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! 

[melissablee]

So great to "meet" you Max - wonderful to have you in the Community. I loved hearing more about your work with the Yellow Wiggle. Can't wait for an update on your giving journey. Congrats.

[InesGarcia]

Big welcome Diana, another Salesforceian right here 🙂

Have a good browse in the community tons of tools and ideas, we all can make a difference in everything we do.

[dianalynch]

I just joined a week ago and am excited to be here! I've wanted to join for a while but wasn't exactly sure if I could if I wasn't an organization. Well I started my consulting firm last year and as a Salesforce Partner I knew it was the right time. I can't wait to serve nonprofits with Salesforce support!

I worked for a nonprofit back in 2012 and loved it and learned a lot! I continued to volunteer here and there offering support with Salesforce or doing food drives through different organizations I worked with. Getting out to events is a challenge for me so I'm excited to offer my skills through technology! I've been working in the Salesforce ecosystem since 2007 and hope to use my skills to help others.

[jjmcandyman]

Hello.

My name is Jaison Machanickal. I am the Customer Service Associate at Addteq. I attended my first Pledge 1% event last week on behalf of my company. It was an awaking to a desire to take more affirmative giving back to the community. I look forward to applying what I learned from the event for our employer and for myself. Looking forward to tuning into the community for assistance. 

[Chris_Apple]

Welcome to the P1 Community, Steven.  It looks like you are very active in social impact.  We'd love to have you share more about any of the efforts you reference within our member stories blog!

[Chris_Apple]

Glad you are here, Pamela!  Welcome to the P1 Community!

[Chris_Apple]

Welcome, Heather!!  We are glad to have you as part of the P1 Community!  

[The Forest]

Hello,

My name is Steven and I have been working on the communications and engagement side of climate action for nearly 20 years. For the past 14 years I have been running my own design company focused on endorsing social, environmental and educational initiatives – I truly see graphic design is a potent tool of communication. It should inspire and enhance quality of life, not just be used as a means for encouraging more consumption.

Encouraged by the likes of the First Things First Manifesto and Do Good Design, I strive to be aware of how I work, for whom I work, and how my work affects others.

I'm the National Sustainability Chair of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada, an active participant in numerous community volunteer initiatives, (like the West Kootenay Climate Hub) and the Project Lead / Co-Facilitator of the Nest Lab, a social innovation lab for collaborative climate solutions.

I look forward to being a member of the 1% community.

[InesGarcia]

Hola Pamela, big welcome! a great way to start embedding this as part of the fabric of the business.

[InesGarcia]

The symbiosis effect, bravo and welcome

[Pamela]

Hello! My name is Pamela Elias Calles from Clara. We are a Startup that is growing in LATAM. We are based In Mexico, Colombia and Brazil.

I am very happy to be a member of Pledge 1% as we are starting to work with our pledge  and I'm looking forward to learning and sharing as a member of this community.

Best,

Pamela

[hbiondo]

Hello,

We are very excited to have provided our first 10 hours of product services to our Non-Profits!!!! I am an Operations Manager for a Salesforce Integration Company, Omnivo Digital,  and we are all big believers in giving back to our community. 1% Community has provided us a great platform to follow and recommendations on to give back. Thank you and we look forward to completing more hours:)

Heather Biondo

Omnivo Digital

[Chris_Apple]

Welcome, Max!  Glad to have you here with the Pledge 1% Community!

[Max_Inauro]

Hi everyone this is Max, greetings from Sydney, Australia!

With the team at Inauro we are super happy to join this group of like-minded professionals. We are frim believers in the impact that technology can have on people far and wide and have been working on applying our tech for good.

We have been working with the team at Heart of the Nation for the last year or so - HoTN is an Australian charity set up by a famous Australian artist that recently suffered a near-fatal cardiac arrest. He was luckily saved by the presence of a defibrillator close by, and the quick response of a nurse at his show.

Since this event, Greg has been working tirelessly to educate people about the chain of survival and the use of AEDs.

Recently, Greg has started a new project, a mobile application that helps find the nearest AED to you, call the emergencies, and very recently enable volunteers to assist in the response. This application has been built by one of our partners, and our data platform holds all the information regarding the AEDs, fixed and mobile, as well as tracks and monitors their use and servicing to ensure they are always ready to go in time of need.

We're excited that this project has come to fruition for Greg and his team - it's an app everyone needs in there back pocket!

We look forward to engaging with this awesome community!

Max

CCO @ Inauro

[diz]

Hi All!

Super excited to be joining the Pledge 1% community again after being a Builder with Postmates, but this time with my own company, LiquiDonate.

Our business is inspired by all things sustainable social impact.

Check out what we do and how you can help!

1. Excess inventory and end of life products cost companies money to get rid of. 
2. Board members and customers require companies have sustainability strategies and social impact programs. 
3. LiquiDonate saves companies money and provides a seamlessly integrated sustainability and social impact solution overnight via API and an online marketplace. 
4. LiquiDonate matches and moves quality donated goods from the returns counter at retail stores nationwide and office-based companies to people in their community who need them. 

Please email me at diz@liquidonate.com if you have any questions or anything you want to donate!

[Lela_VanLoon]

Hi everyone!

Bolt Data, a Spoke AIoT company, just marked the start of our journey with Pledge1% and we are very excited about what lies ahead. We are a Salesforce Partner that specializes in designing and implementing solutions to help companies deliver service to their customers efficiently and effectively. 

The employees and the leaders at Bolt Data are natural givers and over the years they've created a culture of learning and helping that stems entirely from each individual's core values. I've only been with them for a short time, but they are an incredible group of people. Once I heard about Pledge1% I knew it would be a natural fit for the company. It seems like the perfect way to come together to make the greatest impact. 

As this is the very start of our collective effort to make as big an impact as we can, I'm looking for ideas and look forward to hearing how others have implemented successful company-wide charitable events. 

My best to everyone,

Lela VanLoon (pronounced Layla, like the song;) 

[InesGarcia]

Hi Divyesh, great to see you here! Big welcome have a browse around and reach out if anything!

[InesGarcia]

Big welcome Tim, and I must admit your VP title is the coolest I have came across so far 😎

[TimP1]

Hi everyone,

I am excited to be a new team member at Pledge 1%. As VP of Special Projects, I will be working on some initiatives to better support our members, and scale our work into the future! I come to Pledge 1% after six years as a Senior Director at the Boston Foundation, where I worked with tech, biotech and investor leadership on their charitable giving programs and impact investments. So happy to be part of this community and thank you all for making giving back a key priority for your businesses! The world needs it. 

[tantosec]

G'day all,

Tanto Security is super excited to join and be a part of the pledge 1%. We are a new cyber security consultancy and hope that other more established companies in our industry will follow and find more ways to give back to the community.  Having come from organisations where social impact can sometimes seem it was just added on we wanted to ensure it was central to what we do from the start. So this is the very beginning for us and we look forward to following the lead of some of the great people within this group. 

The causes that I am most passionate about and look forward to supporting are related to mental health and providing opportunities to others to get involved in cyber security. 

I look forward to reading more about what everyone is doing! 

[divyesh]

Dear Community,

This is Divyesh from Dubai. I have 12+ years IT exp. and having 6+ years Salesforce exp. I started my own Data and Cloud consulting company based in Dubai and India. I am also Salesforce Dubai User Group leader from last 5 years and Slack Dubai User Group lead from last 6 months. I really help/share/contribute to community. 

I am happy to spare my time to community and share my exp. Feel free to contact me anytime.

Happy to connect here.

Thank you

Divyesh

[Ceo_Wenurturio]

[Ceo_Wenurturio]

Hi Everyone!

I'm proud that WENURTURIO will be part of the Pledge 1% community. WENURTURIO is a Filipino knowledge sharing platform. Our goal is to be the NETFLIX that empower the entrepreneurial spirit of Filipinos. We partner with technology platform in eCommerce, Agriculture and Digital Marketing who wanted to join our mission in empowering Filipinos to start their own business and are passionate about economic inclusion.

Our pledge is to donate 1% profit, equity and time to charities. 
before founding WENURTURIO, the founder organize a non-profit project "Project Sustainable Smile PH" in alignment to YSEALI's Younified activity. By joining the 1% pledge I, the founder, hope to be consistent with the social impact efforts and create a giving culture and value in WENURTURIO while it's still at it's early stage.

This is what I started at Project Sustainable Smile PH and looking forward to continue the initiative in the future.
🗓25th December 2020: Our Project Sustainable Smile PH team celebrated Christmas with the parents and Kinder students of Madawon Elementary School

Watch full video of our initiatives here: https://fb.watch/4rXFUAKwp_/

[Ingrid_IndexEng]

Sounds fab.



Sent from my Galaxy

[selfcareconsult]

Hello Everyone!

So appreciative to be in this space with others who find value in sharing how we can make and promote equitable climate, and be all around, good people.  

My background is a bit different -- but it has brought me a skill set that really allows me to support clients and other businesses very well.  I worked in Higher Education doing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work for nine years.  In my role in Higher Education, I not only conducted workshops and seminars but also presented across the county and also was published.  Needing a new scenery, I left and took a position as the Executive Vice President of an international Emmy-Award-winning multi-media company.  There I was able to harness the power of storytelling to bring equity and disparity to the forefront.  It was an amazing job, and I met a lot of people whose stories reside in my heart. 

With the travel for work and the schedule being so demanding, I had to leave the industry to find a new calling.  As a single-mom I needed to find something that allowed me to do what I love, while still affording the time to be with my son.  Fast forward a few years later and I am now the Founder and owner of Self-Care Señorita, a company that focuses on promoting self-care, self-love, and work-life balance in life.  We also work very closely with small businesses to source the products for our self-care boxes.  I also have moved into the field of coaching and consulting.  I currently do DEI work for an AI company and also small business coaching and equitable ecosystem building for small and minority-

owned businesses.  

Truly looking forward to being in this space with all of you, learning, sharing and growing together. 

[Matt]

Hey Angela - thanks for dropping me a line, would love to grab some time to chat in the new year and learn all about Exploryst! 

Matt@pledge1colorado.org

[Exploryst]

Does being a member of this group automatically make you a part of the state chapter?

Warm regards,

Angela

Exploryst.com

[InesGarcia]

Big Welcome Deb! 

Fellow author here 👋

[DebdeF]

👋  Howdy from ATX.   I'm Deb de Freitas, part of the Khoros ESG team and proud to be working on one of our communities here. 

I've always been interested in social impact. I've been organizing drives and volunteering since childhood and still to this day when I'm getting too wrapped up in my own head, I find a way to get out into my community to serve.  Doing for others always helps me become more clear on my own values and needs.  

I'm passionate about many things but currently chair a local non-profit, austinbatcave.org which is a creative community that offers free writing instruction to underserved youth and unites many local writers and creatives to teach adult classes and workshops too.   My personal giving tends to go to the arts (especially writing); youth causes (especially survivors of trauma); the environment (especially anything related to oceans 🌊  , former surfer here); and animal welfare.

Many people inspire me, including many of you I'm sure as I get to know you.  Too many to name.  But generally anyone who is trying to leave people, places, or the planet better than they found it is a force for good in my book. 

[MElliott]

What a wonderful way to help out! Loved your story!

[carmensandiego]

Hi! I'm Carmen from the Corrao Group, based in San Diego.

We've been participating in Pledge 1% when it was originally the 1/1/1 program, and when Mark Benioff kicked it off. 

Our company has been working with the Emilio Nares Foundation for about 10 years now.  Corrao Group donates a certain amount, per hour of implementation we sell, to Ride with Emilio. Our customers are introduced during our sales presentation as part of our Company information.

ENF provides rides to children who have cancer, and for whatever reason, cannot get to their appointment. The drivers pick up the children and a family member and bring them to Rady's Hospital for treatment and wait for them to take them home .  This ensures no child misses a treatment. They also have many other programs to help families out. 

The children we have encountered over the years are our inspiration! THEY are the reason we do what we do. Warriors!! Each one of them. Our Pledge is year round and our company believes it should be year round, not just during the holidays. 

Salesforce is awesome in giving to non-profits! We got their platform customized for them, and because they are local, we can help train and upgrade their services as they need us. Our employees are happy to help out and work closely with them. 

We are so proud to be associated with this organization. We are so happy to be part of Pledge 1%. 

[MElliott]

Thanks for starting this great thread! My name is Miranda and I'm based just outside of Washington DC. I've loved reading about the other Pledge1 members.  I am a member of the marketing team at Ostendio.  Our company has been a Pledge 1% member since 2017 and we are a growing cybersecurity company.  Our CEO is committed to giving back and we recently increased the number of volunteer days for each employee to 6 days a year.  I arrange some of the days for us to volunteer together, which is a great team-building opportunity, and other days employees choose their own volunteer projects.  Our company also gives back to charitable organizations in our community.    

As part of this group, I'm looking forward to learning about some of the ways other organizations give back in their industry or community.

Looking forward to learning from you all!
Miranda

[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?