Busy Market Summer Results in Big Boost to Corporate Giving; Pledge 1% Unlocks Another $1 Billion in New Philanthropy

Equity pledges from Pledge 1% companies like Remitly, Sprinklr, and Toast contribute to $2 billion benchmark in just four months

SAN FRANCISCO--()--Pledge 1%, a global movement to inspire, educate, and empower all companies to leverage their assets for good, today announces $2 billion in new philanthropy has been unlocked for good since the launch of its CEO Equity Playbook in the summer of 2020. Working closely with Boardroom Allies to help top companies set aside equity for social impact prior to liquidity events, Pledge 1% has doubled the $1 billion equity impact announced just four months ago, ensuring proceeds from a record-setting summer of IPO and market activity are earmarked for philanthropy. Pledge 1% ensures nonprofits benefit along with private markets, and is well on its way toward a goal of unlocking $5 billion in new philanthropy by 2025.

“Remitly is grateful to be in a position to help model how companies think of their role in the broader ecosystem, and we’re humbled to be part of this important milestone,” said Matt Oppenheimer, Co-founder and CEO of Remitly. “Pledge 1% has helped provide tools we need to transform our philanthropic objectives into impact. Now, the funds we’ve dedicated to invest in the financial, economic, and social inclusion of immigrants and their families can grow in lockstep with our company’s success. We look forward to a future where committing equity for good is part of every IPO.”

After Atlassian, DocuSign, PagerDuty, Salesforce, Twilio, and other top companies found success weaving equity commitments into their overall philanthropic pledges, a coalition of CEOs and board members from these companies sat down with Pledge 1% leadership to develop the step-by-step CEO Equity Playbook that incorporates all the lessons they learned along the way. Formalizing how executives and their teams can easily join the movement has dramatically accelerated impact. In the first year after its publication (June 2020 through June 2021), Pledge 1% had already unlocked $1 billion in new philanthropy — a contribution that has now doubled in the four months since.

“It's so encouraging to see these large, public companies commit to social change in a real and sustainable way,” said David Yuan, general partner at Tidemark, and Boardroom Ally as a director of Toast. “We are seeing this trend accelerate through Pledge 1%, and it's thrilling to see the impact on the organizations and causes these companies support.”

“As a longtime supporter of Pledge 1%, it has been amazing to watch the movement ignite,” said Rich Wong, partner at Accel and Boardroom Ally. “Each time we go through the CEO Equity Playbook, it inspires another board member or executive at the table to take the pledge. The social impact is among the most inspiring parts of my job, and I imagine taking part will be essential for top VCs in years to come.”

Pledge 1%’s latest $1 billion milestone is the cumulative value of several types of corporate commitments, including:

  • Increased market value (both private valuation and in public market performance) from companies who previously committed equity, such as Canva, Coinbase, and Unity.
  • Over $800 million in new equity commitments from pre-IPO companies like BetterUp and Checkr and funds allocated via standout successful exits such as Remitly, Sprinklr, and Toast.

This momentum builds on more than $1 billion in philanthropy previously ignited by the Pledge 1% industry leaders whose equity pledges prior to the release of the playbook in 2020.

“There was no way we were going to build Toast, an organization whose purpose is to enrich the food experience for all, without a commitment to Toast.org, our philanthropic arm which focuses on solving critical food issues that impact communities across the nation,” said Chris Comparato, CEO of Toast. “I first learned about Pledge 1% from our co-founder and co-president Aman Narang long before talks started about our public debut. While social impact was already in our DNA, having the support of Pledge 1% and Boardroom Allies along on our path to IPO made it easy to set aside meaningful assets to fund these efforts for the long term. We are thrilled that our early performance as a public company can contribute to this huge step in the Pledge 1% movement.”

Pledge 1% hopes that the value of the equity Toast set aside for social impact will continue to grow with the success of the company. The estimated value of Coinbase’s equity commitment, for instance, has grown by roughly $65 million since Pledge 1%’s June announcement, in line with the increased value in its stock.

“The meaningful impact our Pledge 1% members and Boardroom Allies have made in such a short period of time underscores the power of the equity model,” said Amy Lesnick, Chief Executive and President of Pledge 1%. “Not only are more business leaders able to bring their values to life by setting aside pre-IPO stock for social impact, but also the dollar value of these commitments has the potential to grow exponentially as these companies succeed and their share price rises. We see today’s milestone as a major step toward a future where leveraging company assets for good is the industry standard.”

This milestone was achieved with the help of the following Boardroom Allies:
*Directly advised/supported and/or currently supporting portfolio company to set aside equity

Name

Firm

Equity commitments within firm portfolio

Andrew Braccia*

Accel

Atlassian, Checkr, Code42, DocuSign, Lookout, PagerDuty, Slack, UiPath

Richard Wong*

Accel

Atlassian, Checkr, Code42, DocuSign, Lookout, PagerDuty, Slack, UiPath

John O'Farrell*

Andreessen Horowitz

Airbnb, Coinbase, DigitalOcean, Lookout, Okta, PagerDuty, Slack

Ajay Agarwal*

Bain Capital Ventures

AvidXchange, DocuSign, Gainsight, Justworks, SendGrid

Enrique Salem*

Bain Capital Ventures

AvidXchange, DocuSign, Gainsight, Justworks, SendGrid; individually serves on the board of Atlassian

Matt Harris*

Bain Capital Ventures

AvidXchange, DocuSign, Gainsight, Justworks, SendGrid

Chelsea Stoner

Battery Ventures

Coinbase, Gainsight, Olo, Sprinklr

Neeraj Agrawal*

Battery Ventures

Coinbase, Gainsight, Olo, Sprinklr

Roger Lee*

Battery Ventures

Coinbase, Gainsight, Olo, Sprinklr

Chetan Puttagunta

Benchmark

Upwork, Yelp, Zuora

Eric Vishria

Benchmark

Upwork, Yelp, Zuora

Miles Grimshaw

Benchmark

Upwork, Yelp, Zuora

Peter Fenton*

Benchmark

Upwork, Yelp, Zuora

Sarah Tavel

Benchmark

Upwork, Yelp, Zuora

Byron Deeter*

Bessemer Venture Partners

Auth0, Canva, DocuSign, Gainsight, Guild Education, PagerDuty, SendGrid, Toast, Twilio, Vlocity, Yelp

Ethan Kurzweil*

Bessemer Venture Partners

Auth0, Canva, DocuSign, Gainsight, Guild Education, PagerDuty, SendGrid, Toast, Twilio, Vlocity, Yelp

Kent Bennett*

Bessemer Venture Partners

Auth0, Canva, DocuSign, Gainsight, Guild Education, PagerDuty, SendGrid, Toast, Twilio, Vlocity, Yelp

Niki Scevak*

Blackbird Ventures

Canva

Laela Sturdy*

CapitalG

Airbnb, UiPath

Seth Miller

Fearless Ventures

Not publicly disclosed

Mike Jung

Founders Circle Capital

Airbnb, Auth0, DocuSign, Gainsight, Twilio

Brad Feld*

Foundry

AvidXchange, Glowforge, Rally Software, SendGrid, Xometry

Ryan McIntyre*

Foundry

AvidXchange, Glowforge, Rally Software, SendGrid, Xometry

Seth Levine*

Foundry

AvidXchange, Glowforge, Rally Software, SendGrid, Xometry

Philipp Stauffer*

FYRFLY Venture Partners

Altoida, Fluorome, rready, SendGrid, Twilio

Julie Maples*

FYRFLY Venture Partners

Altoida, Fluorome, rready, SendGrid, Twilio

David Beatty

Gaingels

Not publicly disclosed

Scott Mosser

Gaingels

Not publicly disclosed

Lance Quek

Gamerforce Ventures

Not publicly disclosed

Charles W. Friedland

Glynn Capital

DocuSign, Okta, Slack, Zuora

David Glynn

Glynn Capital

DocuSign, Okta, Slack, Zuora

Jacob Ziemann

Glynn Capital

DocuSign, Okta, Slack, Zuora

Jacqueline Glynn

Glynn Capital

DocuSign, Okta, Slack, Zuora

John W. Glynn

Glynn Capital

DocuSign, Okta, Slack, Zuora

Kim Moore

Glynn Capital

DocuSign, Okta, Slack, Zuora

Scott Jordon

Glynn Capital

DocuSign, Okta, Slack, Zuora

Doug Pepper*

ICONIQ Capital

BetterUp, DocuSign, Guild Education, Pluralsight, Skilljar, Sprinklr

Alda Leu Dennis

Initialized Capital

Coinbase

Parul Singh

Initialized Capital

Coinbase

Brett Gibson

Initialized Capital

Coinbase

Garry Tan*

Initialized Capital

Coinbase

Jen Wolf

Initialized Capital

Coinbase

Kim Mai-Cutler

Initialized Capital

Coinbase

Somesh Dash

IVP

Checkr, Coinbase, Slack, UiPath

Pete Solvik*

Jackson Square Ventures

DocuSign, Upwork

Gabriel Jarrosson

Leonis Investissement

Not publicly disclosed

Melissa Widner

Lighter Capital

Not publicly disclosed

Rajeev Batra*

Mayfield Fund

Crunchbase, SmartRecruiters, Skilljar

Rishi Garg

Mayfield Fund

Crunchbase, SmartRecruiters, Skilljar

Tim Chang

Mayfield Fund

Crunchbase, SmartRecruiters, Skilljar

Peter Sonsini

New Enterprise Associates

Code42, Salesforce, Upwork

Rick Yang

New Enterprise Associates

Code42, Salesforce, Upwork

Zac Zeitlin

New Ground Ventures

Not publicly disclosed

Dave Zilberman

Norwest Venture Partners

Not publicly disclosed

Tim Connors*

PivotNorth Capital

Cloud Apartments, Stremium

Jeff Brody

Redpoint

Guild Education, Twilio, Zuora

Scott Raney*

Redpoint

Guild Education, Twilio, Zuora

Alex Kayyal

Salesforce Ventures

Auth0, BetterUp, Crunchbase, DocuSign, Gainsight, Guild Education, SmartRecruiters, Twilio, Vlocity

John Somorjai*

Salesforce Ventures

Auth0, BetterUp, Crunchbase, DocuSign, Gainsight, Guild Education, SmartRecruiters, Twilio, Vlocity

Ron Conway*

SV Angel

Airbnb, BetterUp, Coinbase, Crunchbase, Lookout, Okta, PagerDuty, Slack, Twilio, Upwork, Weebly

David Yuan*

Tidemark

Firm commitments not publicly disclosed; individually serves on the Board of Toast

David Cohen*

Techstars

DigitalOcean, Remitly, SendGrid, Skilljar, Twilio

Jason Seats

Techstars

DigitalOcean, Remitly, SendGrid, Skilljar, Twilio

Maëlle Gavet

Techstars

DigitalOcean, Remitly, SendGrid, Skilljar, Twilio

Ben Orthlieb

2.12 Angels

Not publicly disclosed

To download Pledge 1%’s CEO Equity Playbook and Companion Guide for CFOs and GCs, visit pledge1percent.org/equityplaybook. To learn more about how to set aside social impact at your company or join this alliance of top VCs as a Boardroom Ally, email allies@pledge1percent.org or visit pledge1percent.org.

About Pledge 1%: Pledge 1% is a global movement that inspires, educates, and empowers every entrepreneur, company, and employee to be a force for good. Over 15,000 members in 100 countries around the world have used Pledge 1%’s flexible framework to ignite billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours in new philanthropy. To learn more about Pledge 1%, and how your company can get involved, visit pledge1percent.org.

Contacts

Kate Helete, kate@thekeypr.com

Contacts

Kate Helete, kate@thekeypr.com