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As for so many communities and individuals, the murder of George Floyd and ensuing protests challenged how we operate as a company and how we think about our role to enable new systems that advance equity and actively combat systemic discrimination. Recognizing that business either perpetuates current systems or creates new ones, we’re taking steps to ensure our actions—through both core business operations and social impact—generate greater racial equity.
We made rapid response grants to get dollars flowing to the front lines of this work and instituted a company day of reflection on Juneteenth, Day For Change, during which all Dutonians (that’s PagerDuty employees) were asked to take meaningful action and advocate for equity and critical reform for the Black community. From education to volunteerism and giving, we offered opportunities for Dutonians—alongside their colleagues, friends and family—to engage and work toward true change.
Giving
In June, we announced contributions to NAACP and Black Lives Matter and pledged $500,000 towards creating Just & Equitable Communities with a specific goal to combat systemic discrimination. We launched a special match campaign to benefit the NAACP. With matching funds provided by our CEO Jenn Tejada, a set of pooled donations from our leadership team, and the PagerDuty.org Fund, the 3:1 match inspired more than 200 employees to contribute and raised over $150,000. Dutonians held grassroots fundraisers as well, including Tobi from our Toronto office who inspired his peers to Race for Action with a 100-meter race challenge supporting an organization advancing racial equity in Canada’s Black community.
Employee Time
PagerDuty expanded its volunteer time off (VTO) policy to include participation in peaceful civil and human rights demonstrations, as well as voting and nonpartisan voter engagement with a focus on voter turnout in underrepresented communities. Juneteenth will be an annually recognized paid day off at PagerDuty. During our inaugural Juneteenth day of action, employees were asked to share their action plans for Day for Change, with more than 100 employees committing to activities ranging from self-education through reading books and watching film to engaging in advocacy efforts with organizations that supported the Black community. While many took the time to reflect individually or with their families, the day also brought colleagues together for collective action. One group of Dutonians came together to build “The Peoples’ Police Registry,” a web-based resource for the everyday citizen to learn more about the officers policing their communities. In Atlanta, another group volunteered to distribute water and food to demonstrators participating in a local protest.
Amplification
Jenn Tejada publicly announced on CNBC a call for tech companies, industry leaders and individuals to join PagerDuty in standing in solidarity with the Black community, and use their collective power and influence to drive demonstrable change, equality, and justice. We open-sourced our Day for Change toolkit with our peers in the Pledge 1% community and the broader tech industry to make it easy for others to join us in education and action.
While strategic philanthropy and employee activation are critical levers for impact, we recognize the power of core business operations to drive change. PagerDuty signed an open letter, alongside 15 other tech companies, requiring vendors and investors to invest in inclusion, diversity and equity in order to do business with PagerDuty, and is implementing new guidelines to inform acceptable use of our platform. In September, we became a founding pledge member of the Board Challenge and committed to appointing a Black director to our board in the next 12 months.
We recognize that change will not happen overnight, and that it requires honest assessment of our progress and continued diligence, accountability and collaboration.
