Today is #GivingTuesday, a day dedicated to charitable giving, harnessing the power of social media and the generosity of people around the world to bring about real change in their communities. In the spirit of the day, The Salesforce Foundation, Atlassian and Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado announced the Pledge 1% program, setting a target of securing 500 pledges by #GivingTuesday 2015.
The program is the result of corporate social responsibility leaders coming together to encourage and challenge their peers to pledge 1% of their company’s equity, product and employee time for their communities.
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 the Pledge 1% program. By providing a turnkey solution with 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.
#GivingTuesday is a global day dedicated to giving back. 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% on #GivingTuesday 2014, the hope is to inspire, facilitate and further encourage giving by companies around the world and achieve a goal of 500 company pledges in one year.
The Pledge 1% movement already boasts an impressive roster of entrepreneurs, executives, founders, venture capitalists and companies who have pledged to improve their local communities, including Cotap, Foundry Group, Google, InsideSales.com, Optimizely, Rally Software and Yelp. Additional Pledge 1% partners, including B Lab, the Robin Hood Foundation, SV Angel, TechStars and UpGlobal, have committed to help grow that roster by encouraging the early stage companies they work with to make giving back a priority.