to make this your legacy….to re-define what it means to be a successful company of the future…to make giving back/giving first the commonly accepted default.
About the role:
This is an incredible moment in the evolution of the Pledge 1% movement.
We’re looking for a smart, talented, and experienced leader with a track record of building the infrastructure (systems, technology, people, policies, business metrics, data) required to scale high growth organization, implement our 5 strategic pillars, and achieve aggressive business goals.
The VP of Business Operations will report directly to the Chief Executive Officer and lead the identification, development, and execution of transformational cross-functional strategic initiatives to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Pledge 1%. The ideal candidate is equal parts operator and high-horsepower problem solver, capable of turning complex and ambitious ideas into scalable capabilities.
Essential responsibilities (include but are not limited to):
- Drive operational excellence– Assess and revamp data, reporting, technology, processes, and infrastructure to support core business functions ie. fundraising, customer success, growth, finance/budget.
- Manage key business metrics– Translate Pledge 1%’s new vision/strategic plan into annual/quarterly organizational and individual OKRs. Develop system and process for ongoing tracking & reporting. Create and manage high level organization scorecard for Board. Coach staff with weekly prioritization, trade-offs, and drive achievement of OKRs. Manage weekly team meetings and handle resource balancing to ensure efficient and effective use of staff resources.
- Lead organizational expansion- Work with CEO to refine the hiring plan & roadmap. Lead efforts to recruit, hire, and onboard new full time team members and contractors. Build a work environment that will attract and retain top talent i.e. policies/benefits, team building activities, professional development, culture, etc. Oversee Director of Operations efforts to expand office space, equipment, etc.
- Oversee financials– Collaborate with Chief Executive to model business scenarios (revenue and expenses), establish annual budgets, and revise as needed. Work with Director of Operations to manage and report monthly expenses, revenue, and cash-flow. Analyze data, create quarterly projections, and initiate required actions to drive revenue and/or reduce expenses.
- Define and manage internal & customer facing technology- Work with Pledge 1% team to identify requirements. Evaluate vendors. Manage cross-functional implementations of MVP (minimal viable product) as well as robust solutions. Ensure high satisfaction of internal and external customers.
- Support Chief Executive–
- Work with CEO to set strategy, manage priorities/trade-offs, and execute quarterly and annual business goals.
- Create materials (decks, financial reports, organization OKR scorecard) to support quarterly Board meetings, executive committee strategy sessions, leadership council convenings. Support ongoing leadership communications and board expansion efforts.
- Oversee and manage a variety of highly prioritized strategic projects as well as complete ad hoc projects, requests, analysis.
- Handle high level inquiries and support partner cultivation.
About you:
- Proven success scaling high growth organizations- People and Systems.
- Experience leading business operations, ideally in technology companies, with increasing levels of responsibility and influence.
- Strategic problem solver with operational mindset- You easily see the big picture and can translate high-level business goals into actionable plans. You have an uncanny ability to simplify complex challenges, operationalize solutions, create and communicate frameworks, and project manage cross-functional teams to drive results.
- You find joy in making things more efficient and effective. Extraordinary attention to detail is second nature.
- Startup mindset- You are a self starter, resourceful, and willing to roll up your sleeves and dive deep where needed. You have a bias towards action and are able to thrive in a fast-paced, constantly changing work environment.
- High EQ/Relationship-builder – You can influence and motivate people at all levels across a variety of job functions.
- Exceptional presentation and communication skills as well as deep analytical skills. You’re a whiz at decks and have the ability to hone in on key data and communicate critical insights.
Requirements:
- 10+ years, including management experience, in operations / consulting / strategy
- Tech startup experience, built systems in an early stage organization
- Quick thinker & strong logical communicator
- High EQ – ability to work with range of individuals internally and externally
- Management consulting experience highly desired.
- Bachelor’s degree required, MBA or relevant graduate degree preferred
Pledge 1%, a project of Tides Center, celebrates diversity and is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.
If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know in your application.
We have engaged Fitz-Roy and Associates for this search. Please submit your cover letter and resume to jobs@fitzroyandassociates.com. Please include the job title in your subject line.