Pledge 1%, a global movement to create a new normal in which giving back is integrated into the DNA of companies of all sizes, is ringing the Nasdaq opening bell today in celebration of its fourth anniversary and to honor the Pledge 1% member companies who unleashed millions of new philanthropic funding this year via their IPOs as well as the thousands of Pledge 1% companies who are having an impact long before their liquidity events.

Pledge 1% encourages and challenges individuals and companies to pledge 1% of any combination of equity, profit, product, and/or employee time to the cause of their choosing. It’s a simple, flexible, and scalable model that helps founders make giving back an integral part of their company culture. With an annual growth rate of 150% since its inception, over 8,500 companies in over 100 countries have joined the movement, helping to ignite over 1 billion dollars in donated volunteer hours, product licenses, pro bono resources and philanthropic funding to drive social impact around the world.

Pledge 1% is celebrating today alongside its Founding Builders, a group of over 20 members standing at the forefront of both economic and social change. These leaders are committed to creating a new business paradigm and to inspiring, empowering, and educating all entrepreneurs and companies to leverage their own unique assets to tackle the toughest social issues of our time.

The Pledge 1% Builders along with Pledge 1% core funders and partners are investing in the future of Pledge 1% by helping to create new tools and content for the broader movement, sharing peer-to-peer best practices, and raising awareness to help other companies take the pledge, and ultimately accelerate their impact.

Pledge 1% core funders include tech leaders like Salesforce and Atlassian, and Pledge 1% Builders include recent IPOs like DocuSign, Pluralsight, and Upwork, hot acquisitions like SendGrid and Weebly, as well as some of today’s fastest growing companies like Addteq, Appfire, Box, Classy, Cloud Co-Op, Contentstack, Crunchbase, Flexport, Gliffy, Hint Inc., MapAnything, MediaMath, Okta, Optimizely, PagerDuty, Postmates, Silicon Valley Bank, Silverline, and Twilio. Influential tech ecosystem partners have also backed the movement, including 500 Startups, Foundry Group, Salesforce Ventures, StartCon, SV Angel, Techstars, TechCrunch, and WebSummit.

 

“We’re here today on #GivingTuesday to celebrate four years of Pledge 1% and the tremendous growth of the movement around the world,” said Pledge 1% Chief Executive Amy Lesnick. “With over 8,500 members worldwide who have already ignited over $1 billion in new philanthropy via their profits, equity, product, and time, the Pledge 1% movement is inspiring, educating, and empowering companies of all sizes and stages to leverage their own unique assets to make a meaningful impact on our world.

We are especially excited to celebrate today with our founding core funders and Builders who are not only having a direct impact with their own social impact programs, but also committed to building the Pledge 1% movement and propelling thousands of other companies to accelerate social impact globally.”

“Imagine a world where giving back is baked into the DNA of every single business. At Pledge 1%, that’s our goal,” said Scott Farquhar, Pledge 1% Board Member and Co-Founder and CEO of Atlassian.

Pledge 1% encourages all companies – no matter their size or stage – to take the pledge and make their first step towards impactful change. To join or to learn more about how Pledge 1% can help your company, visit pledge1percent.org.

 

About Pledge 1%

Pledge 1% is a global movement that encourages and empowers companies of all sizes and stages to give 1% of either their profit, equity, staff time, or product to any charity of their choosing.  Over 8,500 companies in over 100 countries have joined the movement.  Pledge 1%’s founding partners include Salesforce, Atlassian, and Rally, three companies that know first-hand how pledging a small portion of future success today can have an enormous impact tomorrow. In 2014, they came together with the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado to accelerate a shared vision of every business around the globe integrating philanthropy into its corporate DNA. In 2016, Pledge 1% became a special initiative of Tides, a leading global philanthropic partner, and non-profit accelerator. To learn more or to take the pledge, please visit www.pledge1percent.org.