Originally published on Airbnb.
Airbnb is committed to building a 21st century company that serves all stakeholders, and that includes sharing our success and benefits with the Hosts, guests, communities and employees that helped build Airbnb into the global company it is today.
Today, as part of our existing commitments to give back to the stakeholders that make the company’s success possible, Airbnb is proud to announce that we are joining Pledge 1%– a global network of companies committed to launching or growing their social impact programs.
Airbnb has made a series of commitments that meet Pledge 1%’s mission to empower companies to donate 1% of product, profit, equity, and/or employee time to improve their local communities.
Last year the Airbnb Board of Directors established a Stakeholder Committee to assist the Board in considering the interests of Airbnb’s stakeholders and to advise it regarding our stakeholder approach. The company has also linked incentive compensation to stakeholder priorities and Airbnb Co-Founder and CEO Brian Chesky made a commitment to donate the net proceeds from his multi-year equity award to community, philanthropic and charitable causes.
In addition to the company’s stakeholder approach, all three Airbnb co-founders– Brian Chesky, Nate Blecharczyk, and Joe Gebbia- have signed The Giving Pledge to dedicate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy or charitable causes. Since then, each has made meaningful commitments to social impact causes and non-profit organizations.
Last year, Brian Chesky committed to personally donate $10 million to non-profit organizations that support frontline workers responding to the COVID-19 crisis and an additional $5 million to Frontline stays, a program launched at the onset of the pandemic to allow Hosts to open their homes to first responders and frontline workers. Nate Blecharczyk and his wife donated $1 million each to Code.org and his high school alma mater Boston Latin Academy, and are actively engaged in other charitable efforts to support education, science and technology programs. In December 2020, Joe Gebbia donated $25 million to expand local San Francisco efforts to house homeless youth, and has donated to initiatives including those to support refugees and expand education access to girls around the world.
Building an enduringly successful business goes hand-in-hand with making a positive contribution to society. As part of our multi-stakeholder approach, Airbnb has also developed programs with the goal of strengthening the communities we serve.
Supporting the communities Hosts and guests call home
Airbnb.org is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that connects evacuees, relief workers, refugees, asylum seekers, and frontline workers to comfortable temporary stays. Airbnb, Inc. pledged 400,000 shares of Airbnb stock to support Airbnb.org’s emergency response and refugee programs. In addition, Airbnb co-founders Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nate Blecharczyk committed $6 million to support impacted communities.
To build on its ongoing work with refugee communities, last month Airbnb.org announced it will provide temporary housing to 20,000 Afghan refugees worldwide – the cost of which is funded through contributions to Airbnb.org from Airbnb and Brian Chesky, as well as donors to the Airbnb.org Refugee Fund.
To support local communities, we created the Airbnb Community Fund to provide $100 million in grants to local initiatives around the world over the next 10 years. Airbnb announced the inaugural grant recipients earlier this year, which include awards to over 150 organizations from more than 40 countries and six continents.
Giving back is also embedded across Airbnb’s culture. To promote generosity among employees, Airbnb matches employee donations and volunteer time to eligible charities of their choice. Since November 2017, our employee social impact program has raised over $4 million for causes our employees care about, including over $500,000 for civil rights organizations in the summer of 2020.
Our commitment to hosts
To support the Hosts who make Airbnb unique, last October, Airbnb created the Airbnb Host Endowment, designed to provide education, financial resources and other support to Hosts for generations to come. Airbnb seeded the Endowment with 9.2 million shares of Airbnb Class H common stock, and it now has a market value of more than $1 billion. Brian Chesky is putting plans in place to make an additional personal contribution of shares of Airbnb common stock worth over $100 million at the time of the contribution to support the Endowment.
These are just some of the initiatives Airbnb has taken to support our stakeholders. We look forward to many more opportunities ahead.
Originally posted: September 9th, 2021
