From October 4-8, 2021, Nextep hosted its semi-annual volunteer event, Nextep Gives Back Week. This year looked slightly different from last year’s Nextep Gives Back Days with a week’s worth of in-person, virtual, and donation-based volunteer opportunities. Nexteppers created donation kits for their favorite nonprofits, packed meals for Meals on Wheels, cleaned and painted apartments for Bridges, and more!

“Since the pandemic, our people have been looking for creative ways to give back and serve the community,” said Brian Fayak, Nextep founder and CEO. “Our people have been anxiously awaiting the day they could get back to seeing some of our favorite nonprofit partners in person. So this year, we rallied together for a whole week to serve our community with donations and in-person volunteering!”

The past two years have changed the way we volunteer, and it’s been difficult to help in person. Even when we couldn’t serve nonprofits with our time, we made sure to support them through drives and donations — we gave $30,000 to The Virtue Center, $10,000 to Grand Gentlemen, and sponsored a child through Make-A-Wish, to name a few.

Earlier this year, we offered a fully Virtual Volunteer Week with opportunities that could be done individually, with families, or in small groups at the office. We focused on picking up trash in our local parks, packing donation kits, and practicing random acts of kindness throughout our community.

While Virtual Volunteer Week was a huge success, we knew we wanted to do more with our fall Nextep Gives Back Week. Nonprofits started opening their doors, and our people became more comfortable, which allowed us to host a hybrid volunteer week where there was something for everyone’s comfort level and interests. We took feedback from our spring event to make our Fall Nextep Gives Back Week even better!

We had small group volunteer opportunities available every day of the week, a blood drive, and a corporate-wide donation drive running to give everyone a chance to give back. Some of the nonprofits we partnered with during Nextep Gives Back week:

• Bridges


• Loveworks


• Meals on Wheels


• Dress for Success


• The Center for Employment Opportunities


• The Education and Employment Ministry


• Center for Children and Families, Inc.


• Oklahoma Blood Institute

In total, Nextep donated 263 hours for 14 organizations! For more information about the Nextep Charitable Foundation, visit nextep.com/about/foundation.

AvidXchange recently joined Pledge 1% as part of its transition to become a public company listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. Pledge 1% is a global movement that encourages and empowers companies of all sizes and stages to donate 1% of their staff time, product, profit, or equity, or any combination of the four, to philanthropic endeavors of their choosing.

AvidXchange will join the more than 15,000 companies in 100 countries around the world that have used Pledge 1%’s framework to ignite over a billion dollars in new philanthropy this year alone.

“Joining Pledge 1% was a no-brainer for us when we were exploring ways to make a bigger impact outside our office walls following today’s milestone,” said Michael Praeger, CEO and Co-Founder of AvidXchange. “Corporate giving is a part of AvidXchange’s DNA and we look forward to leveraging this new commitment as an opportunity to give back to the communities where we work and live.”

“We are thrilled that AvidXchange has joined the Pledge 1% movement and that their commitment has already had such an immediate and meaningful impact,” said Amy Lesnick, Chief Executive of Pledge 1% “As an industry leader, AvidXchange is paving the way toward a future where social impact is part of every company’s culture, values, and business model.”

AvidXchange began its focus on giving-based initiatives in 2005 when the AvidXchange Foundation was founded in response to helping elementary school children impacted by Hurricane Katrina. The Foundation has continued to grow, taking on the mission of positively impacting the lives of youth in the communities where AvidXchange employees live and work.

To learn more about the AvidXchange Foundation, click here.

And to learn more about Pledge 1%, click here.

Khoros offers an award-winning, AI-powered platform for digital customer engagement that helps brands harness the power of human connection across every digital interaction to keep them all-ways connected. We believe in our responsibility to do more and do better—not only for our customers, but for our employees and communities, too. 

In July 2020, Khoros pledged a 2% Commitment to focus on deepening and expanding its support of underrepresented groups. To uphold this commitment, Khoros established a steering committee that has since developed and mobilized an action plan to scale pilot activities for community outreach, as well as identify near- and long-term initiatives involving the entire company. 

Using Khoros Technology for Good

One of Khoros’ most significant initiatives implemented in the past year is the Khoros Social Responsibility (KSR) Program. The program provides qualifying nonprofit and social good organizations with free and/or discounted access to Khoros software and services so they can do their best work for the communities they serve. The program focuses on organizations owned by or in direct service to underrepresented groups who would not otherwise have the capacity to invest in our offerings. To date, Khoros is proud to partner with nine organizations through the KSR Program, including Black Women’s Health Imperative, Harlem United, Austin Pets Alive!, Nomi Network, Pledge 1%, Révolutionnaire, JUST, breastcancer.org, and SAFE. 

Mobilizing Volunteerism & Corporate Donations

Khoros offers 24 hours paid volunteer time off (VTO) to encourage employees to give back to their local communities. Khoros makes regular charitable donations to organizations that are aligned with our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and cultural moments that matter most to our employees. Organizations include OnePulse Foundation, OutYouth, Therapy for Black Girls, Black Women’s Health Imperative, among others.

Emphasizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Internal diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts include hiring Khoros’ first Director of DE&I, Angie Buster, and launching four ERGs to support the company’s employees and allies of the Black, Latinx and Hispanic, LGBTQ+, and women-identifying communities. More than half of the company’s executive leadership team identifies as female and a third are members of underrepresented minority groups. 

Participating in the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative 

As part of the Vista Equity Partners (Vista) portfolio, Khoros is also participating in the private equity firm’s Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative. The initiative is focused on reducing half of its emissions by 2030 and emitting net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 across its portfolio of enterprise tech companies.

As an online work marketplace that connects freelancers to employers around the world, Upwork has a unique perspective on how to manages remote workers. But how did the company manage its own internal team of 550+ as they shifted full-time to remote work? See the strategies that Upwork adopted in early April 2020, the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, to rapidly shift to a fully remote workforce. 

The construction industry is overwhelmingly white and male, with the number of employed people of color and women hovering at around 10 percent over the last 25 years. Procore.org, Procore’s social impact arm, is working to expand the definition of what construction looks like by supporting organizations that challenge bias and expand the labor pool. 

What makes Procore.org unique is that it has one sole focus: the construction industry. The team donates product and implementation services to university professors who are preparing the next generation of construction professionals, union training centers tasked with the job of increasing digital literacy in the field, nonprofits rebuilding our communities in the wake of disaster, and other stakeholders the construction industry reaches globally.

In 2020 and 2021, Procore.org began partnering with two of the largest minority contractor associations in the US, the United States Minority Contractors Association (USMCA) and the National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMC). These associations support their members with additional access to opportunity, including technical and educational resources. 

Since last year, Procore employees have provided free product training to over 100 members, as well as a discounted buying program to better partner with minority contractors to support and amplify the impactful work they’re already doing.

Procore.org sponsors and speaks at USMCA’s Annual Tech Day on August 5th, 2021. Left to Right: Alexa Enriquez (Procore.org), Kevin Molloy (Procore.org), Rev. Larry S. Bullock (USMCA), Paul Doherty (Digit Group)

Additionally, Procore accepted a challenge from the Association of General Contractors (AGC), a group that represents thousands of construction workers and contracting firms in the US, to launch a new matching scholarship fund through AGC’s Education and Research Foundation.  These scholarships will go directly towards students studying construction fields at historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs. 

The ultimate outcome of the scholarships is to increase the representation of Black professionals in the construction industry and put a more diverse generation of students on track to become tomorrow’s construction leaders and innovators.

USMCA recently named Procore their 2021 Philanthropist of the Year for providing members with free product training, educational resources, and the discounted buying program on the Procore platform. “Procore’s mission and stance on diversity, equity and inclusion mirrors USMCA’s mission and purpose. We honor the progressive stance Procore has taken in the Black and brown community,” said Rev. Larry S. Bullock, President and CEO of USMCA.

Procore, a leading provider of construction management software, formalized Procore.org in 2017. Procore.org’s mission is to advance the construction industry through advocacy, education, and technology, as an extension of Procore’s vision to improve the lives of everyone in construction.

Procore formalized its dedication to social impact by joining the Pledge 1% movement in 2019. We’re honored to have been recognized with the Forbes Cloud 100 Pledge 1% Award later that year. 

Now more than ever, people in the US and around the world are searching for ways to easily make a difference in their daily lives through everyday actions. At Pledge, we proudly partner with platforms, nonprofits and individuals to do just that – meet people where they’re at and power generosity. The launch of our newest partnership with personalized messaging video platform Cameo demonstrates the power of today’s creative approaches to philanthropy, and will enable talent and their fans to support causes around the world in new & innovative ways. 

In a recent talent survey by Cameo, 81% said they intend to donate a portion of their earnings to nonprofits. Now through Pledge, talent and creators will be able to seamlessly donate to a variety of causes they care about through Pledge’s database of over 2 million verified nonprofits and charitable organizations around the world. The new Pledge donation integration will live natively in the talent’s Cameo dashboard, allowing them to turn their earnings into impact, while with Pledge managing the backend donation processing and disbursements to the nonprofit organizations. 

While this new feature enables talent to fundraise for their favorite causes, it also provides an entirely new opportunity for nonprofits to partner with influencers to create new donation streams for their organizations, too. The potential for impact through Cameo is limitless and we can’t wait to see how talent and nonprofits alike use this new feature to make a difference in the world.

In the global context of giving, Pledge’s new partnership with Cameo also  aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), established as “a blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and in the future,” which Pledge has actively supported since its formation in 2015. This specifically connects to Goal 17, to develop and strengthen global partnerships for sustainable development. Through partnerships like Cameo along with the other purpose-driven platforms Pledge partners with, such as Zoom and Shopify, our hope is to further encourage new, innovative ways of charitable giving through technology to make it simple, engaging and effective for anyone, anywhere to support causes they care about.

“We’re happy to invest in a more substantial, longer-term platform to enable charitable giving year ‘round, and we’re excited that our partnership with Pledge will give us even more insight into how folks give back on Cameo.” says Cameo CEO Steven Galanis. 

The new Cameo fundraising feature powered by Pledge is launching on Giving Tuesday, so stay tuned!. For updates, follow Cameo and Pledge on social media and read Cameo’s recent blog post for all the details on this new partnership, which was also featured in AdWeek.

We are pleased to continue the tradition of #GivingTuesday. As part of our Pledge 1% commitment, MTX Group and The Nobel Foundation support underserved communities by improving access to quality educational opportunities. Additionally, MTX focuses community-building toward equitable opportunities for job seekers, people in poverty, military and veterans, people experiencing homelessness, those battling cancer and others.

We’ve been fortunate to help non-profits worldwide, such as Centro Educativo K’iin Beh, Desire Society, Room to Read and Warriors on Wheels. MTX also supports schools located in the Fiji Islands and Jaipur, India. Most recently, MTX collaborated with Gyandeep Public School in India to provide a holistic digital transformation, creating a computer lab to help give students a robust educational background. Eventually, this resource will offer invaluable access to skills-building for students’ futures.

MTX focuses on community building, equality and equitable distribution of opportunities through its partnerships. Our collaboration with Blaze Your Trail creates employment opportunities for people of diverse backgrounds to support migrant job seekers’ assimilation into the workforce. As Blaze Your Trail’s first Talent Partner, MTX contributes training and expertise while providing employment opportunities for graduates globally. MTX partnered with Connecting Everyone with Second Chances(CESC), a nonprofit bringing people out of poverty, to develop a solution easing the social service case management for social workers. In support of our veteran community, MTX maintains several training and inclusion initiatives.

Through our partnership with NPower, one of America’s leading nonprofits for equity in tech, veterans and spouses receive paid internships and full-time apprenticeships in the DFW area. MTX also works with The Unquiet Professional, an organization dedicated to honoring our nation’s Gold Star and surviving families by providing pro-bono consulting and technology services.

As part of our Pledge 1% commitment, MTX gives back to our local community. For example, MTX recently began work with The Samaritan Inn, anon-profit holistic homeless program in McKinney, Texas, that helps people gain independence. In addition, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, MTX sponsored Hope Kits for those fighting breast cancer. MTX family members put together self-care packages, including a hand-written note to each recipient, offering messages of hope and support. 

MTX continues to create awareness, share inspiring stories and support those fighting cancer with our newly-announced Cancer Care program. MTX will fully cover medical expenses and one year of paid leave for family members fighting cancer. This follows on the heels of MTX’s industry-leading one year paid parental leave, a crucial part of our comprehensive effort to bridge the gender gap in the corporate world.

At MTX, social responsibility is at the core of our values and culture. The MTX family believes that change must start with us first. We look forward to continuing to meaningfully contribute our time, pro bono services and revenue towards building an equitable and sustainable society for years to come.