‘Tis the season for frantic work wrap-ups, tight travel plans and last-minute shopping. But while many employees have an eye on the door, workers at the following Austin tech companies haven’t forgotten about the less fortunate among us. Six local professionals took us through their company’s philanthropic efforts — both during the holidays and throughout the entire year.
Experimentation software company Optimizely sends most new hires into the community to volunteer on their second day on the job — so you could safely say that philanthropy is at the center of their culture. Senior Recruiting Programs Manager Julia Lopes showed how Optimizely’s Austin-based team leads many of its volunteering drives.
How does your company give back to the local community, both during the holidays and throughout the year?
In Austin, 89 percent of our employees volunteered for local organizations including the Central Texas Food Bank, Project Linus, The Heart of Texas Lab Rescue and Keep Austin Beautiful during Impact Week this past June. “Optigive” is the company’s annual employee giving campaign in December. More than half of employees contribute and the company picks up all fees so that 100 percent of donations go to the charities. For the holidays this year, the Austin office is volunteering at Urban Roots Farm and The Food Bank’s Mobile Food Pantries.
Nearly all new employees volunteer in the community on their second day on the job.”
How is this “spirit of giving” reflected in your company culture and the way your team works together?
Social impact is embedded in Optimizely’s DNA. Nearly all new employees volunteer in the community on their second day on the job. Charitable activities are integrated into all of the company’s big events, such as sales kickoff, our holiday party and Opticon, our annual user conference.
We give a quarterly employee award for social impact. Employees regularly participate in office drives for clothing, electronics, toys, food and blood. Even purchasing is leveraged for good, like sourcing employee t-shirts from a vendor that employs the formerly incarcerated. Volunteer ambassadors on every team and in every Optimizely office across the globe lead these efforts.
When they’re not working on business finance software, ScaleFactor employees deliver Meals on Wheels and recognize one another for their volunteering efforts throughout the community. Chief People Officer Katina Kenyon said the company makes a point of supporting employees who want to contribute toward a philanthropic cause.
How does your company give back to the local community, both during the holidays and throughout the year?
ScaleFactor makes philanthropy a priority all year long, and we love to focus our efforts on a local level. As a team, we’re responsible for a weekly Meals on Wheels route, and each week we switch up which employees will go. Over the years, we have built relationships with the families on this route, and we love having a direct impact on the East Austin neighborhood where we’ve been headquartered for years. On top of this weekly engagement, we support employee-led initiatives like clothing drives, food drives, book sorting, volunteering at the local food back and participating in Toys for Tots at the holidays. We will back any employee who wants to support a cause they care about.
As a team, we’re responsible for a weekly Meals on Wheels route.”
How is this “spirit of giving” reflected in your company culture and the way your team works together?
One of the hallmark features of ScaleFactor culture is our “Weekly Wins” meeting. Every Friday, we gather together and each employee shares a personal win with their team. This practice, we have found, is less about the accomplishments themselves and more about our team supporting one another. The act of giving praise, encouragement and thanks to fellow team members on a weekly basis helps to pull our team away from individual tasks and recognize their work in a larger context. The same perspective inspires our local philanthropic work, which is also meant to help team members see the tangible impact they have on the community and gain a broader perspective. We love focus and productivity, but the “spirit of giving” is what keeps us going day after day.
E-commerce company Spreetail puts its money where its mouth is when it comes to philanthropy, matching employee donations to their favorite causes. Head of Talent Community Chad Kilpatrick said the company’s volunteering efforts also help employees make connections with colleagues they wouldn’t otherwise interact with on an average workday.
How does your company give back to the local community, both during the holidays and throughout the year?
Giving is in our DNA. Throughout the year, our employees participate in volunteer opportunities, including Volunteer Week when over 200 employees serve communities across the country. Through our “New Beginnings” program, we donate mattresses and home essentials to families transitioning from homelessness into stable housing. While our team dedicates thousands of hours each year to volunteering, Spreetail also offers donation matching where employees can contribute to causes that they feel revolutionize their communities.
We donate mattresses and home essentials to families transitioning from homelessness into stable housing.”
How is this “spirit of giving” reflected in your company culture and the way your team works together?
At Spreetail, we’ve discovered relationships are a crucial part of our culture. Volunteer opportunities not only give us a chance to help others, but also the ability to build relationships with employees in different departments and locations. Collaboration among teams is evident, as weekly shout-outs highlight individuals sacrificing their time to help others achieve goals and overall make Spreetail better.
Redgate Software supported a wide array of causes this year, and broadens its impact by matching employee donations to charitable causes. Account Executive Josh Byus outlined the company’s philanthropic efforts.
How does your company give back to the local community, both during the holidays and throughout the year?
At Redgate, the primary way we contribute to our local community is through our “Give Something Back” initiative. Our GSB Team meets every month to discuss how we can support local people with philanthropy, outreach and inclusivity projects. They help organize charitable and volunteer activities for Redgate employees, make decisions on donations and encourage individual employee fundraising and volunteering across a range of causes.
In 2019, we sponsored corporate activities around planting trees with TreeFolks, volunteering at the Austin Pets Alive! animal shelter and wrapping holiday presents for in-need families with Blue Santa. GSB has also made donations to nonprofits that assist K-12 STEM educational programs like Wayside Schools, The Trevor Project’s LGBTQ suicide awareness campaign, Community First Village’s efforts with homelessness and senior support groups like Drive a Senior.
In 2019, we sponsored corporate activities around planting trees with TreeFolks.”
How is this “spirit of giving” reflected in your company culture and the way your team works together?
A driving principle at Redgate is one of our value statements: “We do our best work in teams.” We really believe in it too, because it encourages employees to be open and giving across departments to drive efficiency and innovation. Working together for the greater good strengthens this internal team-based mentality by showing how Redgate as a whole builds its relationship with the communities where our employees live. We strive to ensure that every one of our people has the opportunity to make a difference within their immediate teams, across the company, and for the general good of their communities. Redgate also matches the funds raised for registered charities and offers employees paid time off to dedicate to volunteering.
OJO Labs’ employees take time out to volunteer at least once a month, helping worthy causes and getting out into their community at the same time. People Operations Specialist Catie Orth explained how this culture of giving manifests itself in an everyday company culture of compassion.
How does your company give back to the local community, both during the holidays and throughout the year?
When first developing our OJO Cares program, our goal was for it to have the most impact possible on both our team and the local community. We surveyed our employees to see what causes they felt passionate about and then created a program around that. Once a month, we go out as a group to a local nonprofit and volunteer our time. Each month is different — sometimes we walk dogs; sometimes we cook to feed the homeless; sometimes we help harvest gardens or build houses. Since its inception, we have expanded this program across all of OJO’s global locations.
Sometimes we walk dogs; sometimes we cook to feed the homeless; sometimes we help harvest gardens or build houses.”
How is this “spirit of giving” reflected in your company culture and the way your team works together?
One of our company’s core values is “show compassion.” Cultivating a culture of appreciation, kindness and giving is a defining characteristic of who we are. We embody this in our daily interactions through things like our “gratitude wall,” a place where employees can recognize their fellow team members by writing gratitude cards. People at OJO are genuinely willing to drop what they’re doing and jump in head first to help at any given moment. There is an authentic desire to be of service, be it in our company or the community around us.
Vista Consulting Group supports programs that lift underrepresented groups into the tech industry all year long. The consulting partner for the Vista Equity Partners venture capital and private equity firm also uses the practice to foster collaboration, which Go-to-Market Managing Director Jessica Cash said is central to her team’s work with portfolio companies.
How does your company give back to the local community, both during the holidays and throughout the year?
At Vista, we believe in giving back as a core value. There are a range of partnerships we currently support, like partnering with Girls Who Invest, a three-year program seeking to increase gender diversity in asset management. I loved working with our Girls Who Invest interns on a series of special projects during their internship summer — what an inspiring, savvy, group of future leaders.
I loved working with our Girls Who Invest interns on a series of special projects during their internship summer.”
How is this “spirit of giving” reflected in your company culture and the way your team works together?
Collaboration is a priority initiative for Vista; in fact, it is one of a small handful of firm-wide workstreams that we have invested in across 2019. To us, collaboration means ensuring that the right people are solving the right problem, with a diverse and inclusive approach. This requires a “giving” mindset and posture — that the team is greater than the individual and that no one person has all the answers. It also makes working on the super challenging problems facing our fast-growing portfolio companies even more fun.
