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.
Foundry Group, Silicon Valley Bank, Techstars, and Pledge 1% Colorado hosted our 3rd annual Tech Gives Back volunteer event in October this year. This event is part of an international effort led by SVB in their 9th year, 3,000 professionals from over 200 companies in 11 U.S. states, Canada, the United Kingdom, China and Israel will volunteer thousands of hours in one of the tech industry’s largest community service events of the year.
While many of our organizations give back via philanthropic dollars, donations, and long term community support – we still think it’s important to get together, roll up our sleeves and donate time. As our startup community continues to grow here in Colorado, our local Tech Gives Back day is an excellent opportunity for us all to take a moment to recognize and support the community that surrounds the burgeoning tech community. It’s a great way for us as service providers to share our passion for giving with our partner companies and portfolio companies.
This year we had two volunteer locations in Denver; one at Raft making hands-on education kits for kids out of recycled materials, and another at Heart and Hand Center cleaning up a building of theirs to become a new multi-use space for programming and events.
Our call to action to all types of companies is to think about how you are giving back to your community and encourage others to join you. Pledge 1% is a great way to channel your philanthropic initiatives – be it equity, product, profit, time, or a mix.
Originally posted: December 3rd, 2019
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.
Just a few weeks before celebrating their first birthday as an organization, Morrison Outdoors is joining the Pledge 1%movement and donating 1% of all revenue from 2019 to Operation Warm, a registered non-profit providing new winter coats for children in need.
“We’re thrilled to be joining Pledge 1% and donating to Operation Warm during their #GivingTuesday campaign,” says Morrison Outdoors Founder Tavis Malcolm.
“With this donation, we’re giving back a piece of every dollar we’ve ever received, going back to the Kickstarter campaign that launched us,” he says. “We’ve had such fortunate early growth as a company and it’s important to me that helping our community is something that’s built into our business plans from the beginning.”
By joining Pledge 1%, Morrison Outdoors is committed to donating 1% of profit, product, or employee time (or combination of those) to charity. In the future, they plan to adopt this strategy formally into their company bylaws and apply for B Corp certification.
For now, though, they are focused on giving to Operation Warm at the onset of the winter season.
“Operation Warm is a natural partner for us,” explains Malcolm. “Camping is a luxury that we’re fortunate to have, and we want kids to have the same warmth and comfort on a daily basis that we try to create with our sleeping bags.”
Operation Warm is a national nonprofit that creates brand new, high-quality coats for children in need. Every child, regardless of their economic situation, deserves a brand new coat. Operation Warm partners with compassionate individuals and organizations across North America to give a gift of warmth, confidence and hope to millions of children in need. Operation Warm believes a brand new coat is more than a coat, promoting self-esteem, school attendance and outdoor play.
About Morrison Outdoors
Morrison Outdoors was founded in December 2018 with the mission to make getting outdoors with kids easier for parents. Their line of Little Mo Baby Sleeping Bags raised over $16k on Kickstarter in February 2019, and are now in stores in over 60 REI locations nationwide.
Originally posted: December 3rd, 2019
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.
Iris Foundation, on behalf of Addteq, is proud and excited to spend another #GivingTuesday with Pledge 1% and Room to Read! Back in 2015, Addteq joined Pledge 1%‘s initiative to Pledge 1% of our product’s profit to sponsor a university scholarship for underprivileged students.
Here at Addteq, we are strong believers in giving back to the community. We launched our own philanthropy effort, the Iris Foundation, shortly after joining Pledge 1%. The purpose of the Iris Foundation is to help provide scholarships to students who are smart enough to become engineers but not privileged enough to pay for school fees. We believe every child deserves to become what they want to be. Read more about the scholarship initiative below!
About Pledge 1%
Pledge 1% is a global movement to create a new normal where giving back is integrated into the DNA of companies of all sizes and stages.
After 3 consecutive years of 150% growth, the Pledge 1% community now consists of over 5000 members in over 100 countries. Together, members have already ignited over 500 million dollars of new philanthropy, and we are just getting started. At the heart of Pledge 1% is their member community. This includes contributing to content development, providing input on strategic direction, increasing awareness (“permission” for other companies to participate), and engaging in the type of peer-to-peer interactions that will enhance and encourage corporate philanthropy.
Join Pledge 1% Builder’s Network with Addteq
Addteq joined the Pledge 1% builder’s network in November 2018. Pledge 1% Builders, is a group of companies that are investing in the future of Pledge 1%.
We are excited to be part of the core funders and builders who are not only making a direct impact with their own social impact programs but also committed to building the Pledge 1% movement and propelling thousands of other companies to accelerate social impact globally. Builders are the future of the Pledge 1% movement. Builders serve as thought leaders, advisors, and supporters to the initiative. They enable Pledge1% to educate and empower the community and drive impact at scale. Read more.
Addteq’s Pledge in Practice
Addteq’s Pledge 1% initiative is to donate 1% of our product’s (Excellentable & Unstoppable) revenue to sponsor underprivileged students. A few of our employees at Addteq even donate 1% of their paycheck to the Iris Foundation and Room to Read to help fund community initiatives.
Some of our other recent activities include:
• We are with Women
• Spotlight on #BeBoldForChange Campaign at Addteq
• Giving Back to Community: Addteq’s Story
• Small first steps turn into a search for Einsteins
• A Transformational time for women around the world
• World Read Aloud Day from an Enterprise DevOps Engineer
• Fundraiser with book author Oanh Ngo and Room to Read’s New Jersey Chapter to celebrate International Day of Women.
And, we continue to expand the Pledge 1% program within our company culture. “During new employee orientation, we host a welcome breakfast new team members. During the welcome breakfast, I host an impact activity: (thank you to Amy Lesnick, CEO of Pledge 1%, for giving me this idea), we have a canvas in the office and during breakfast, the new employees receive information about Pledge 1% and Room to Read and other giving back programs/initiatives.” – Amanda Deol, Partner at Addteq
Addteq’s 2019 Scholarship Beneficiary
Addteq wanted to offer the opportunity to continue education with a tuition reimbursement program and flexible work schedules. Two of the three recipients of the Iris Foundation Scholarship were women.
We are also proud to announce our 2019 recipient, Nair Vaishakh Vijaykumar! He is a third-year, Electronics and Telecommunication student that has been paying his own fees for the last three years. He comes from a single mother home in India with very little means.
Originally posted: December 3rd, 2019
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 committed member of the Pledge 1% movement, bitvoodoo was on the road again in 2019 – this year, we went to the ‘Moos Buur’ farm in the Zürcher Oberland highland region.
One sunny morning at the beginning of October, we head up to the ‘Moos-Buur’ farm in Gibswil in the canton of Zürich. Karin and Martin Jöhl welcome us to their farm, which is located 850 metres above sea level in Mountain Zone 1. Our working day begins among cows, cattle, calves, chickens, cats and a dog. We spend the entire day out in the fresh air surrounded by pastures, meadows and forests, and we really get to work.
Good equipment is everything
Well-equipped with work gloves, sturdy shoes and tools, a short walk takes us across the pasture to the edge of the forest. Wood has been gathered from an area of 40 square metres over the summer months. This area must now be cleared. Together, we clear the wood away in a morning, saving Martin considerable time and effort that he can then invest elsewhere.
The lunch we have afterwards, with meat from the farm, tastes especially good after our morning of hard work out in the fresh air.
In the afternoon we weed a pasture and collect stones from an area that is to be used for growing vegetables. With the help of others, Martin has already collected a total of 38 tractor buckets full of stones – we bring that number up to 40.
Fresh eggs and juicy pears from the farm
Together, we buckle down and support the family of farmers for the day with their work. Thankfully there are fresh eggs from the farm’s chickens and juicy homegrown pears to eat in the evening. Thanks to Martin and Karin for the wonderful day we spent with them!
Karin and Martin live in Gibswil with their three children and have been running the farm for five years. Free-range eggs can be ordered for regular delivery with no delivery charge, or can be picked up from the farm directly by car. More information about the ‘Moos’ can be found at www.moosbuur.ch
Organised by Bergversetzer
bitvoodoo has been a member of the Pledge 1% movement since 2016, and each year we dedicate 1% of our working time to social causes that benefit the community.
The organisation Bergversetzer arranged the placement in Gibswil for us. Bergversetzer organises social programmes in the mountain region.
Originally posted: December 3rd, 2019
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.
Several years ago Isos Technology took the Pledge 1% along with Atlassian, pledging to divert 1% of equity, 1% of product, 1% of profit, and 1% of employee time to charitable causes. Every year we gather together and discuss causes that are near and dear to our hearts. Over the years, it became apparent that we all had a soft spot for children. Many of our initiatives involved helping children in some way. For example, this fall we raised over $1,000 and donated school supplies to a local school.
Now with the holidays coming, we knew our annual toy drive was a given. Each year we gather toys and books and donate them to a local school.
…but this year was a little different. Ryan Guard, a new member of the Isos sales team shared with us how a toy donation changed his life.
I was ten years old in the Summer of ’88, and like every other ten-year-old in Phoenix, I was going to spend my day at the pool. The pool in our apartment complex didn’t have a diving board, so I decided to ride my bike down to the public pool.
It only cost fifty cents to get in, and I could spend the whole day there. I could get a frozen Three Musketeers bar at the snack bar for another fifty cents, so I grabbed four quarters and a towel and hit the road. I should have grabbed a helmet too…
I was about a football field away from the pool when I went airborne. I don’t remember the Buick hitting me, but I do remember being in the air for a while, and I definitely remember landing. Apparently I pedaled my big head right into an intersection, and some poor guy didn’t have time to hit the brakes before he sent me and my towel flying.
I landed head-first, which certainly explains some things about my life. Well, technically I landed face-first, which is why I don’t remember it very well- I couldn’t see anything!
The ambulance came and they took me to the hospital, where I was eventually checked into a room upstairs. I was going to be there for a while.
When my mom showed up, I remember being so proud of myself when I opened my hand to show her that I hadn’t dropped the four quarters she had given me! We were a poor family, and not even a Buick doing a California Roll through a crosswalk was gonna get my dollar.
I remember being so upset that I was stuck in that room. I looked like a human raspberry, with two black eyes to top it off, and I was strapped to that annoying monitor that never stops beeping… but then everything changed.
A nurse came in and asked me the question that every ten-year-old wants to be asked: “Would you like to play some video games?”
Yes. Yes, I would definitely like to play some video games!
“If you get bored of that, we’ve got a bunch of toys you can play with too. They were donated by some really nice people! You can even keep one or two of them.”
That was thirty years ago, and it wasn’t exactly fun spending time in the hospital, but it could have been a lot worse. Those toys and games helped to make my time there much more enjoyable than it would have been otherwise.
There are a bunch of kids stuck in their rooms at Cardon Children’s Medical Center who could definitely use a distraction. I volunteered there for several months, visiting kids in their rooms, asking them the same question that nurse asked me: “Would you like to play some video games?” Sometimes their shelves were jam-packed with toys and games, but other times the options were pretty limited.
Cardon Children’s Medical Center depends on the generosity of people like you and me to provide toys and games for the kids they’re taking care of. So we’ve created an Amazon Wish List that contains all of the toys and games that are requested by kids most often.
You can purchase items off the Wish List, and they will be delivered directly to us here at Isos Technology. We will personally deliver them to the team at Cardon Children’s Medical Center.
Let’s make sure that every kid at Cardon Children’s has the most enjoyable experience that they can while they’re getting the care that they need. Click HERE to do some shopping!
Originally posted: December 3rd, 2019
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.
The story of a surprising ally in the fight to save lives during California’s most destructive wildfire: drones.
California’s devastating Camp Fire has finally been contained. The fire — California’s deadliest and most destructive on record — scorched more than 150,000 acres over the course of 17 days before firefighters got it under control. And while the work to contain the fire has come to an end, for emergency rescue crews, insurers, and investigators the work is only just beginning.
Before containment, the fire tore through urban areas across Paradise, Chico, Oroville, Magalia and other cities destroying almost 14,000 homes, 528 commercial structures, and close to 4,300 buildings in its path. Most of those initially marked as missing have emerged, hundreds of people still remain unaccounted for almost three weeks later. Our hearts go out to all those affected by these devastating events.
The Camp Fire is already a source for history books, but one record you may not know about is the largest UAV disaster response to date. Drones have increasingly become go-to tools for collecting aerial insights in the wake of the disaster, but the efforts that unfolded after the Camp Fire are unprecedented. Read on to learn how rescue teams used DroneDeploy to map the destruction to aid the recovery process in the days leading up to its containment.
Greg Crutsinger of Scholar Farms gathers drone imagery from the front lines. Photo credit: Casey Tholburn
Drones Come to the Aid of Rescue Workers
Over three days, 16 teams of public safety professionals from an interstate agency task force of police, fire, and rescue personnel worked day and night to complete 500+ drone flights capturing 70,000+ images of the areas surrounding Paradise and Magalia. The result: close to 500GB of drone data which DroneDeploy turned into 26.5 square miles (15,000 acres) of high-res aerial maps is now accessible to state agencies and the public to assist in the recovery efforts. This data will be used to aid search and rescue operations, assist with the planning and response to potential mudslides, issue FEMA relief funds, and help process insurance claims faster so that wildfire victims can get back on their feet.
Coordinating the Largest UAV Task Force in History
Individuals from Menlo Park Fire Department, Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, Butte County Sheriff’s Office and others joined forces with UAV experts at DJI and Scholar Farms to collect the data. The images have since been transformed into maps that are highly accurate, geo-referenced, and overlaid with street names. These maps are critical tools in the recovery process, as neighborhoods are no longer recognizable. Street after street of burned buildings and trees now blend together, making it difficult to discern one block from the next.
Fire teams plan drone flights with DroneDeploy. Credit: Romeo Durscher
Coordinating all 16 drone teams would have been challenging enough with the dense smoke, high winds, and low visibility — but planning hundreds of flights with dozens of pilots meant everyone needed to be on the same page. And teams on the ground turned to DroneDeploy to manage flight planning and data collection.
“We collectively decided to utilize DroneDeploy as the set-up of their flight grids is easy and can be done on a laptop and then shows up on the tablets used for flight.”
— Romeo Durscher, Dir. of Public Safety Integration at DJI
Fire teams plan drone flights with DroneDeploy. Photo courtesy of Romeo Durscher
The next challenge came by way of processing close to 500 GB of data.
“When you have 500GB of data, you have to figure out a solution. Greg Crutsinger (Scholar Farms) came up to me and said ‘We need to get this data on a server to be processed. Any thoughts?’ And yes, I did have a thought and contacted Jono Millin, Co-Founder and CPO of DroneDeploy. He was at dinner when I pretty much threw it at him: ‘We need your help.’
These are things you can do when you establish good relationships — which is something I really enjoy about this emerging drone industry. In general, people and companies are very good at working together because there is not only so much to learn, but there is actually a lot to share. Not one company can do it all. What ended up happening is that hard drives were run to DroneDeploy in San Francisco twice and the DroneDeploy team put a tremendous amount of work into getting the data into a format that was useful.” — Romeo Durscher, Director of Public Safety Integration at DJI
With no internet access in the region, the UAV teams had to transport hard drives of data to San Francisco, while Jono Millin (DroneDeploy’s co-founder) and members of our sales and engineering teams uploaded imagery throughout the night and the following morning. The next day the data was delivered in 75 maps after the engineering team spun up a massive processing cluster in our cloud to manage the influx of data.
In the end, 1.4 trillion pixels of captured drone images would become a 100 billion pixel map.
Click to view the whole map
Putting the Data to Work to Fast-Track Recovery Efforts
The maps are impressive, but we’re more impressed by how the teams on the ground have put them to use. With up-to-date visuals, fire teams are charting the damage, and planning next steps. Winter rains are now on the horizon, and the burnt foliage increases the risk of floods and impending mudslides, posing even more harm throughout the region. So the Butte County Sheriff’s Office is using the imagery to identify areas of concern and plan their response accordingly. The maps are even being used by search and rescue teams to spot any missing persons who may be in the area.
Wildfire victims are also putting the maps to good use. With entire neighborhoods mapped, homeowners have been able to submit the imagery to insurance providers to process claims immediately — a process that traditionally can take days or weeks. Many have used the imagery to gain access to FEMA relief funds for the families affected by the fires.
Providing a Helping Hand When it Matters Most
In times like these, it’s all about lending a helping hand. And we’re proud our team was able to help play a small role in response to the fires. We wish the remaining fire and rescue teams speed and safety in the recovery.
And to all the families, individuals, and businesses in this tragedy that have suffered loss, please know that our hearts are with you. We hope these efforts can help you speed up the rebuilding process.
If you’d like to help the communities suffering from the devastation left in the wake of the Camp Fire, please consider donating to the following nonprofit relief funds:
Where to Learn More
To learn more about the efforts on the ground, please check out the resources below:
- See Butte County’s official website for Camp Fire response and recovery for structure status, evacuation maps, panoramas, and drone imagery.
- Read Romeo Durscher’s (of DJI) write-up about the effort to manage teams on the ground and collect the data. His account provides a complete walkthrough of the operation and the challenges faced on the front lines.
- Read Gregory Crutsinger’s write-up on Scholar Farms’ role on the ground in Paradise, CA, and how its team helped emergency response pros with drone data collection.
The next Reverse Recruiting event—the largest session yet with over 1,000 candidates—will be held on February 12th at the Hiring Success Conference in San Francisco. Satellite events will take place concurrently around the globe. Job seekers and/or recruiters willing to participate can find more information on LinkedIn or Facebook.
Originally posted: December 3rd, 2019
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.
Recruiting is usually defined as the act of attracting and selecting candidates for employment within an organization. Thanks to SmartRecruiters’ Reverse Recruiting initiative, that definition is taking on new dimensions.
On the careers section of their website, the company states the following: “We are on a mission to connect people to jobs at scale.”
However, they realized that in order to truly enact their mission statement at scale, they’d have to come up with a more inclusive strategy. One that could help job seekers who have traditionally been successful, as well as those who have encountered setbacks.
In February of 2019, SmartRecruiters’ CEO Jerome Ternynck introduced Reverse Recruiting— an initiative that offers assistance to job seekers who have experienced difficulty finding stable, long term employment. Among them are immigrants, veterans, formerly incarcerated individuals, parents and caregivers returning to work, as well as senior citizens.
Pilot sessions were held in the spring of 2019 in San Francisco, Paris, Berlin, Spokane, and Krakow—the collective response was overwhelmingly positive. Since then, volunteers from over 100 companies across the world have taken the Reverse Recruiting pledge to help “connect overlooked candidates to jobs at scale.” More than 15 events have been organized where, in total, 250 recruiters coached approximately 400 job seekers on how to market their professional experience, sharpen their resumes, improve their interview skills, and strengthen their personal branding.
Reverse Recruiting Session in Krakow, October 2019
Originally posted: December 3rd, 2019
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.
SmoothApps Founder, Ravi Verma in collaboration with Greg Gomel of the Gomel Group, recognized a need in the Veteran community and co-founded
Agile for Patriots in 2017. This organization is a Dallas-based non-profit that provides military veterans and their spouses with focused Agile training, practical experience, Professional Scrum Master certification, mentoring relationships, and assistance in finding employment in Agile software development.
As a boutique consulting firm specializing in Agile training, coaching, and transformation, SmoothApps donates a portion of the Professional Scrum training to Agile for Patriots along with Improving and other partners. Ravi needed a solution to utilize for the practicum portion of the program, so he reached out to his trusted Atlassian Solution Partner, Shari Barchus, Founder of Fringe Technology, and she jumped into action. Shari was aware of a new initiative offered by Atlassian that allows organizations to obtain a free Cloud plan using the Atlassian Jira and Confluence products, and quickly got a site launched for the Agile for Patriots team. As part of their ongoing Pledge 1% involvement, Fringe Technology also graciously offered to donate their time to train the Agile for Patriots team and program participants on these tools.
Agile for Patriots’ experience with previous graduates of their program has shown that knowledge of Atlassian products like Jira and Confluence has become a must-have during interviews. Fringe Technology’s generous contributions will help Veterans and their spouses develop new in-demand skills, boost their self-confidence, gain employment and hit the ground running!
Originally posted: December 3rd, 2019
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.
At Passageways, every employee is called a Pathfinder: one that discovers a way and explores untraversed regions to mark out a new route. We’re consciously “marking out a new route” in philanthropy by weaving its collaborative spirit into the very fabric of our daily lives. Indeed, giving back as part of Pledge 1% is not only something we enthusiastically support but have made standard operating procedure.
We are honored to be a part of #GivingTuesday, and wanted to highlight a few ways that Pathfinders demonstrated the spirit of the Pledge 1% movement in 2019:
Volunteer Time
At Passageways, we give back 1% of our time to volunteer in our communities and help local nonprofits. Not only is volunteer time off built directly into our culture of giving, it’s even written into our employee handbook!
Earlier this year in July, two members of our Customer Success team traded in their headsets for life jackers and headed to Lake Harner in Lafayette, Indiana to volunteer at Camp WACK (Water Adventure Camp for Kids). Camp WACK is an adaptive water-skiing day camp that caters to children with physical or mental disabilities, including Down’s Syndrome, Autism, and Cerebral Palsy. For two days, the two Pathfinders helped children who normally may not be able to join typical community programs enjoy the thrill of flying through the open water.
Read more about their adventure on our blog.
Product
Every year, we donate our OnBoard board meeting solution as part of Pledge 1%. Five worthy nonprofits driving real change in their communities receive the software for life. This year, we wanted to expand our reach and invited our community to nominate a nonprofit of their choice.
Interest has been modest in recent years, so we were prepared to receive only a handful of responses. Instead, we were humbled and honored to receive more than 100 nominations! It certainly made our review committee’s job difficult. In the end, though, we chose 5 nonprofits to receive OnBoard for life and they include:
- Rise Above
- United Cerebral Palsy Association of Greater Indiana=
- Girls on the Run of Montgomery County
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of Flint and Genesee County]
- Happiness Through Horses
Read more about our Nomination campaign adventure.
Profit
While we donate 1% of our profits to local charities and nonprofits making an impact, we’ve chosen not to just simply write a check. Instead, we’ve committed to investing in our community and fostering civic-minded leaders. We invest both time and money to organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters and Purdue University’s Women in Management Scholarship. Ultimately, our aim is to amplify the voices of the underserved and create a culture of philanthropy that extends generations.
Being a Pathfinder Means Giving Back
We enthusiastically support the Pledge 1% movement. We’ve made it an active and standard part of our culture by engaging in cooperative community outreach and demonstrating a commitment to helping others. Not because it checks a box or fulfills a PR initiative. Ultimately, we do it because that is what it means to be a Pathfinder.
See an overview of our Pledge 1% commitment here.
Originally posted: December 3rd, 2019
