By Zak Kaufman, Co-Founder and CEO, Vera Solutions
Each November, staff at Vera Solutions nominate peers for annual Recognition Awards, tipping their hats to teammates who have exemplified the company’s five values: Impact, Excellence, Sustainability, Teamwork, and Leadership. The five awards are announced publicly before the holidays on Veraforce, the company’s Salesforce-based system for managing everything from projects to expenses to performance reviews. But award recipients don’t just receive acknowledgement, they help direct which organizations receive a portion of the company’s profits from the year. Over the years, Vera has donated to a range of charitable organizations, including Gardens for Health, GiveDirectly, Planned Parenthood International, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and Grassroot Soccer.
“We were already giving back from the beginning,” says Vera Co-Founder and CEO Zak Kaufman. “We created the Recognition Awards to say thanks to our MVPs and to let them drive how we give back as a company.”
And staff are into it. In 2016, Vera staff made over 150 nominations. Carol Ernst, a Vera Consultant who has worked in Mumbai and Geneva, received the 2016 Recognition Award for Excellence. “I think it’s a really unique initiative,” says Ernst. “It feels great to work for a company that not only focuses its work on social impact but also goes further to give back and to recognize staff.”
This is just one way that Vera, a member of the Pledge 1% Movement, is giving back to social sector organizations around the globe. Vera also discounts its consulting rates for non-profits as well as license fees for its Salesforce-based performance indicator management app, Amp Impact. “In reality, we put 100% of our time, energy, and knowledge towards helping social sector organizations,” says Kaufman. “We joined the Pledge 1% movement because we wanted to join other great companies in giving back and setting an example.”
Part of the Vera Solutions team on a 2017 retreat in Western Massachusetts
To learn more about how Vera is amplifying the impact of the social sector, visit www.verasolutions.org.
About Vera Solutions
Vera Solutions is a global social enterprise and Certified B Corporation using cloud and mobile technology to help social sector organizations better track their impact, streamline their operations, and put data in the hands of people who need it. With teams in Mumbai, Cape Town, Geneva, Boston, and Washington DC, Vera works with both implementers and funders, building their capacity to collect, manage, analyze, and utilize data to deliver better results. Since 2010, Vera has worked with more than 220 organizations in 45+ countries, delivering over 140,000 hours of consulting services.
Originally posted: November 28, 2017
