By Hayden Brown, CEO of Upwork
This piece is shared as part of Pledge 1%’s #GivingTuesdayNow campaign, which highlights how Pledge 1% members and the business community are coming together as a force for good to combat COVID-19.
For over 20 years, Upwork has connected businesses with remote professionals to help tackle their most pressing challenges. Right now, we all face a common challenge—mobilizing our resources to mitigate the devastating impact of the virus on our communities and economy. This challenge requires us to work quickly and at scale across a broad range of skills and with fresh thinking.
On April 28th, we announced the launch of our Work Together Talent Grants program. The program was created to help us meet these challenges head-on by offering businesses $1 million in talent grants to fund projects with missions directly tied to mitigating COVID-19’s impact on individuals, communities, and the economy.
Upwork will provide selected organizations up to $25,000 in talent credits to be used on the Upwork site, for a total of one million dollars in grant funding. In turn, these funds create economic opportunities for the independent talent hired to work on the grantees’ projects.
If your project is selected, our team will help match you directly with remote professional(s) who have the specialized skills you need. The grant funds will pay for some or all of their time on your project.
You can learn more about the Work Together Talent Grants here.
In addition to the Work Together Talent Grants, we are taking ongoing efforts to aid independent professionals and clients in maintaining business continuity, so they can remain resilient throughout the pandemic and emerge from it even stronger:
- Co-founded the Freelancers Relief Fund. In partnership with the Freelancers Union, the fund aids independent workers experiencing financial hardship as a result of the pandemic.
- Help talent gain payment peace of mind. Talent can enjoy the certainty of guaranteed payments on Upwork for their non-Upwork clients too by using our new Direct Contracts solution. We’re also working on ways to speed up payments to talent from clients on our platform.
- Created the remote work resources center. We share tips for building and successfully managing remote teams on a regular basis. Topics range from how to get started with working remotely, to leveling up security functions, and thought leadership articles on the future of work.
- Supported the #COVID19StartupWeekend. The online event brought together developers, marketers, nurses, students, scientists—anyone with an idea to tackle COVID-19. For 3 days, thousands of people from around the world joined forces to develop prototype solutions unique to each country.
As we navigate the new challenges ahead, our commitment to having a positive impact on our community remains at the core of everything we do. Our team is working around the clock to embody our company’s mission and ensure that the work we do today helps get the world back together tomorrow.
Upwork giving back in action can be found here.
