Study.com

Study.com is a leading online education platform that provides academic support for over 30 million learners and educators a month. Recognized by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) for meeting Level IV evidence standards for improving K12 learning outcomes, Study.com provides concise and compelling digital content that spans K12, higher education and professional test prep.

www.study.com 

At Study.com, we have an unwavering commitment to making education accessible for underserved learners, non-traditional students, and educators. With over $27m donated across our various social impact programs and a philanthropic commitment to Pledge 1%, all our contributions focus on increasing access and equity in education. Our Keys to the Classroom program is the pinnacle of this vision.

Nationally, 50% of teacher candidates fail the PRAXIS, a common teacher certification exam, on the first try and a quarter never pass. These pass rates disproportionately affect people of color, with 38% of Black candidates never passing. Keys to the Classroom aims to combat the teacher shortage around the nation and to increase the diversity of America’s teacher pipeline by helping future educators prepare for and pass their teacher certification exams, such as the PRAXIS.

How it works: We donate licenses for our test preparation software to partners – school districts, colleges and universities, and education nonprofits – who then distribute those licenses to aspiring teachers preparing for testing. Keys to the Classroom is active across 16 states, including Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, California, Vermont, Tennessee, and more.

Why it matters: Students of color represent over half of the school population, yet the national teaching corps is largely white—only 19% of teachers identify as people of color. Representation in the classroom is critical, as studies show students are more likely to succeed and face reduced rates of exclusionary discipline when paired with a teacher of the same race or ethnicity.

“Keys to the Classroom seeks to reduce testing barriers so educators of all backgrounds and ethnicities can access the teaching profession,” said Dana Bryson, senior vice president of social impact at Study.com. “Teacher certification exams often prevent otherwise qualified teachers from being able to reach the classroom. We need to ensure aspiring educators have the tools they need to reach and succeed in the classroom.”

By the numbers: 

Since our program launched a year ago, we’re proud to share that Keys to the Classroom reports:

• Donations totaling $4m in test prep materials  


• 23 programs across 16 states 


• Hundreds of teacher cadets enrolled nationwide, including 50% who identify as people of color. Over a third identify as Black, which is 5x higher than the national teaching corps representation


• 92% of teachers who use Study.com to prepare for their licensure exam report passing

In the words of Marcella Wine-Snyder of the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention and Advancement (CERRA) in South Carolina, “This first-of-its-kind partnership with Study.com will provide opportunities and access that mitigate educational disparities and accelerate the certification process for many prospective teachers.”

Rock Content

Rock Content creates innovative marketing solutions and services designed to build content experiences at scale. We help brands drive revenues and build awareness by: Unleashing collaboration, Connecting marketers with a global network, Delivering premium brand and content experiences

www.rockcontent.com

The Rock ‘n’ Grow program was implemented in February 2021, starting from the launch on our official channels and opening of the application form.

The Rock ‘n’ Grow program emerged as a result of a specific action carried out by Rock Content in the initial period of the pandemic — when we released some Premium courses from Rock University, our education platform, free of charge for people who wanted to train themselves in matters related to marketing digital in the face of uncertainty in the labor market. However, this was an isolated action, not a project in itself.

Based on the results we had with the initiative, we decided to launch in 2021 an education program for people from socially underrepresented and economically vulnerable groups.

With the specific action during the beginning of the pandemic, we reached more than 30,000 students interested in our content. In addition, at certain times, we found several selection processes requesting Rock Content courses in the curriculum.

Faced with this scenario, and understanding the reality of most Brazilians (where it is not possible to prioritize vocational education while other basic needs are not met), the Social Impact, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team understood that it was time to go beyond assistance and to create a structured initiative with a scalable and long-term impact that would actually transform the democratized access to quality content for underrepresented people throughout Brazil.

Together with the Rock University and Business Enablement teams, we developed: creation of the registration form, integration for automatic release of access within our platforms and communication strategies and monitoring of donated courses.

From these processes, Rock ’n’ Grow became our main education program for the external community, which offers online training with 100% scholarships in paid and/or exclusive courses at Rock University. The project is aimed at people from socially underrepresented and economically vulnerable groups who have a monthly family income of up to 4,000 BRL.

To increase opportunities for decent work and economic growth, we join efforts to promote quality education in a more democratic way through our courses and professionals.

The initiative is aimed at developing relevant and valued skills in the market, focusing on four main areas: digital marketing, social media, sales and customer success. In addition to developing techniques to be used in professional life, the courses offer certificates to be used in the curriculum, LinkedIn and in other strategic ways by the student.

The program (as well as all of Rock Content’s Social Impact initiatives) is linked to four UN Sustainable Development Goals: quality education, reducing inequalities, gender equality, decent work and economic growth.

The Rock ‘n’ Grow program was innovative in transforming a one-off action initiated during the pandemic into a scalable, long-term impact program. In addition, we understand that we can be much more efficient in the impact we generate, by connecting our impact objective with the business objective. So we decided to pair one of our products (Rock University) with an opportunity to improve the state of the world.

Rock is one of the only Brazilian companies that is formally part of the network of global companies that are part of the Pledge 1% movement, which encourages companies to donate 1% of product, time, equity or profit for social impact. 1% volunteer work hours, 1% equity and product with Rock University.

Another point of innovation is in the content of the courses, which address skills that are increasingly needed by the job market. For example, social media and digital marketing.

As Rock Content is a leading company in this segment, we offer high-value, credible and up-to-date content on the topics. Thus, we support people who, for social and financial reasons, do not have access to this type of professional training.

As we see as the program progresses, the courses are useful for people in any professional field and career; whether for the formal market, acting as a freelancer, small entrepreneurs, among others.

The Rock ‘n’ Grow program continues in 2022. Now, with new exclusive courses focused on Social Media and SEO being released to people from socially underrepresented and economically vulnerable groups, who have a monthly family income of up to 4 thousand reais.

In 2021, our results were:

• 77,288 paid courses donated


• 19,322 students with scholarships at Rock University


• 13,462 certificates issued to these students


• 73% of respondents to our survey indicated that there has been a change in their living conditions.

The initiative generates a large-scale and long-term impact, since knowledge is a resource that is not lost and can be used on several fronts: from volunteer work to professional life and managing their own businesses.

In addition, we understand that the impact generated by the initiative can transform the lives of the beneficiaries.

In 2021, two people from socially underrepresented groups were hired at Rock Content after they participated in the Rock ‘n’ Grow program. There are also several other testimonials from program participants who won internships, promotions or even increased the number of sales of the enterprise itself.

Leadership support in this initiative is mainly given through example and commitment to donate 1% of our product, equity and working time to Impacto Social; as well as monitoring, analyzing and revising the strategies and results of this and other actions on a regular basis, always encouraging the search for an even greater and more lasting social impact.

The Rock ‘n’ Grow practice was developed to positively impact socially underrepresented and economically vulnerable groups with a family income of up to 4,000 reais a month. In this sense, the social and financial aspects are our first point of intersectionality.

In addition, we carried out special actions and partnerships that helped us to bring this education program to more people from intersectional groups.

On commemorative and struggle dates — for example, Women’s Day, LGBTQIAP+ Pride Month, Black Consciousness Month, and others, we release courses for any people participating in the underrepresented group related to the date, without the income requirement . In our data, we were able to perceive that such actions and partnerships provided adhesion of people who are part of two or more socially underrepresented groups.

The practice was developed by the leader of the Social Impact, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team, Gabriela Crego (cis woman); Luana Dias (as a cis woman, with a disability and part of the LGBTQIAP+ community); and had the support of other collaborators, mostly women, and the vice president of the People area (a black cis woman).

In addition, during implementation, we spoke with partners from underrepresented groups, such as the LGBTQIAP+ community, people with disabilities and others, to hear their perception and feedback regarding creating value and promoting inclusion for people from these groups through our education program.

The practice was developed by the Social Impact, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team, together with collaborators from the Rock University, Marketing and Business Enablement teams. In addition, Rock Content’s Social Impact Multipliers group, formed at the time by employees from Customer Success and Product & Engineering, also participated in the development and implementation of the initiative.

Read more in their Social Impact Report.

 ADAPTOVATE

We are global management consulting company that provides services to global organizations in improving their ways of working by adopting new methodologies and growth mindsets.

http://www.adaptovate.com or https://www.adaptovate.com/pledge-1-percent/ 

ADAPTOVATE continue to support PLEDGE 1% in giving back to the community in all our regions.

 

Atrium

Atrium is a next-generation consulting services company that helps organizations across diverse industries deliver on the promise of analytics and AI. As the market leader in data-driven CRM and analytics solutions, we help organizations make smarter decisions.

https://atrium.ai/

Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), commonly referred to as Habitat for Humanity, is a nonprofit organization that helps families build and improve their homes with a focus on affordable housing to strengthen and stabilize communities around the world. With affiliates in all 50 states and 70 countries, HFHI has helped over 39 million people access safe, attainable housing.

While most interactions with the organization’s more than 1,000 affiliates occur in Salesforce, a combination of tools didn’t provide their team an all-encompassing overview that was automatically updated and easily accessible. HFHI needed to be able to monitor affiliate health in each location and overall, particularly to identify and monitor affiliates that may require more support and ideally grow to predict potential issues before they arise.

As part of Cultivate, Atrium’s social good program exclusively dedicated to donating time and expertise to nonprofit customers and charitable organizations, the Atrium team worked with HFHI to define their use cases, build out a project plan, and ultimately make better use of their existing Salesforce investment.

Within CRM Analytics, HFHI’s Salesforce-based analytics solution, the Atrium team combined HFHI’s different datasets and capabilities and provided employees and management an accurate, consolidated view into affiliate health. The organization can now see which affiliates are doing well and which may need more resources or structural help. Having a single source of truth enables HFHI to break down data and communication silos internally and deepen their use of analytics to better support their affiliates. HFHI has more accurate, comprehensive insight into patterns of affiliate health, allowing them to be more efficient in managing relationships with their affiliates and make more informed decisions.

Six Feet Up

Six Feet Up makes the world a better place by accelerating tech leaders’ impact. As a Python and cloud expert consulting company, we help clients make informed decisions, access accurate data faster, and scale up operations. Our engineers specialize in application development, AI, big data and cloud technology.

https://sixfeetup.com/ 

By: Darcy Lee, VP of Strategic Growth & Partnerships at Six Feet Up 

Six Feet Up CTO Calvin Hendryx-Parker speaks at DjangoCon US 2022.

At Six Feet Up, giving back has always been a core part of our IMPACTFUL mission, and when we learned about Pledge 1%, we were immediately compelled to take the pledge. In addition to donating our resources, time and expertise, we also pledge to collaborate with like-minded companies and non-profits to build a better world.

Since its founding in 1999, Six Feet Up has been a key player in the tech and open source communities. Most recently, at DjangoCon US 2022, we collaborated with tech companies across the globe. We charged all conference attendees to think about how they can use technology to make the world a better place, and we asked each attendee: “What IMPACT will you have?” 

In addition to using Six Feet Up’s booth, banners and swag to empower others to make an impact, our CTO and AWS Hero, Calvin Hendryx-Parker, kicked off the conference with a talk about the IMPACT of Django on our world. Technologists have a unique opportunity to find solutions for complex challenges. It’s amazing to see how Django is used every day to bring impressive, purposeful and transformative projects to life. For example: 

• REVSYS had a hand in building Politifact.com, a Django-based website that fact checks politicians to help present real, unbiased facts. Fake news is everywhere these days, but PolitiFact is doing its part. It even won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for its coverage of the 2008 election.


• Octopus Energy is using Django to supply clean energy to millions of customers worldwide. 


• Caktus worked with the United Nations to develop the world’s first SMS voter registration system for Libyan elections. 


• Torchbox is helping protect our oceans with a donations platform for the Marine Conservation Society powered by Wagtail. 


• Lincoln Loop uses Django to support Energy Solutions, a company that provides cost-effective, market-based carbon, energy, and water management solutions.


• Six Feet Up used Django to: 




• power an app that predicts when and where lightning will strike in just seconds. 


• map forest fire trajectory to help emergency response agencies more efficiently and effectively contain a blaze. 


• to streamline battery energy storage operations to help mitigate the economic and environmental impacts of climate change. 

At the end of his talk, Calvin asked everyone to stop by the Six Feet Up booth to complete an IMPACTFUL survey. We asked attendees what issues were most important to them, which organizations they thought were most IMPACTFUL and what they were doing on a personal level to make a difference in the world. At the end of the conference, I gave a lightning talk to share the results. 

Darcy Lee, VP of Strategic Growth & Partnerships for Six Feet Up, gives a Lightning Talk at DjangoCon US 2022.

Climate change, inequality, education, energy, and water were among the top responses from attendees. And as the most mentioned organization in the survey, the Django Software Foundation received a $200 donation from us to continue its work promoting the Django web framework and the good it can do in the world. 

This word cloud shows the issues that survey respondents felt the most strongly about.

This word cloud shows organizations that survey respondents feel impact the world in a positive way.

We know that to make a positive impact on the Earth, we must work together and do our part to address global challenges. Joining Pledge 1% gives us a way to formalize the impactful work we have done over the years. For example: 

We Assist 

Six Feet Up is committed to completing 10 IMPACTFUL projects — defined as projects that are impressive, purposeful and transformative — by 2025. By working with like-minded companies on projects that impact the world, and by listening to the greater tech community to determine the direction of such work, we aim to inspire others in the global tech community to pursue projects that can have a positive impact. So far, we’ve had the privilege to work on five IMPACTFUL Projects. You can read about these projects and our goal here.

We Empower 

Six Feet Up empowers people across the globe via loans granted through Kiva. To date, the Sixie team has given $23,700 and granted 889 loans to people in need. 

We Serve 

Six Feet Up serves others by donating our time and expertise to multiple nonprofits. For example, members of the leadership team — myself included — are on the Women & Hi Tech board of directors, the Plone Foundation board, and the Django Foundation board. 

We are proud to be doing transformative work, but this is only the beginning. By continuing to complete these projects and further inspire and engage the broader tech community, we aim to create a tidal wave of innovation from the ground up that can benefit the world.

Passage Technology

Passage Technology is a trusted provider of native Salesforce apps and development services. Since 2008, Passage Technology (passagetech.com) has empowered 30,000+ customers with administration and project management tools, and custom developed solutions.

https://www.passagetechnology.com 

Sometimes making a difference makes all the difference, and Passage Technology is striving to make an impact for our communities. This year, we expanded our Pledge 1% commitment to encompass volunteering in our local communities, as well as making cards for kids who will be hospitalized.

Making Cards for Hospitalized Kids

There have been high numbers of children hospitalized with RSV throughout the U.S. recently. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that RSV leads to 58,000-80,000 hospitalizations for children under five years old every year. 

To provide encouragement to them and all hospitalized kids, our team will be making Cards for Hospitalized Kids, as part of our month-long Giving Tuesday effort. This Chicago-based organization works to spread joy to more than 14,000 kids in 150 hospitals and Ronald McDonald Houses in the U.S. with handmade cards.

Providing Access to Healthy Food for Children and Families

In the U.S. 13 million children are food insecure, and food insecure people are 2.9 times more likely to experience poor health. To help fight childhood hunger, we participated in making 2,000 sack lunches at Kids’ Food Basket in Grand Rapids, MI. The organization distributes sack lunches to schools for kids to take home.

“It was a very rewarding experience knowing that we were helping provide food for kids who wouldn’t otherwise have a meal,” said a content marketing manager at Passage Technology.

Helping to Build and Improve Housing for Families

Rising interest rates and the housing shortage have made it more challenging for many families to afford housing. “Nationally, there is a shortage of more than 7 million affordable homes for our nation’s 11 million-plus extremely low-income families,” explains the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Our Giving Tuesday volunteer efforts include Passage Technology staff helping out at Habitat for Humanity in Marshall County, Indiana. Habitat for Humanity is a global nonprofit housing organization whose vision is a world where everyone has a decent place to live.  

Volunteering and participating in events like Giving Tuesday is not only a way to help others, it also offers health benefits. “Volunteering can have a significant impact on a person’s health and well-being. It can reduce stress levels, improve mood, help people stay active and give them a sense of purpose. In fact, 94% of people who volunteer say that volunteering improves their mood,” explains Forbes.

Co-Founder Brent Gossett, said, “On Giving Tuesday and all year long, Passage Technology is proud to support Pledge 1% and make an impact in our communities.”

ShoppingGives

ShoppingGives is the all-in-one social impact solution for eCommerce, omnichannel retailers, and direct-to-consumer brands to help them enable purchases with impact while doing well for their business. Through native integrations and customizable giving solutions, ShoppingGives helps brands of all sizes create more engaging and authentic customer experiences while boosting business metrics like average order value, conversion rate, customer loyalty, and lifetime value.

https://shoppinggives.com/ 

The hustle and bustle of the holiday season is synonymous with consumer spending and retail promotions, but there’s also an increased desire for charitable giving. It is the season of giving, afterall!

ShoppingGives works hand-in-hand with retailers and merchants to drive charitable donations to nonprofit organizations by creating donations on purchases made from their customers. This means that as consumers are doing their holiday shopping and gift buying, ShoppingGives’ brand partners are committed to donating a portion of every purchase made towards charitable organizations.

While the need for social good is ever-growing, ShoppingGives and their merchant partners are focused on creating an even larger impact for nonprofits this holiday season to help them meet fundraising goals and continue working in their missions.

For the holiday season, ShoppingGives is working with Feeding America, Equality Now, Born This Way Foundation, and Amazon Conservation Alliance to create the Powered by Purpose Coalition. This coalition is bringing purposeful brands together to raise awareness and funds for nonprofit causes like Climate Action, Women’s Rights, COVID Relief, and Mental Health.

The holiday season is one of the most important opportunities to raise funds and support the causes we care about, and the Powered by Purpose Coalition is committed to helping spread joy over the holiday season by offering hope and support to those who need it most.

Unity Technologies

We are the world’s leading platform for creating and operating interactive, real-time 3D (RT3D) content. We empower creators. Across industries and around the world.

https://unity.com/our-company 

On November 29, Unity will participate in GivingTuesday. Since its creation in 2012, the day has been used to demonstrate radical generosity through volunteering, random acts of kindness, and donations. This global movement for altruism is the perfect opportunity to come together and support our favorite causes to enable them to continue to do their important work.

This year, we are highlighting organizations that Unity employees have supported (outside of Ukraine relief giving donations) throughout the year. Unity will match up to $1000 USD per year for full-time employees in personal donations made to match-eligible causes. Match eligibility is granted to nonprofits or charities who have missions that align with some key areas of focus: Education & Inclusive Economic Opportunity, Environmental Sustainability, and Health & Wellbeing. Below you will find nonprofits that we are highlighting for GivingTuesday and a little about their missions. 

Education & Economic Opportunity

• Urban Arts Partnership (New York, United States)


• Wikimedia Foundation (DC, United States)


• Teach for Japan (Tokyo, Japan)


• Lietuvos Junior Achievement (Vilniaus Apskritis, Lithuania)


• Enseña por Colombia (Bogotá, Colombia)

Environmental Sustainability

• World Wildlife Fund (Washington DC, United States)


• Asociacion Viajes Tumaini (Madrid, Spain)


• The Climate Change Organisation (England, United Kingdom)


• Green Korea United (Seoul, South Korea)


• David Suzuki Foundation (British Columbia, Canada)

Health & Wellbeing

• MIND- The National Association For Mental Health (England, United Kingdom)


• Floating Doctors Inc (California, United States)


• Singapore Association for Mental Health (Singapore)


• 
  

  Psykiatrifonden (Hovedstaden, Denmark)

  
  


• Make-A-Wish Foundation Canada (Ontario, Canada) 

In honor of GivingTuesday, our employees have the opportunity to donate to causes through our GivingTuesday Campaign in addition to a more comprehensive list of match eligible organizations.

Pledge

Pledge is the world’s most trusted and innovative fundraising platform. Integrated with an incredible network of 2+ million verified nonprofits, we empower individuals, charitable organizations, and brands to create innovative campaigns that drive donations towards positive impact.

www.pledge.to

Did you know that every time a donation is made, 3% of that money goes towards credit card processing fees? And while that may not seem like much initially, if we took every dollar raised last year, that would result in over $10 billion dollars – talk about a huge potential for impact! If we put those dollars instead towards nonprofits, we could:

-Plant 10 billion trees
-Build 400 elementary schools
-Rescue 33 million shelter dogs
-Feed 1.1 billion for a month

Which is exactly why Pledge decided to #FreeTheFee by covering all credit card fees for donations made under $1,000 through our platform. We did this not only because we believe it’s the RIGHT thing to do, but also provides an immense opportunity for nonprofits to do more of what they do best – and that’s making a difference!

Whether you are a nonprofit, brand, or individual looking to inspire a change this holiday season, we invite you to join Pledge on our movement to #FreeTheFee, ensuring 100% of all donations go directly to the organizations that need them most.

To get started, visit pledge.to/free-the-fee today!