Pledge 1% on #GivingTuesday

by Naomi Morenzoni, Director of Philanthropy Outreach & Engagement

Today is #GivingTuesday — a global day for giving back. How are you celebrating? Will you donate to your favorite charity? Will you volunteer with a local nonprofit? How about joining a movement?

Fifteen years ago, Salesforce transformed corporate philanthropy with the 1-1-1 model of integrated giving and it was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. And in the intervening years we’ve seen hundreds of companies like Google and Yelp adopt all or part of the 1-1-1 model with tremendous success.

So this #GivingTuesday, we’re thrilled to announce, along with Atlassian and Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado, Pledge 1%.

Pledge 1% is a movement dedicated to making the world a better place by inspiring, fostering, and celebrating early stage corporate philanthropy. It encourages and challenges individuals and companies to pledge 1% of equity, product, and employee time for their communities–because pledging a small portion of future success today can have a huge impact tomorrow. Our goal is secure 500 pledges by #GivingTuesday 2015.

The Pledge 1% website details how companies can pledge 1% of their equity, product and employee time, empowering companies to take the pledge with the support of Pledge 1% staff. By providing a turnkey solution featuring tools, best practices and relevant information, the website is intended to make it easy for any company or person to incorporate philanthropy into their business model from the beginning.

The Pledge 1% movement already boasts an impressive roster of entrepreneurs, executives, founders, venture capitalists and companies who have pledged 1% of product, equity or time to improve their local communities, including Cotap, Foundry Group, Google, InsideSales.com, Optimizely, Rally Software, Workday and Yelp. And we have great support from early partners, including B Lab, SV Angel, TechStars and UpGlobal, who have committed to help grow that roster by encouraging the early stage companies they work with to make giving back a priority.

#GivingTuesday is an important day for the philanthropy industry when businesses, charities, community centers, families and students around the world come together for one common purpose: to give and celebrate generosity. By launching Pledge 1%, the hope is to inspire, facilitate and further encourage giving by companies around the world.

Join this movement today at www.pledge1percent.org.