Welcome! Intro post, questions for new Forum members

[Kali N]

Welcome to the Pledge 1% Sydney Forum!

I can't wait to connect with all of our wonderful, Australian Pledge 1% peers, to chat more about what we do at Atlassian Foundation, find out more about what you do with your business and your giving, and share knowledge and opportunity.

Atlassian Foundation was created to tackle disadvantage on a global scale and in our own backyards. As a company, we contribute 1% of our equity, profit, employee time and products to the Foundation as part of our commitment to Pledge 1%.

So we can all get to know each other, as you join this group please do a little intro post/ comment, answering the below (you can cut-and-paste):

🏢 Do you work remotely, or in the office?

💼 What's your role in the company (title, and what do you actually do day-to-day)?

💰 What Pledge types does your company do?

💛 What's the social impact cause closest to your heart?

📣 If you could give a shoutout to one other person or company who is doing social impact well, who would it be?

I'll leave mine in the comments below, and I look forward to connecting soon 😀

(If you're a face-to-face person, feel free to make a time with me HERE to chat more about what we do at Atlassian, and the programs we run for social impact teams)

[Kali N]

I'm Kali, and I'm a Social Impact team member at Atlassian Foundation, building programs and support for social impact teams and our Pledge 1% peers (just like yourself!) You can find me on LinkedIn HERE.

🏢 Do you work remotely, or in the office? - I work remotely! 

💼 What's your role in the company (title, and what do you actually do day-to-day)? - Social Impact Specialist, and I support corporate social impact teams with programs 

💰 What Pledge types does your company do? - Profit, equity, product, and time

💛 What's the social impact cause closest to your heart? - Community Arts initiatives 

📣 If you could give a shoutout to one other person or company who is doing social impact well, who would it be? - Love the work that Culture Amp is doing around equality initiatives

[melanie-vtx]

Hi Kali, thanks for adding me to the group. Here's a little about myself:

🏢  I mostly work from home but am usually in the office once or twice a week

💼  My role is a tough one! Generally speaking I manage our in-house development team who are busy working to build our cyber security platforms but as we are a small business run by myself and my husband, I also take on anything that required including HR (we're currently a team of 18), R&D, marketing, bookkeeping, program management, process improvement, etc. The CSG side of things is my pet project though and where I really want to add value through our business

💰Currently we pledge our product  - we offer our online cyber awareness training free to all Australian registered charities, and we also support at least one charity a year with cyber security services such as penetration testing. We also support our local community through sponsorships

💛  Social impact clause close to my heart - I'm particularly passionate about mental health and suicide prevention initiatives

📢I think I am inspired by any small business who is seeking to be in business as a force for good and who has committed to this through BCorp compliance. It is a comprehensive assessment (and one I want Vertex to achieve) and I think it can be difficult to prioritise as a small business but it's a really admirable achievement - companies like Laundry Lane Productions and Catalyser come to mind.

I'm looking forward to hearing from other Pledge1% members based in Sydney.

[Kali N]

Thank you so much @melanie-vtx - and there are some incredible mental health & suicide prevention initiatives around, I've been lucky enough to see some great collaborations with Regional Arts groups (community arts was my SI passion area!) to help with mental health awareness, including the Blue Tree Project which has a great regional presence (you can't miss them!) 

@BijalSolanki @jencains @steveking how about you? Would love to learn more about you, your work, and your social impact areas of interest 😁

[BijalSolanki]

Hi Kali,

Thanks for setting this group up. Good to collaborate with other locals and would love the opportunity for this group to meet in person. 

I was at Salesforce for over 12 years so the Pledge1% is very close to my heart. I was involved in a number of social impact programs that supported indigenous, immigrant and equality initiatives. I have since formed by own consulting firm and Pledge1 has been built in from Day 0.

🏢 Do you work remotely, or in the office? I work remotely for the most part, but in the city at least once  aa week.

💼 What's your role in the company (title, and what do you actually do day-to-day)? Co-Founder and generally doing everything on a day to day basis!

💰 What Pledge types does your company do? We are a boutique consultancy that offers Channel Management as a Service.

💛 What's the social impact cause closest to your heart? Being an immigrant myself, I am deeply passionate about helping others as they enter Australia.

📣 If you could give a shoutout to one other person or company who is doing social impact well, who would it be? I am a firm believer that is the people within the companies that make the most difference, so shout out to everyone who wants to give back.

[Kali N]

Thanks so much @BijalSolanki - love that you're passionate about initiatives that help people who have recently relocated to Australia. Please let us know of any causes or groups you'd recommend, it's an area that doesn't get as much public attention as it should (the Centre for Entrepreneurship in the UK is a org that I've always admired in this space, helping people to set up businesses and navigating local business registration processes)

[Olivia Tyler]

Hi Everyone,

Great to connect! A little about me ... I'm Olivia. After 25 years or so working in large corporates across a bunch of sectors, I've set up Good & Should www.goodandshould.com  which looks to support organisations of all sizes getting down into the 'how' of sustainability, ESG, impact etc... in addition to the what, when and who!

🏢 Do you work remotely, or in the office? A blend - sometimes home, sometimes with my clients in their offices.

💼 What's your role in the company (title, and what do you actually do day-to-day)? Founder/MD/Chief Doer ... it's just me at the moment - so the work ranges from the glamorous through to the admin of supporting clients wade through the murk of what it means to operate sustainably!

💰 What Pledge types does your company do? Dollars and time. After 6 months of operation I was pretty chuffed to actually make a profit and so I joined Pledge 1% and donated 1% of profit (at that time) to two of my favourite charities. I'm also on a NFP Board and do pro-bono advisory for NFP's am tallying up the time as well as the $$.

💛 What's the social impact cause closest to your heart? I'm all about supporting organisations that support animals - be they wild or domestic, farm or (lounge room) floor. I'm a huge advocate for the positive role pets and animals play in our lives.

📣 If you could give a shoutout to one other person or company who is doing social impact well, who would it be? Good question ... hard to narrow it down ... but I recently had the opportunity to see Camille from Xylo Systems present and she's just fab. Xylo Systems supports business/organisations understand their impact on nature - which most are confused about. Her expertise and insight on the subject was incredibly refreshing ... and she's an awesome, authentic and BS free human ... so she gets my vote!

[Kali N]

ooooh @Olivia Tyler what an exciting time for your business - solo founder, doing such impactful work! Huge congrats!

Which NFP are you on the board of, and would you mind sharing the charities you donate to? It's always so great to hear about groups doing good work, especially if they are hyper-local.

Xylo Systems looks really interesting as well, thanks for suggesting such a great mix of causes and companies, they are not ones I personally know much about and it's always great to learn.

@KateK @steveking would love to hear what your areas of interest are as well, if you're comfortable sharing (honestly, no pressure!)

[Olivia Tyler]

Hi Kali,

Of course! I'm very happy to promote the organisations I support!

I'm on the board of Pet Medical Crisis, a Victorian-based charity that provides funding to people in need of veterinarian care for their pets that, if they were not to receive it, would result in the death or euthanasia of the pet. They're awesome and are quite unique in their work and focus, in keeping pets and their people together in times of crisis.

I'm also a Risk and Governance Advisor to The Lost Dogs' Home  - again, Victorian-based and focussed on supporting animals (cats and dogs!) in need and re-homing. 

The charities I donated to are Monika's Rescue and Cat Rescue 901 (which is actually where we adopted 2 of my cats from) - both quite small community-based charities supporting the re-homing of dogs and cats.

[Kali N]

These are great, thanks @Olivia Tyler , all four are new to me (and hopefully now on the radar of a few others on this forum as well!)

[Kali N]

Also WELCOME @msheargold to the group! If you're comfortable, please intro yourself with the above questions, or feel free to pose any your own to the group 🙂

[Kali N]

WELCOME @Sebastian_Robertson  to the group!

If you're comfortable, please intro yourself with the above questions, or feel free to pose any your own to the group 🙂

[Kali N]

WELCOME @Shrav  to the Sydney forum! We can't wait to connect and hear more about your work.

If you're comfortable, please intro yourself with the above questions, or feel free to pose any your own to the group 🙂

[jencains]

Hi everyone and thanks @Kali N  for the invite to join this forum.  

By way of introduction, I'm Jen Cains founder of Advice for Good. After 25 years in corporate IT leadership roles I decided to spend this next part of my career focussed on giving back and social impact. @melanie-vtx I too have a passion for mental health and decided to focus on this as part of this career stage.

🏢 Do you work remotely, or in the office? Fully remotely, at home or lurking in the foyers of office buildings in the Sydney CBD that have good remote working facilities. Happy to share my favourite spots 🙂

💼 What's your role in the company (title, and what do you actually do day-to-day)? I am founder of Advice for Good and like @Olivia Tyler am a solo-preneur at the moment. Therefore I do most things with some outsourcing here and there. Similar to @BijalSolanki my company is a boutique consultancy, however I provide consulting & training services to organisations who want to improve their mental health literacy and the capability of their managers to foster sustainable high performing teams.

💰 What Pledge types does your company do? We donate profit to Greenpeace and Plan International. Greenpeace to support advocacy for Australian environmental issues. Plan International to support children's rights, particularly girls internationally.  We also deliver pro bono and low bono Mental Health First Aid Certificate training to non profits.

💛 What's the social impact cause closest to your heart? Mental health and education is closest to my heart. I volunteer as a board member for the not for profit Wayahead Mental Health Association of NSW and am a member of BeyondBlue Blue Voices lived experience group.

📣 If you could give a shoutout to one other person or company who is doing social impact well, who would it be? I hope through this network that I can meet people and companies that help me answer this question! I've had the benefit of working at Microsoft and Salesforce who both had solid programs around this. Salesforce a particular stand out in making this real for employees. I'd love to learn more about other people and organisations doing this well, closer to home.

I hope to meet some of you at the networking event on 30 April, thanks @Kali N  for organising.

[Kali N]

Oh this is great! Thank you for sharing @jencains , wonderful to see the number of solo-preneurs in this forum, and the shared interest in mental heath 

[BijalSolanki]

Hi @Kali N Hope that you are well and that you had a great weekend. 

Unfortunately I will need to pull out of the get together for tomorrow evening. I was looking forward to meeting everyone but hopefully will make the next one.

[Kali N]

Thank you for letting me know - and hopefully we will see you next time!

[Kali N]

Hi @Shrav - welcome to the Sydney forum, great to have you here! If you feel comfortable, please introduce yourself and answer the above questions so we can get to know you better 🙂 

[Kali N]

Hi @Anastasha from Gradcut - welcome to the Sydney forum, great to have you here! If you feel comfortable, please introduce yourself and answer the above questions so we can get to know you better 🙂 

[Kali N]

Welcome to the Sydney group @Naomi @Patrickg @finderful @Donal @Mark_Reading !

So we can all get to know each other, as you join this group please do a little intro post/ comment if you are comfortable, answering the below (you can cut-and-paste) - in this thread you can see others' intros as well 🙂 :

🏢 Do you work remotely, or in the office?

💼 What's your role in the company (title, and what do you actually do day-to-day)?

💰 What Pledge types does your company do?

💛 What's the social impact cause closest to your heart?

📣 If you could give a shoutout to one other person or company who is doing social impact well, who would it be?

I can't wait to connect with you all, either in person, or through one of the upcoming Pledge events!

Kali

[jencains]

Welcome all - great to have new members join us!

[Patrickg]

Thanks @Kali N and Hi all.

Here's a little about me and an intro 🙂

🏢I work remotely primarily but we often bring our team together face-to-face for events, workshops, key stakeholder meetings etc and I'm aften in and out of the city visiting clients

💼I'm Co-founder and Director of our company Airteam = we're a software design and development business (founded in 2016) designing and building complex, custom software solutions for businesses. We have a team of 20 scattered all around Australia. My role touches many parts of the business with my day-to-day spent managing key client accounts and relationships, doing new business development, managing partners, having some involvement in operations, working on marketing and also working with my business partner on setting the future vision and strategy for the company.

💰💛📣 We donate profit from the business and primarily support an organisation called The Environmental Defenders Office as their cause and values align with several of our own.

Thanks for welcoming me into the community and great to connect with so many other fantastic people through this community 👋 

[Kali N]

Thank you @Patrickg - and I love the look of Environmental Protectors Office, the fact that they are offering legal education and support to people is amazing, I'd not heard of it before. How did you come across this cause?

[Patrickg]

@Kali N my business partner and co-founder knew of the EDO. For a few years we bounced around trying to support a few charitable causes and then we came across the EDO, spoke to them, and it felt aligned to what we were looking to support from a social impact perspective and so we got behind them and continue to do so. We're looking to develop the partnership further and have them coming in to speak to our team about some of their landmark cases, so we better understand the impact of what they do and how our support helps them. Who knows, there may be an opportunity for us to invest some design/development time in supporting them in future as well, as opposed to just $'s. 

[Kali N]

Oh I love this - and we have actually been looking for skilled volunteering opportunities for our Legal team, I will pass this onto them as well. It's a wonderful initiative

[Naomi]

Thanks @Kali N and hi to everyone! Here's a little about me as way of intro:

🏢 Do you work remotely, or in the office? I mostly work in the office.

💼 What's your role in the company (title, and what do you actually do day-to-day)? Compliance Manager. It’s a family print and signage business with 30 staff most from a trade rather than corporate background so my role encompasses the corporate side anything from HR and financial management to ESG and maintaining sustainability credentials. A recent highlight has been leading the company in becoming carbon neutral.

💰 What Pledge types does your company do? Profit.

💛 What's the social impact cause closest to your heart? – Manyatta Trade School in western Kenya which my inlaws have been directly involved in supporting from the beginning (their stories definitely captured my heart). It’s only a small project but having a dramatic impact expanding the life opportunities and wellbeing of the local Manyatta community – aligns with the first six UN SDGs.

📣 If you could give a shoutout to one other person or company who is doing social impact well, who would it be? Trace -more enviro impact but their guidance and support has been in invaluable in helping us go carbon neutral and their certified carbon projects have enormous social as well as environmental impact.

It's great to connect with like minded locals - I'm already inspired by what you've shared.

[Kali N]

Thank you so much for sharing @Naomi - and the trade school in Manyatta looks so interesting and impactful, how did your in-laws come across this project to fund?

[Naomi]

Thanks @Kali N it was pretty random... their involvement initially started when they offered to be a Sydney host family as part of an unrelated international program many years ago. The person who came to stay with them was from Manyatta. They stayed in touch and decided to add a visit to Manyatta onto the end of an overseas holiday - and no surprise returned home challenged and inspired to do something to support the community (through accountable channels not just direct donations)... to cut a long story short the project has evolved over time and they have been back several times always amazed at how much the leaders on the ground have been able to achieve with so very little.

[Kali N]

That's such an interesting story - I'd love to organise a session to learn more about this!

[karnjanveja]

Hi Kali, thanks for adding me to the group. Here's a little about myself:

🏢 I mostly work from Greenhouse tech ( Greenhouse | A climate action ecosystem). Its a start-up hub in the Salesforce building near Circular Quay. Love to host others there for a coffee 🍮

👨‍🏭I am a founder of a social enterprise called Processant. We connect process, analytics and technology through our advisory services. We are focused on giving students and refugees opportunity but giving them paid work and including them in our projects. After spending 25+ years in data analytics, process redesign and risk management in world's largest companies like GE, IAG and Macquarie, we are now focused on carbon emission reduction and better governance. 

💰We pledge 10% of our time helping non for profits and 1% of revenue to help students and refugees. 

💛  Social impact clause close to my heart - I'm particularly passionate about empowering young talents and refugees and getting them involved in carbon reduction initiatives. We run an internship program with UNSW and our batch just created a carbon calculator for farms. We want to give free scope 1, 2 and 3 calculations for those who can't afford expensive calculators or technology.

Please feel free to reach out if you know someone who is looking for help. kj@processant.com.au

I'm looking forward to hearing from other Pledge1% members

[Kali N]

@karnjanveja this is amazing! You donate 10% of your time, AND run so many other impact programs! How do you find impact reporting across all these incredible streams?

[Patrickg]

@karnjanveja love your work and what you're doing 👍