Welcome New Members! Introduce Yourself to the Community

[RoseSpitzer]

Community is about getting to know each other. So once you've joined, please share a few things about yourself with other community members. How did you start your social impact journey? What causes are you passionate about? What (or who) inspires you? 

Thank you for sharing your story and being a force for good! 

[InesGarcia]

Welcome Prashanth! Another Salesforceian here 🙂

[Alison_indigo]

Welcome, Prashanth!

[Prashanth]

Hello Ohana,

We are thrilled to be part of the Pledge 1% Community at ComplianceQuest! We have been an ISV partner of Salesforce, and know how important community, communication and teamwork is. Our company is focused on Quality and Safety of people, product and process and anything that we can do to improve the quality and safety in our community is of paramount importance to us. It is in our DNA.

We strive to give back to the community as a company and are passionate about gender equality, community service, education and health. Some of the organizations we love and are involved in, are mentioned here: https://www.compliancequest.com/social-responsibility/.

On a personal level, I stay active philanthropically in my community, dealing with the needs of orphaned and disadvantaged children and building shelters, toilets, schools in poorly developed countries and helping underprivileged children for their short term and long term needs.

Happy to be here with the like-minded trail blazers!

The concept of Pledge 1% is great. I think it will make the world a better place as more and more companies adopt this. We are very happy to be doing this. Donating time and sweat and mindshare is tough, 1% of revenue is easy!

Warm regards,

Prashanth

[MangalaMartinus]

Hi Melissa

I agree, the APS team are all such nice people. 

It would be great to catch up. I'll use the Calendly link you sent via LinkedIn to schedule a call with you.

Regards 

Mangala 

[melissablee]

Thank you so much for sharing your giving journey. I would love to catch up if you can spare the time - I'll send you a message on this platform.

I noticed you're based in Sydney and we just had the Pledge 1% APAC kick off event. Next month we hope to catch up again, in an APAC friendly timezone, to work out how we can support each other and grow giving-back in the APAC region. It would be wonderful to have your voice in that conversation.

I'm so glad you mentioned APS - they're some of my favourite people - we wouldn't be able to give as much as we do, without their help.

[MangalaMartinus]

Hi everyone!

I'm excited to be part of this global community. 

I'm Mangala Martinus, based in Sydney, and managing director of Payments Consulting Network, a specialist strategic advisory and market research firm focussed on the Asia-Pacific region.

The person that inspired me to start my giving journey was my father. He taught us at a very age that we led very privileged lives and that we had a social responsibility to help others. His message was that we didn't have to be rich to give, or have spare time to make time for others.  We learnt through his actions that we can make a difference today rather than wait for that elusive future date when there would be enough time or money.

I put more structure around my giving about ten years ago when I established a foundation, which was later converted to the Helping Hand giving fund within the Australian Philanthropic Services Foundation.

The idea was that while I was earning a decent income in senior corporate roles, it made sense to start creating a funding pool that could be given away at a later date when I had more time to investigate where the funds could make the most difference, while still making charity donations each year. When I later founded the consulting firm in 2013, I committed (to myself) to donate a large chunk of profits  to charity, either as direct donations from the business or to the giving fund, then via that to various charities. Over the years, our giving fund has grown and the level of donations that we are able to make has also increased year-on-year.

While we mention our Giving Program on the company website, initially this was never an aspect that we promoted in our messaging or marketing materials. Earlier this year I realised that was a mistake, as while we were making a difference with our own charitable donations, we weren't inspiring change in others. We were also just giving money, rather than getting actively involved in the charities that we supported, and there seemed to be more that we could do. While the Giving Program was important to me, I also found that getting our consulting team more actively involved in giving and volunteering was much harder than I expected.

So this year, I started making a few changes:

- Used my expertise in payments and business relationships to help a number of the charities that we support to reduce their cost of payments acceptance. The fee savings have been substantial  (30-70% per annum) and in many cases have exceeded the funds that we were donating to these charities.  We are now packaging up these resources and relationships in a way that will allow our consulting team to easily do similar pro bono work to amplify the difference we can make as an organisation.

- Started discussions with our consulting team about how we could modify our network structure and service agreements to formally build in support for the Giving Program into our contracts, recruitment, policies and messaging, so that the consulting team is actively engaged in both the business and social impact aspects of the firm.

- Combined our payments expertise and Giving Program to create a new Pricing Comparison service for Australian small businesses accepting payments (in-store and online). All referral payments from this service are donated directly by our referral partners to two charity partners - The Funding Network Australia and The Life You Can Save - and we are contributing our time and IP to operate the service. The results from our pilot have been fantastic (30%+ fee savings) and we will officially launch the service later this month. We are getting a good level of support from the industry and hope to get decent media coverage as this type of cost saving can make a big difference for many small businesses that are struggling as they exit from months of lockdown restrictions in Australia and open up for business again.

- Started using our social media channels (LinkedIn and Twitter), website and newsletter to start promoting the charities we support, initially by advertising their fund raising events. We are currently ramping this up with blog articles based on charity CEO interviews and publication of case studies featuring these charities. As the payments industry is outside the audiences typically targeted by these charities, we hope that this opens up a new community of donors/supporters for these organisations.

- Started accepting speaking engagements about my personal giving journey and the work the business has been doing to support charities. I had previously declined these engagements as I felt uncomfortable talking publicly about our charitable donations until we had built a solid track record of giving. Even though our contribution has been small compared to so many of the other amazing people and organisations in this community, the positive discussions this has created and feedback  received about the change that this has inspired in other people has been encouraging.

- The 1% Pledge is the first of the public giving commitments that we will make. In 2022, we also plan to obtain social enterprise certification with Social Traders and formalise our giving pledge into the company's constitution.

Outside of the business, I also mentor uni students and start-up businesses established by people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds, and volunteer in local community groups - which I must admit I find even more rewarding personally than what we do via the business.

Our journey has only just started and our Giving Program continues to evolve, so I am looking forward to learning from all of you!

Kind regards

Mangala

[Alison_indigo]

Hello everyone, 👋 

I'm Alison (she/her). I'm the founder of Indigo Communication and a freelance content creator and communication strategist for corporate social impact initiatives. Empathy is my superpower, and spreadsheets are my love language. I previously worked in corporate communications, and before that, I had a career in nonprofit management.

I'm also a new Pledge 1% member, and I'm so grateful to Pledge 1% for making it so easy to make philanthropy part of my business model. 

I look forward to connecting.

[InesGarcia]

Welcome Eden!  Another UK peer here 🙂

[EBright]

Hello everyone,

I'm so glad to be part of the Pledge 1% community! My name's Eden, I'm the Mattering and Storytelling Strategist at LEX Reception and have been running our 1% Pledge for a year now. I've personally volunteered with UK-based non-profits to help them make an impact and tell their stories, with a passion for environmental initiatives that protect our planet. 

LEX Reception was created with the core values of sharing and giving back and this has definitely shaped the team for the better! As well as the individual volunteering days we each get with the company, the LEX team chose to focus our company-wide Giving Back project on protecting endangered species. To date, we have supported some incredible conservation organizations like the Wolf Conservation Center, Gorilla Doctors, and the International Rhino Foundation. I believe that telling these stories helps us to create our own community - both internally and through our clients - and part of my role is finding new ways to share them. 

I'm looking forward to meeting all of you and sharing how we, as individuals and businesses, can make a positive impact! 

[Chris_Apple]

Welcome to the Pledge 1% Community, @scordon !!  I am sure your studies in public/global health have given you an interesting lens over these past couple of years.  

Glad to have you here!!

~Chris

[scordon]

Hi! I'm Shalese and the CEO/Co-Founder of Violet Consulting. We guide education institutions through implementation of CRM's and/or those struggling to fully utilize their CRM with a personalized plan to transform their system.  Specifically on the Salesforce Platform through Education Cloud, AppExchange tools or custom builds.

Social impact has been part of my drive from the beginning. Originally I wanted to be a nurse to go to Africa and help with health care initiatives. As I got older I realized there is so many more ways to help change the world than just one. Since I have been focused on being a life time humanitarian both locally where I live and abroad.  I strongly believe that education and knowledge is power. Whether through formalized education or life learning, the knowledge you gain informs the choices and decisions you make.  I studied Public Health with an emphasis in Global Health during College and realized the greatest impact I can make is through volunteering and giving my of time and resources. 

We are Violet Consulting are excited to take the 1% pledge and give back not only monetarily but through hands on programs we volunteer at and organizations we partner with. 

[CognitionVicky]

Hi, 

Really excited to be part of the Pledge 1%  Community. 

I'm Vicky - a Marketing Manager for Cognition24 (a Salesforce partner) based in the UK. 

We're a small company with our roots firmly based in the community - that's why Pledge 1% really appealed to us. We have already supported a number of local organisations and are looking forward to ramping up our activity in the coming months, particularly with Growing Resilience in Teens (GRIT).  GRIT is a UK mental-health charity that provides a unique programme using principles of group therapy combined with boxing to support young people in managing their emotions.  Personally, I will be working alongside the founder, Dr Louise Randall to support her social media profile and help her to introduce GRIT's services to the wider community. In addition, I'll be undertaking the Isle of Wight Challenge in April, a 54 km walk & 2,000 metres of climb, in under 12 hours! 

I look forward to getting to know the community and hear all about your challenges! 

Vicky 

[ShannonPoulton]

Hi! Great to join and already see some familiar faces I've had the pleasure of meeting previously. 

I'm one of the founders of Good Thnx, an Australian technology company that's on a mission to build the world's best recognition and gifting tool. We were an early sign on to Pledge when it came to Australia and these days are fortunate to have some other member companies as customers - both here and in the USA - who regularly inspire us! 

I started my social impact journey as a communications and corporate social responsibility professional, before turning to impact entrepreneurship. I'm also a director of our foundation, which has 232 partners in AU and will soon tick over 500 partners globally 🙂  

Personally I've been supporting Indigitek as my chosen charity and if I had to pick two areas of passion, it would be equality and the environment.

[Mark_Reading]

Hi everyone

I'm thrilled to see this Pledge 1% community spring to life!

I'm the head of the Atlassian Foundation and Chair of the Pledge 1% Board.

I've been at Atlassian for about 5 years. Prior to joining Atlassian, I spent 33 years at PwC. I was a partner at PwC for >20 years. For most of my career at PwC, I provided valuation & strategy services to clients. The bulk of my time during my final 6 years at PwC was spent in my roles as the Australian firm's Corporate Responsibility Partner and a member of PwC's global Corporate Responsibility Board.

I'm looking forward to learning and sharing as part of this vibrant Pledge 1% community.

[HitzelTrejo]

Melissa, 

Thank you so much!!! You're a true ambassador and supportive leader here in the community. I appreciate the gesture. But, what I understand the most is that you took our conversation to another level. That's dearly received. 

On a side note, I took seriously your suggestion to use CLARITY for all my branding work in social media. Thanks. I have a great anecdote to accompany why I am doing that. I love it! 😄

[melissablee]

Hi Hitzel, it was great to catch up and learn about CLARITY! As promised, here's our Theory of Change document: https://community.pledge1percent.org/t5/Member-Projects/Atlassian-Foundation-s-Theory-of-Change/ba-p...

It's been so wonderful to meet you 🙂

[Chris_Apple]

Hi @InesGarcia - thank you for this question.  Yes, the goal of this Community is to create peer connection among the individuals who represent member companies within the Pledge 1% movement!  That being said, how a user chooses to represent themselves is at their discretion, so long as it does not violate community guidelines.  

[InesGarcia]

@Pledge 1 @Chris_Apple Shall users be individuals over shared entities identity? 

[Language_Lizard]

Hello everyone! I’m very happy to be involved with Language Lizard in this inspiring community.

Language Lizard provides resources in 50+ languages to help educators, librarians, and parents develop literacy skills among language learners, build inclusive classrooms, and celebrate cultural diversity. We are currently working to publish Dari/English and Pashto/English books that will welcome Afghan refugees as they settle into new lives in the US and abroad. We are inspired by our customers who work tirelessly to support the academic and social development of language learners and immigrant families. In addition to our work with literacy organizations such as Room to Read, we appreciate opportunities to partner with larger companies to have an even greater impact supporting these communities. 

Anneke Forzani

[HitzelTrejo]

Hi Everyone, 

My name is Hitzel. I am the Founder, CEO of CLARITY, a Monteal-based company in Canada.  Bonjour- Hi! 😛

I am excited and joyful to pertain to a community of organizations convinced that to grow, we must align to our values and support each other when there are many uncertainties around us.

We in CLARITY are a people-focused professional business service. We offer certified coaching services to clients who undergo mental confusion, emotional turmoil and energy loss.  We understand that to shift perspectives, our clients need to be ready to do the developmental work (i,e., expand their awareness and evolve in their professional and personal life). Our social impact mission is to democratize high-end professional coaching to everyone everywhere, focusing on the following beneficiaries: Youth, women, immigrants, persons with disabilities, black and indigenous individuals and communities. 

Today, we support women through the gender equality initiative who need to sustain their families. We keep our work with UN Sustainable Development Goals, #3 -Good health and well-being, #4 Quality Education, # 5 Gender Equality, #17Partnership for the goals.  

If you want to know more about what drives our social mission, I would be pleased to chat with you. 

We are here to serve with our competencies, skills, and most importantly, share what we have learned in our social impact journey. 

Cheers from CLARITY!

[InesGarcia]

Welcome Gabriela, great to read about your efforts/ Question, why is the impact report gated?

[Gabrielacrego]

Hi everyone, 

I’m a super fan of Pledge 1%, and congrats to the team for this amazing community platform 🙂

I’m Gabriela from Brazil, responsible for the social impact arm at Rock Content - a global leading digital marketing startup.

I started my social impact journey while at university, when some friends and I co created a social impact league to use the students and professors know-how to create innovative solutions for social challenges. Since that I decided to build my journey on thinking about long-term solutions to improve the state of the world, so I founded a nonprofit and after a few years I changed my career to corporate social impact. I believe that how companies face social challenges can have a huge positive impact on the world, so I am completely fascinated about the philosophy behind Pledge 1% moviment, and super honored to represent Rock Content here. 

Rock.org has a focus on education and employability, and we believe that we can enable growth opportunities for everyone who wants to have the skills they need to enter the job market.

We have formalized time and equity pledge! We also encourage our team (Rockers)to become changemakers in the community by using their working hours to volunteer.

Here is our 2020 report. 

It’s amazing to be here and I hope to connect with you 🙂

Best,

Gabriela Crego

[Sameerpeace]

Love to be here at Pledge 1%!

SO excited about how the community here evolves and helps one another to have a greater impact.

I'm the co-founder and CEO at "Social Champ". Social Champ is the next generation's simplest social media management tool, helping users to publish, analyze content, and engage with their audience - all from one place. 

I've learned lessons in my previous 3 startups (startups that didn' work out); “GameOChat”, “Educating Dreams” and “RemindZapp”, and share it with others. I have spoken at many events organized by TEDx, Microsoft, Nokia, IEEE, USAID, etc. in numerous universities, podcasts, and webinars saving young and fresh entrepreneurs from making the same mistakes I made. I influence young minds with workshops regarding Technical Coding, Motivational Talks, and Social Media Training.

By degree I'm a  Computer Science graduate. I've also been awarded as the Former Nokia Developer Champion, Microsoft Certified Professional & Specialist, Microsoft Community Speaker, and former Microsoft Student Partner. Currently, I'm also “Facebook Developer Circle Lead: Karachi”.

With all these awards, I wish to play an important role in pledge 1% community work as I've been doing in empowering others with social media tools (social champ), training on digital media, and software consultancy evangelism in local communities.

Feel free to reach me out and we can explore opportunities to work together.

[Ingrid_IndexEng]

Hi, I'm Ingrid from New Zealand.

Our Mechanical Engineering Design Consultancy donates 1% of our consultancy fees to charity.  We have chosen three charities: one within the Social needs sector (lunch in schools), one within the environmental sector (endangered plants and birds/animals), and one being a local need (rescuing people who have accidents mountainbiking in the local forest) . 

We are happy to do this, as we are the type of business that can't easily make product donations (hey, you can win a free seismic analysis of your boiler, anyone interested?...), but donating 1% of our annual consultancy fees is easy!

It would be great if the concept of Pledge 1% could spread and be adopted by many businesses across the world: it would make the world a better place.

[melissablee]

Hi Hitzel! Let's catch up! I'll message you to find a time. I'm based in Adelaide, Australia.

Speak soon 🙂

[HitzelTrejo]

Hi Lauren, 

A pleasure to meet you. 

Bonjour-Hi! from Montreal, Canada.  I would like to know more about your program. 

Does the skill volunteering program apply to the non-profit sector? 

Hitzel

[HitzelTrejo]

Hi Melissa,

I like the mission of your organization and would love to know more.

Would you be interested in setting a zoom call with me? 

We are CLARITY Initiative, a Montreal-based certified coaching organization. We support individuals and capacity builders to lead in their mission and goals. So if this is, to some extent, interesting and aligns with your organization, I would love to discuss it with you. 

With kind regards, Hitzel 

[j_castle]

Hi Rose (and everyone!),

Thrilling to see this community come to life. I've been engaged with Pledge 1% for a number of years at different companies and most recently in 2020, we kicked off our Pledge 1% partnership at Atrium. (I lead marketing at Atrium; we're a fantastic technology consulting services company in the Salesforce/greater data science ecosystem. 😉)

I'm most passionate about skills sharing and volunteerism where education and hunger are concerned. I'm interested in many of the initiatives and opportunities being talked about here and I'd love to learn more about ways Atrium (and I personally!) could partner further to help nonprofits fuel their missions with our time and talent.

Glad to be here with you all.

[KatieB]

Hi there Pledge 1% tribe!

I'm the Governance and Grants Manager for the Atlassian Foundation, and based in Sydney, Australia. 

The Foundation has been setup as the vehicle for Atlassian to make charitable donations, invest in social impact enterprises, and carry out charitable work, in Australia and worldwide. My role is focussed on the governance and compliance of our two charitable entities: Atlassian Foundation Australia - an Australian Private Ancillary Fund; and Atlassian Foundation International Ltd - an Australian Public Benevolent Institute.

We are focussed on education, and excited when technology can be used to provide education opportunities on a global scale for young people experiencing disadvantage.

Recently, the Atlassian Foundation passed $50 million in aggregate donations, all made possible because of Scott and Mike’s 1% pledge. In addition their pledge has resulted in the Atlassian Foundation having an asset base in excess of $200m. All resources of the Atlassian Foundation are used for social impact around the world.

I'm really looking forward to see what this community can achieve together through sharing knowledge and collaboration!

[LaurenBlack]

Hi Rose and Pledge 1% Community 👋

I am part of the Foundation team at Atlassian specialising in social impact. Our programs involve inspiring and providing opportunities for our employees to give back through volunteering and giving and pledging their own “1% time” in an initiative called WePledge. We have over 8500 employees globally (and growing) and 79% of them volunteered in FY21.

I’m looking forward to conversations with the community about operationalising the “1% time” and “1% product” pledges. I’m based in Sydney, Australia and manage global and regional programs, focusing on skilled volunteering.

[melissablee]

Rose - thank you so much for creating this amazing Pledge 1% community platform!

Atlassian is honoured to be a founding member of Pledge 1%. Our Founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar Pledged 1% of time, equity, product and profit from the very start, almost 20 years ago. Their rationale was to create a company that did well by doing good. I remember talking to Scott about it a decade ago now and he said that the decision to donate 1% to the Foundation was one of the best he’s ever made, and that donating 1% of nothing was a pretty easy decision to make! The sooner we can encourage others to do it, the better.

Giving back is part of Atlassian’s DNA. The Atlassian Foundation was formally established in Australia in 2008 as a charitable entity to support Atlassian’s philanthropic giving and volunteering. Today the Foundation operates as an Australian Private Ancillary Fund and an Australian Public Benevolent Institution, Atlassian Foundation International Ltd (AFIL). AFIL allows us to provide aid to communities that are disadvantaged or in poverty by collaborating with non-government, community-based, local organisations globally.

The Atlassian Foundation has a focus on education as we believe it is key to breaking the cycle of poverty. By 2030, over half of the world's young people won't have the skills they need to thrive in work and life. The world's poorest children are the most likely to be left behind. Through the use of technology and innovation, leapfrogging is possible. We're partnering with innovators looking to accelerate learning for the world's poorest young people to ensure everyone has the skills they need for a fast-changing world.

In addition to our focus on global education, we mobilise Atlassian staff to volunteer in their local communities and participate in social impact campaigns that they care about. Atlassians can use 5 days ‘foundation leave’ each year to volunteer. The volunteers and relationships with local community organisations are managed by our 'Foundation Councils' - a collective of Atlassians around the globe who are supported by the Foundation to “be the change they seek”. 

Atlassian’s eco-system of giving lives deep in our bones. We want to inspire and help other companies join us all and become Pledgies too 🙂 We're all about teamwork at Atlassian, and this is a great team!

[Bret_Peters]

Hi Rose & Everyone! 

On behalf of the team at ADF Solutions, we're excited to be part of the Pledge 1% Community. Our company is focused on community. We are a software company based in Virginia with a now 100% remote workforce in multiple time zones around the world. At ADF we design and develop digital forensic software used by law enforcement and professional investigators dedicated to preventing and solving crimes including child exploitation, human trafficking, fraud, terrorism, etc. 

When we developed the ADF Culture Code, we specifically called out the importance of nurturing relationships and giving back to the communities we serve. Pledge 1% has enabled ADF to specifically focus our intentions toward giving back Time, Product, and.... We look forward to continuing to contribute and to collaborating with other teams around the world that share our mission to make the world a better place. 

Kindest Regards,

Bret Peters

ADF Solutions

[Fernando]

Hi Everyone !

At Kognoz we are thrilled to be part of this great community.  We have been an ISV partner of Salesforce, and  we have learned over the years that our focus and efforts need to be equally spread amongst all stakeholders: customers, employees, and the communities we live. 

Let's keep the good work !

Fernando Israel

[Brandon_Bruce]

Thanks, Rose!

Hi Everybody,

I'm Brandon Bruce. I'm an entrepreneur in Knoxville, Tennessee. My new startup Uncat is joining Pledge 1%. I'm also going to get Pledge 1% set up here in Knoxville and hopefully also throughout Tennessee.

Brandon

[ThomasHeywood]

Hello Everyone! Very excited to be here. My name is Tom from WeEngage Group. We're a specialist headhunting agency supporting the clean tech revolution and companies in HealthTech who are improving lives so we believe 1% to fit perfectly within our values and mission! 

[Matt]

Hi all - excited to see this next evolution of the Pledge 1% community!

My name is Matt Zwiebel and I run Pledge 1% Colorado (formerly the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado), a founding member of the Pledge 1% movement.

Much of my work on a day to day basis is helping new founders and companies in Colorado get acquainted with all things Pledge. From volunteer events to impactful philanthropic opportunities, I'm lucky enough to have the opportunity to get creative with our members in figuring out ways to give intentionally and locally. As the innovation economy has grown tremendously over the last few years, I've witnessed some incredible successes from our member companies and am always glad to share some ideas or stories from our community. 

[lpugliano]

Hi everyone! 

Happy to be part of the Pledge 1% Community! My name is Laura and I am Marketing & Content Strategist at the digital solutions provider Candoris, though I'm also very involved in their giving partnerships. My personal background includes fair trade volunteer work and working for nonprofits such as international mission organizations and refugee resettlement agencies. I'm inspired by people who have dedicated their lives to the poor (St. Teresa of Calcutta) and entrepreneurs who use their businesses for good to positively impact others around the globe (Candoris founder Stephan Van Der Ploog, Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya, TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie, etc). I've always been passionate about mission and giving back, and have loved this part of my work with Candoris. 

It's a delicate dance to talk about giving back and corporate philanthropy without desiring or seeming to be braggadocious, but I've loved the challenge! I instituted the Candoris Sine Cera Report a few years ago in efforts to showcase the good that the company was enabled to do by its team members, customers, and partners, because I believe that it's important for people to know the 'why' behind the 'how'. Consumers and customers want to do business with companies they believe in and trust; people want to work for companies whose values and driving mission they buy in to. This type of annual report has been positively received internally and externally, and I invite you to view our recent 2020 Sine Cera Report. Maybe you too can develop one for your organization! 

It's great to be here & meet you all!

[InesGarcia]

👋 y'all! Ines Garcia here

Member of the Pledge 1% since 2018, I work for myself.

I spend my time helping organisations to build a sustainable future, to have a positive and better impact through their products and efforts, on wellbeing, communities and the planet we live in. Most often in the Agile and Salesforce arena. 

An author on the making (something else is coming up soon) https://tiny.cc/authorinesgarcia

Latest Impact report: https://getagile.co.uk/impact-2020/

[Harry-NJ]

Rose,

I am SO excited that Pledge-1% is creating this community platform.  I think this is a great addition for you.

I have been a big believer in the idea promoted by Mark Benioff that a business should be about more than just making money for its shareholders.  The simplicity of the 1% Pledge and its tremendous potential have always interested me.

When I started my current venture, SeaFreight Labs, I took the 1% Pledge and have been active in executing my commitment to donate at least 1% of my Product.  My company has provided free crowd-solving services to Habitat for Humanity and World Vision in helping them crowd-source solutions to problems ranging from earthquake and typhoon resilience to improved rural sanitation to malaria prevention to monitoring of chlorine levels in rural piped drinking water systems.  Seeing valuable outcomes has been extremely rewarding and I am grateful to the Pledge-1% organization to have a framework from which to make an impact on these projects.

In addition to what my company can do, I have a dream that we could attract other logistics-oriented companies to join the Pledge-1% movement.  Currently, I am only aware of a couple of other logistics companies (the largest is Flexport) that have taken the 1% Pledge.  I hope this Pledge-1% community helps me to connect with and/or invite others to join us in the movement.