MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Bloomreach, the platform fueling limitless ecommerce personalization, today announced it has joined Pledge 1%, a global movement that inspires, educates, and empowers every entrepreneur, company, and employee to be a force for good. By committing 1% of company time to volunteering efforts and community service, Bloomreach underscores its dedication to enacting positive change in the world of ecommerce.

“As a global organization, our reach spans so many different countries and communities. We have the opportunity to make a sizable impact around the world with the time we pledge to volunteering and community service,” said Ursula Kralova, Chief People Officer, Bloomreach. “We’re proud to join Pledge 1%, and to continue in our mission to be a force for good in ecommerce and in the world.”

For many years, Bloomreach has been committed to bettering the communities and industries it serves through financial contributions to a number of global organizations. In 2022, Bloomreach established a new program to supplement these financial contributions with more service-based opportunities. With the launch of its Volunteering Time Off (VTO) program, each employee was offered five days of paid time off for volunteer efforts.

Participation in the VTO program has doubled since its inception, with employees volunteering at local food banks, animal shelters, zoological gardens, and more. In joining the Pledge 1% movement, Bloomreach formalizes this time commitment — offering employees the opportunity to give more than 1% of their working hours to deserving causes each year.

To learn more about Bloomreach’s commitment to a positive global impact, visit the company’s website and download its ESG Report.

About Bloomreach

Bloomreach personalizes the e-commerce experience. Its data engine unifies real-time customer and product data so businesses understand what customers really want. By connecting that understanding to every channel, the e-commerce experience becomes limitless — reflecting a changing customer as they shop. Amplified by the speed and scale of Loomi AI, Bloomreach’s AI for e-commerce, this creates endless new paths to purchase, greater profitability, and fast business growth. Bloomreach products include: Engagement, a marketing automation platform; Discovery, an e-commerce search solution; Content, a headless CMS; and Clarity, AI-powered conversational shopping. The company has multiple AI patents and serves 1,400+ global brands including: Williams-Sonoma, Bosch, Puma, and Marks & Spencer.

If you take a quick scan of recent headlines about corporate ESG momentum, you’re likely to see the word “trend” popping up time and again. It’s a word that could falsely imply the ESG movement is fleeting. But in fact, all signs point to permanence, with more ESG requirements poised to become mandatory in 2024 and beyond.

None of this is surprising. Investing in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives is the right thing to do for people and the planet. It also appears to be a sound performance strategy that helps to attract and retain talent—particularly as millennials and Gen Z become more dominant in the workforce.

The big question on the minds of many founders is not whether to embrace philanthropic leadership, but rather when is the right time. The answer might surprise you.

Pledging equity on the road to IPO might feel off-limits, whether due to concerns around bandwidth, board pushback, investor dilution, or even the misconception that it’s too late. In fact, founders at many companies, including DocuSign, PagerDuty, and Twilio, all successfully spearheaded Pledge 1% commitments within a couple of years, or even a couple of months, of their own IPOs.

Not only is it possible to take action pre- or concurrent-IPO, it’s also much simpler to get shareholder’s approval. The upsides are plentiful, including the amazing potential to create billions of new philanthropy dollars that can be used to address significant societal issues for years to come. But just because it’s possible, doesn’t mean everything is simple.

The good news is you don’t have to go in blind. Here are five takeaways from my team’s experience with committing to Pledge 1%.

5 KEY LEARNINGS FROM A PRE-IPO PLEDGE JOURNEY   

Leaders who have been through the Pledge 1% process recommend meeting with each board member individually so you can connect and communicate with them in their preferred manner. I support this approach, as it allows you to feel out reactions and address questions one on one.

2. Think Long Term 

The decisions you make early on are binding for years, so it’s crucial to make informed choices and consider all the regulatory complexities. For example, as a Canadian company, we faced constraints related to stock legends in the U.S. Fortunately, nothing proved insurmountable.

4. Tap Into The Expert Tools 

The Pledge 1% program provides access to tools, networks, and expert guidance from its team and founders who have been through the process. Standing on the shoulders of these giants can help to significantly streamline the implementation process, particularly amidst the madness of IPO preparations.

IDENTIFY A CLEAR MISSION AND GO FOR LONG-LASTING IMPACT 

At Coveo, we chose to be part of the Pledge 1% movement because it provides a proven, sustainable way to fund our social impact for years to come. It’s also an amazing way to keep us laser-focused on a mission that is highly meaningful to our organization and our people.

We have joined Pledge 1%, a global movement to create a new normal for companies of all sizes and stages to have a positive social impact through their business. We are proud to announce our commitment to donate 1% of our staff time to several initiatives in Uruguay.

One of our pillars is to help people grow and thrive with Salesforce and technology. Our staff will lead initiatives to help reduce the gender gap in IT and promote inclusive opportunities to rewrite your career in the industry.

Add to that, at Modelit we are committed to helping the community. We will team up with non-profit organizations and volunteer groups to support and strengthen low-income families in the Montevideo area.

Our co-founder, Diego Febles, said that it’s a great way to give back to the community.

 “We’re very excited about being part of  Pledge 1%. We think that with these initiatives we can give back and create a positive effect on our communities”.

Modelit is proud to join the Pledge 1% community and encourages other companies to take the pledge and leverage their business as a force for good.

To learn more about Modelit’s program, contact communications@modelit.xyz

ABOUT PLEDGE 1%

Pledge 1% is a global movement that inspires, educates, and empowers every entrepreneur, company, and employee to be a force for good. Over 12,000 members in 100+ countries have used Pledge 1%’s flexible framework to ignite half a billion dollars in new philanthropy. To learn more about Pledge 1% and to take the pledge visit www.pledge1percent.org.

Qalaxia and Pledge 1% have partnered to make it convenient for existing members and new members of the Pledge 1% community to  pledge and fulfill 1% of their time at their leisure from home or office by helping provide the best answers to student-questions posted online.

Pledge 1% members can help solve a pressing problem via ten-minute bite-sized chunks. Many students leave their questions unasked because they are afraid of ridicule by peers, are concerned that they are wasting their teachers’ time, or do not have access to experts at home who can answer. Qalaxia changes that. Qalaxia, a Pledge 1% partner and an NSF funded startup, is working to ensure that no student question goes unasked. Qalaxia provides schools, afterschool programs and non-profit organizations that are working with underprivileged students with a free online student Q&A service that provides a safe environment and answers students questions on topics ranging from homework to career choices.

Many companies can only afford to start in the Pledge 1% community by pledging 1% of their time (1% of a 40 hour week is just 20 minutes!). Even this can be burdensome for early-stage startups looking for opportunities to give back to the community. Qalaxia changes that. With Qalaxia, members who are pressed for time can make a meaningful impact in students’ lives by doing it whenever and wherever they can find ten minutes in their calendar. Qalaxia’s downloadable reports also make it easy for members to measure their impact.

To learn more about Pledge 1% or to see how you can participate, visit pledge1percent.org or email the team at members@pledge1percent.org .

To learn more about Qalaxia and how to give 1% of your time in bite-sized ten minute chunks visit qalaxia.com, or email Raji at r@qalaxia.com.

Written by Sarah Goff-Dupont. Originally published on the Atlassian blog.

If 1 in 10 companies shared a business practice in common, would you sit up and take note? If the number moved to 1 in 5,  would you think seriously about following suit? What about 1 in 4?

That’s exactly the trajectory of one of the hottest employer trends: paid time off to volunteer (also knows as “volunteer time off”, or “VTO”).

According to the 2018 Employee Benefits Report issued by the Society for HR Management, nearly 1 in 4 companies and non-profits in the U.S. are using VTO to parlay corporate social responsibility into a competitive advantage. So what do these savvy organizations know that the other 3 in 4 don’t?

What is VTO and why is it trending?

Volunteer time off (VTO) is employer-sponsored paid time to do volunteer work in your community. Participating employers typically grant between 8 and 40 hours of VTO per year.

Less than ten years ago, VTO was rare, with roughly 15% of employers offering it in 2009 and only about 1% planning to offer it soon. Over the past decade, however, companies have started to take social responsibility seriously, seeking to counteract all manner of negative externalities from displacement of long-time urban residents to pollution to the spread of fake news.

At the same time, Millennials have surged into the workforce and overtaken Gen X as the most populous age group in the U.S. labor market. Contrary to their reputation for self-centeredness, this generation has a strong sense of purpose and cares deeply about issues of social justice. Factor in yet a third trend, the global war for talent, and the equation suddenly becomes clear.

A 10,000-watt spotlight on corporate social responsibility + the need to attract young, socially-conscious workers in an increasingly competitive hiring environment = an explosion in VTO’s popularity. 

That’s all well and good. But what if a company doesn’t have an image problem and isn’t on a hiring spree – would VTO still make good business sense? The answer is a resounding “yes”.

Recruit, engage, retain, repeat

The “selfie generation” isn’t as selfish as they’re often portrayed. According to studies released in 2015 and 2016, 80% of Millennials make charitable contributions, 70% volunteer at least once a year, and 37% spend at least ten hours annually volunteering. Their reputation for being fickle, however, has a stronger basis in fact. The 2016 study showed that 1 in 4 would leave their job after less than a year if a new opportunity arose elsewhere. In a 2-year timeframe, the number goes up to almost 1 in 2.

The recruiting challenge for employers, then, is to meet these purpose-filled candidates where they are and channel all that energy into work they find meaningful. “It doesn’t have to be hard,” says Jeremy Kreitler, CEO of Gliffy, a San Francisco-based software company that runs multiple philanthropic programs internally. “When people talk about what they like most about working at Gliffy, they mention the volunteering and the fact that we give 5% of our profits to charity.”  

When coupled with a compelling, bullshit-free mission, VTO is one of the best ways to speak their language. Indeed, 60% of Millennials report choosing (and sticking with) their current employer because they feel a sense of purpose there.

I want to do more with my career than just help somebody make money. VTO is what made me feel comfortable leaving my job in non-profit for a role in the corporate sector. I feel I can do just as much (if not more) good this way. – Claire Cook, marketer (also, dog-lover and Millennial)

It’s not just about courting Millennials, however. The workforce still contains a handful of Boomers and scads of Gen X’ers who don’t just want to make a living, but make a difference while they’re at it. Many have scars from the toxic, burn-you-out corporate cultures that dominated the ’80s, ’90s, and early 2000s, and are thoughtful about the kind of work environment they step into. Turns out, volunteerism is widely regarded as a boost to a company’s reputation as a great place to work.

“Lots of people say they were attracted to the company by our culture of ‘being the change you seek’ and the chance to make a difference that extends beyond our products”, says Jessica Hyman, a member of Atlassian’s talent team. She’s also noticed employees shaping their jobs with an eye toward social impact once they’re in the door. “Most people use their VTO. And we never struggle to fill the seats on the Atlassian Foundation’s employee council.”

Kreitler sees a similar pattern at Gliffy, where they organize dedicated volunteer days with local non-profits that are open to all employees. “The company organized days make volunteering accessible to employees, and stimulate more people to participate,” he says. And ever since they focused these days on organizations that help deal with homelessness (an employee-driven decision), participation is trending upward.

It doesn’t have to be hard. – Jeremy Kreitler, Gliffy CEO

As if employee engagement wasn’t enough, 65% of HR executives point out that VTO is also an investment in workforce development. Volunteering helps cultivate the soft skills that are increasingly important for knowledge workers: collaboration, empathy, adaptability, leadership, and public speaking (to name a few). As repetitive tasks become automated, such skills will be absolutely vital in the creative and analytical jobs still held by humans.

Think globally, invest locally

Despite VTO’s rising popularity, it’s hardly the only way for companies to help employees make a positive impact. Organizations like Pledge 1% encourage companies to invest a small slice of their profits, product, equity, and/or employee time back into the community. To date, over 5000 companies have signed on.

Thousands of other companies are investing in social impact in more focused ways.

• Charitable giving – Many companies, Atlassian and Gliffy among them, choose one cause they want to support, then dedicate a small portion of their profits to cash contributions.


• Donation matching – 18% of companies match employee’s charitable donations, up to a certain amount (typically $500-1000 annually).


• Donation via payroll deduction – Giving is easy when it happens before the money even hits your bank account. For example, Atlassian employees have the option to donate a dollar a day to Room To Read, which is automatically deducted from their paychecks.


• Dedicated volunteer days – Many companies opt to organize one-off volunteer days with local food shelves, schools, or organizations like Habitat For Humanity. This works great at the department and team level, too.

Whether a company tests the waters slowly or dives right in by taking the 1% pledge, it’s important to proceed thoughtfully. Employees view programs like VTO as a cherished benefit, making them hard to take back once a precedent has been set. That said, delaying this kind of investment only makes it harder to get started.

Pledging to give back 1% is really easy in the early days of a company because 1% of nearly nothing is nothing. – Scott Farquhar, Atlassian and Pledge 1% co-founder

Besides: the race to recruit and retain top talent isn’t easing up any time soon. Nor is the increased scrutiny on corporations. Corporate transparency is on the rise, driven by inside whistleblowers, citizen journalism on social media, as well as companies’ own desire to open up and make who they are on the inside a part of their external branding.

As the #DeleteUber movement reminded us, customers care about what goes on inside a company’s walls. The organizations poised to thrive in this new era are those who think not just about their shareholders, but also their employee and community stakeholders.

. . .

For more information on sustainable corporate social responsibility and philanthropy programs, check out Pledge 1%. Thousands of companies have already taken the pledge – will you be next?