Canva with Force For Good
This story is part of Pledge 1%’s Impact Award Winner feature series. Learn more about the Cloud 100 List and other Pledge 1% members that were featured on the list here.
Why did you first decide to join Pledge 1%?
Our mission is to “empower the world to design” and one of our key values is to “be a force for good”. We’ve always had a two-step plan at Canva: to build one of the biggest companies in the world, and then do as much good as we possibly can. Joining Pledge 1% was a very natural step for us to take as part of this mission and helped us to create concrete goals for how we can be a force for good.
What does your Pledge 1% program look like in action? What does your program involve?
We joined the Pledge 1% movement to meaningfully contribute towards making the world a better place. Our 1% of equity is pledged to the Canva Foundation. This is in addition to the 30% of equity that was pledged towards social impact back in September 2021.
Through the Foundation, we’ve been able to financially support a number of charitable projects and causes such as the Aussies for Afghanistan Appeal and those impacted by the war in Ukraine. We’ve also implemented an internal donation gift-matching initiative, where we match the donations that our team commits to nonprofit organizations dollar-for-dollar (up to $5000AUD each per year) to help them amplify their impact.
In terms of our product, we’re committed to empowering schools, teachers, and nonprofit organizations by giving them access to Canva for Teams, our premium product, for free. From UNICEF, to Red Cross, to the World Wildlife Fund, we’ve seen some incredible ways that organisations are using Canva for Nonprofits to promote and champion important causes. We’re also incredibly proud to support the future of creativity by providing over 25 million K-12 students and teachers around the world with Canva for Education, for free.
Each member of our global team receives 3 days of volunteering leave each year, bringing to life the 1% pledge of our time to helping our community.
Photo from the Canva Foundation team’s recent trip to Malawi
What have been some of the greatest highlights or impact moments to date?
A huge impact moment for us was launching our first pilot program with GiveDirectly, where we distributed US$10 million of digital, unconditional cash to nearly 13,000 people in Malawi. This program also has a research component that will not only help Malawians, but future recipients of GiveDirectly programs.
How has Pledge 1%’s framework helped you scale your impact?
The Pledge 1% framework helped us bring to life a number of initiatives that allow us to live our value of Being a Force for Good. With our two-step plan in mind, the structure of Pledge 1% has allowed us to formalize our commitment to social good, create tangible goals to keep us accountable, and has helped us amplify our impact.
We’re now empowering over 260,000 nonprofit organizations with our premium product, as well as community educational workshops to upskill them with invaluable marketing and visual communication expertise. A great example is Amnesty International Australia, who curated the 21st century equivalent of picket signs that inspire followers to take action on important issues. We’re also empowering more than 25 million students and teachers each month to communicate visually in the classroom and beyond.
Through our internal donation-matching program, Canvanauts have donated a total of US$240,000 in the 2021/2022 financial year, which has all been matched dollar-for-dollar as part of our gift-matching initiative. That’s almost US$500,000 that has been donated to nonprofits by Canvanauts to help them amplify their impact!
We’ve recently been encouraging our global team to create their own Force for Good journey, and to make the most of their volunteering leave. To help empower Canvanauts to use their leave, we launched Force For Good Fridays, giving everyone the ultimate permission slip to volunteer and give back to their local community every month. In the last 12 months, we’ve had over 1,000 volunteers contribute more than 6,500 hours to over 70 nonprofits globally.
Another Canva Foundation initiative is our One Print, One Tree program — for every print order placed with Canva, we plant a tree – it’s a simple idea with a big impact. So far, we’ve planted 2.4 million trees (205 different native tree species) in over 18 sites in Kenya, Mozambique, the Philippines, Tanzania, Brazil, Haiti, USA and Madagascar, and we've committed to planting 5 million trees by the end of the year.
A few of the designs Amnesty International Australia has made on Canva
Have recent events like the pandemic (and other crises) impacted your program? If so, how?
During the pandemic, we needed to reimagine our volunteering opportunities. We switched to remote first volunteering, where we were able to help nonprofit organizations over Zoom. For example, through our monthly virtual Missing Maps Mapathon, we mapped over 8,700 buildings for Humanitarian OpenStreetMaps, supporting disaster relief projects in Guatemala and South Africa.
Another way we kept our Force for Good activities alive throughout the pandemic was by opening the kitchen in our Sydney office for the local community – our amazing Vibe team was able to continue using our office kitchen to prepare food for charities such as OzHarvest.
Through our equity commitment, we’ve also been able to play a small part in supporting some of the a number of recent humanitarian crises through initiatives such as the Aussies for Afghanistan Appeal and by raising vital funds to support those impacted by the war in Ukraine. Both of these programs helped to deploy and distribute emergency funds in partnership with grassroots organizations who are well-connected on-the-ground.
Our Employer Brand Team supporting OzHarvest for their volunteer leave
Any words of encouragement or tips you can share with companies who are just getting started?
Making a difference doesn’t have to be overwhelming — setting smaller, achievable goals is a great place to start. These keep us accountable and celebrating the small milestones is a powerful way to stay motivated and focused on your social impact journey.
Are there any future events, plans, or programs you are particularly excited about?
We’re really only 1% of the way there when it comes to our ‘simple’ Two-Step plan, but we’re so excited about the future Force For Good initiatives we have planned, and the impact they can have on the world.
