4 tips for engaging with Pledge 1% companies

SAN FRANCISCO — On Thursday, software technology company Okta announced a grant to Fast Forward, an organization that invests in nonprofit technology entrepreneurs, as part of its commitment to the Pledge 1% movement. Launched in 2014, Pledge 1% aims to bring a culture of giving to technology companies by providing them with a pathway into early stage corporate philanthropy. In 2016, Okta became one of a growing number of companies that have made a commitment to donate 1 percent of their product, time, profit, or equity to any charity of their choosing. The following year, Okta had an initial public offering, and the company has since expanded its social impact initiative — Okta for Good — into a donor-advised fund that offers products, support from employees, and grants to nonprofits. On the occasion of its Oktane18 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, last week, Devex asked the technology company and its nonprofit partners what advice they have for engaging with Pledge 1% companies. They emphasized that technology companies have more to offer than just money in their corporate philanthropy. 1. Consider the value of human as well as financial capital As part of its pledge, Okta committed to offering its technology for free to nonprofits with 25 employees or fewer. It also joined ImpactCloud, an alliance of cloud technology vendors working with humanitarian organizations, and encouraged its employees to give back to the community through its employee volunteer program. “A lot of early Pledge 1% organizations will have more product and employee time to give than money, so nonprofits that can envision a way to draw out product resources — or ideally employee resources — from a company and put that to good use are going to see more traction in these relationships with companies in the earlier stage, rather than just looking for dollars at the beginning,” Erin Felter, founding executive director of Okta for Good, told Devex. The grant to Fast Forward follows Okta’s first grant to NetHope, which aims to improve information technology connectivity among its member NGOs working in areas affected by disaster. Felter said part of what appeals to Okta about both Fast Forward and NetHope is they offer ways Okta employees can leverage their skills for good. Tech companies are always on the lookout for ways to engage their employees, and they struggle with finding ways to do so that are skills-based and not place-based, particularly when they have employees all over the world. 2. Build relationships with companies that have not yet gone public Fast Forward counts a number of Pledge 1% members among its corporate partners, and not all of them have gone through their liquidity moment, but the organization sees immense value in the pro bono support they are able to offer before they go public. “That can have outsized impact,” said Shannon Farley, executive director of Fast Forward. “Often we get so obsessed with fundraising, we forget all the things we need to run nonprofit businesses.” “Look at that list of incredible companies and think about how they can use the human capital within those organizations to achieve the impact they want to in the world,” she explained. “If you can match not just financial capabilities but also human capabilities, it unlocks tremendous social impact.” Nexleaf Analytics co-founder and CEO Nithya Ramanathan is among the tech nonprofit entrepreneurs who has participated in the Fast Forward accelerator. It has a similar model to other accelerators, such as the Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator, but is focused exclusively on technology nonprofits. The organization, which uses connected devices to improve health and environmental outcomes, is a good example of a technology nonprofit that has leveraged not just grants but other forms of support from tech companies, Fast Forward co-founders Shannon Farley and Kevin Barenblat told Devex. The grant from Okta will allow Fast Forward to build out a platform to support the broader ecosystem of promising tech nonprofit entrepreneurs, not just those who have been through the accelerator, to tap into the expertise of technology companies. 3. Consider your influence as a user Lauren Woodman, CEO of NetHope, joined Okta for its conference in Las Vegas, where she spoke about research on the state of technology transformation among NGOs made possible by Okta’s support. “Okta’s support for The Center for the Digital Nonprofit [part of NetHope] has been really critical in helping us launch this important effort to help international nonprofits leverage technology more effectively,” she told Devex via email. Because its 56 member organizations deliver more than 60 percent of humanitarian aid globally, when NetHope approaches corporate partners ranging from Okta to Microsoft, they can engage more like a customer versus a grantee. While many interactions between tech companies and nonprofits revolve around discounts or donations, increasingly nonprofits working at scale on issues such as global health, international development, and humanitarian response are paying customers of these tech companies. Felter explained how Okta saw NetHope as a way to help the tech company understand the needs of their member organizations so they could incorporate those insights into product offerings for nonprofits. 4. Consider what support you can offer Pledge 1% offers tech companies a “nice, clean, easy framework for how to think about integrated philanthropy — so not just dollars, not just employee time, but this full spectrum approach to leveraging all your resources to be giving back,” Felter told Devex. This is the approach that more and more companies are wanting to take, she said. Okta committed 1% of its equity, then once the company went through its IPO, it had money to leverage for strategic philanthropy. Still, Felter said many are mistaken about just how resource-constrained these social impact initiatives can be, no matter the scale of the tech company. “In many cases, we are either single actors, or very small teams who are resource constrained within our large organizations,” she said. Part of what appeals to Okta about both NetHope and Fast Forward is they are intermediaries that can play a unique role in helping Okta for Good pursue its mission to develop the ecosystem for technology innovation in the nonprofit sector. “As a small nimble shop, we can’t have conversations with every nonprofit organization and do the discovery and analysis we’d like to do in a world with tons of resources,” she said.