Whether it’s through grantmaking, employee volunteering, pro bono giving, product donations, or equity shares, Pledge 1% helps every company map their unique pathway to impact. It’s easy and starts with an initial commitment to do good. We’ll help you start and scale.
When companies join Pledge 1%, they pledge to give any combination of time, product, equity, or profit/revenue. Whatever type of giving you pledge, it often evolves over time depending on the state of your social impact efforts and business.
Giving time through volunteering, whether as a team or individuals, is helping many businesses supercharge their employee culture and connect directly with their customers and communities.
Time donations can come in many shapes and sizes. Traditional hands-on volunteering—such as cleaning up a beach, serving meals at a local shelter, or building homes—can be done company-wide, within a team, or individually via an open volunteer time off policy.
Skills-based volunteering is a great way to leverage your team’s unique expertise to have an impact and develop a program that fits with your company’s culture and larger goals.
Pledge 1% resources and community offer examples, frameworks, and the steps to build the right volunteer program for your team.
Product donations–including skills and services–are enabling companies to apply their unique assets towards building the capacity of nonprofit organizations and communities.
You can donate your product in full (e.g. provide licenses or subscriptions for a specific time period) or provide a discount for nonprofits to purchase your product. You hard costs may help you determine a sustainable model.
Pledging product can also involve leveraging your product in innovative ways to further support your social impact goals (i.e. reducing food waste or spotlighting BIPOC entrepreneurs).
Check out different examples and approaches from the Pledge 1% resources and community for your team to consider as you develop a product donation strategy.
Today’s top companies are setting aside equity to ensure funds for sustainable long-term social impact. Companies formalize their commitment when equity is being allocated. It is easiest to execute as an early stage company and sends a message to your employees, customers and partners that you are a company that cares about giving back from inception.
It’s important to note that setting aside equity does require legally binding paperwork to be formalized. You may want to seek financial/legal advice before moving forward.
Pledge 1% also provides expert guidance for navigating the equity allocation process of formalizing a company’s equity commitment, working with you to identify the model that works for you, key considerations, and the legal steps. For more information contact equity@pledge1percent.org.
Whether it’s traditional grantmaking or via employee matching funds, businesses small and large can donate a percentage of their profits back to the community or select nonprofits/social sector organizations.
Some companies opt to donate a percentage of revenue rather than profits or a portion of profits/revenue from a specific product line.
Funds can also be put into a corporate donor-advised fund for future use rather than spending it all in one year.
Share ideas with the Pledge 1 % community and check out our tools to help you build a profit or revenue donation strategy that aligns with your business.
Get executive signoff and take the pledge via this form. Taking the pledge signals to your employees and stakeholders that social impact is important to you. We’ll send you the resources you need to get started!
Now it’s time to ramp up your social impact efforts and propel your pledge to action. Engage with the Pledge 1% community and resources, collaborate, learn, and share insights.
Become a force multiplier. Announce your pledge, share your impact stories. Spread the word and inspire others. Help us grow the Pledge 1% movement and create lasting change.
Below are questions we get asked a lot. If you have additional specific questions, please email us at info@pledge1percent.org.
No. You join Pledge 1% when you take the pledge on our website. There is no cost to take the pledge. Taking the pledge is setting your intent to give, even if that’s at a later date. For instance, you may Pledge 1% of product and profit, but focus initially on product until there is profit to give.
No. Companies can pledge any combination of product, equity, profit, or time to the causes of their choice. Taking the pledge is setting your intent to give, even if that’s at a later date. How and what you give may evolve over time. For instance, you may Pledge 1% of product and profit, but focus initially on product until there is profit to give. Additionally, companies can add Pledge types over time as they grow and scale their programs.
Propel your pledge to action. Engage with the Pledge 1% community and resources to collaborate, learn, and share insights. You are in total control of their programs. You decide the causes and nonprofits you want to support based on your company’s interests. Pledge 1% is here to help you get started or to help you grow and optimize your company’s social impact efforts.
Amplify your impact beyond your company. Share your story to inspire others. Consider donating to Pledge 1% to continue growing the corporate impact movement and to redefine business success to include social impact.
Or join Pledge 1% Builders, a deeply committed collaborative network of companies leading the Pledge 1% corporate impact movement as partners, advisors, and financial supporters.
No. Pledge 1% is our name and rally cry as well as an easy guideline to remember. We recognize that every company has a different journey and path to growth, and we encourage companies to give what they can to sustain their impact program with their business. Some companies will give more than 1%, while others are building up to it.
No. Our goal is to inspire, educate and empower rather than certify or regulate. We supply you with the tools you need to maintain and track your impact programs for your company. We do not formally audit or require reports to participate. We will, however, reach out on a regular basis to better understand the impact of our community as well as to surface best practices that can be shared or common challenges that can be collectively tackled.
On the other hand, if you are proud of your work and want to share about it, we’d love to help amplify your story!
Join a community of like-minded peers, get access to collaborative resources, and be part of a global movement that creates a greater impact than the sum of its parts. Joining Pledge 1% is a great way to formalize your social impact program, and Pledge 1% can provide you with the template, language, and visibility you need to signal to your stakeholders your commitment to giving back.
No. You are in total control of their programs. You decide the causes and nonprofits you want to support based on your company’s interests. You can also collaborate with the Pledge 1% community on causes and nonprofits to consider.
Your pledged giving goes to the causes and nonprofits you select through your company social impact programs and efforts. No funds are automatically allocated to Pledge 1%.
As a nonprofit, Pledge 1% is funded by individual and corporate donors and foundations, which include our GVC, and Builders among others. Please contact us at fundraising@pledge1percent.org if you are interested in making a gift to expand the corporate impact movement.
No. Pledge 1% provides tools, community, and collaboration to help companies build or optimize their social impact programs and efforts. Pledge 1% member companies determine their own giving strategy to align with their business goals and culture, including which causes and nonprofits they support.
Let’s get acquainted! Tell us a little bit about your company and we’ll send you information on how to get involved.