- Creating global impact: Why we pledge 93,000+ hours to volunteering
Creating global impact: Why we pledge 93,000+ hours to volunteering
As part of our global effort to do the most good we can, we’re proud to allocate more than 93,000 hours of volunteering time each year for our team to live out our company value ‘be a force for good’.
Since the very beginning, doing good has been part of Canva’s DNA. Everything we do is underpinned by our mission, known as our Two-Step Plan(opens in a new tab or window) – Step One) to become one of the world’s most valuable companies, and Step Two(opens in a new tab or window)) to do the most good we can. As part of Step Two, volunteering is an ingrained part of our culture, and plays a huge role in how we bring one of our core values – ‘be a force for good(opens in a new tab or window)’ – to life.
Creating lasting change
It’s incredibly important to us that our ‘Step 2’ work has a lasting positive impact on the world, so we focus on four key mission pillars: Empower Nonprofits, No Extreme Poverty, Quality Education, and Help Local Communities. In 2019 we joined Pledge 1%(opens in a new tab or window), a global movement where companies give away 1% of their time, profit, product, or equity. We decided to pledge all four. On top of this, 30% of Canva has also been pledged to doing good in the world. The Canva company and Canva Foundation fuel this effort every step of the way, and a concrete example of how we bring this to life is by pledging more than 93,000 annual volunteering hours from Canvanauts.
As part of the Help Local Communities pillar, volunteering is a powerful way to achieve hyper-local impact at a large scale, where our global team can create immediate change in their own communities all over the world.
We focus a lot of our Local Communities work on addressing homelessness and hardship, and we’re exploring and testing how we can use our spaces within our global campuses and hubs for a positive impact on their local communities. We also encourage our team to get involved in any other causes they’re passionate about with local organizations and choose their own volunteering adventure.
Empowering our team
Each year, every Canvanaut has three days of paid ‘Force for Good leave’ they can use to give back to the world. We truly believe that Canvanauts are the magic that power our Two-Step Plan, with a range of interests, passion projects, and unique skills to be shared.
To encourage our team to pause, and take time out of their busy work weeks to use their Force for Good leave, we’ve introduced ‘Force for Good Fridays’. This is where we dedicate one Friday every month to Step 2 – a day full of Force for Good moments for all Canvanauts, everywhere. We’ve also created team bonding volunteering menus where our campuses can choose from hands-on tangible volunteering opportunities to get to know their team better and celebrate their goals, while doing good.
One area of focus each month is making a positive difference in the lives of people experiencing homelessness and hardship in our communities. We support organizations helping people achieve food security and act against hunger, create hygiene packs, build or donate furniture, and host working bees to bring hope and dignity into the lives of people dealing with hardship. Since launching our volunteering initiatives in May 2022, we’re proud to share that our team has come together for more than 250 Force for Good events supporting more than 270 nonprofits globally.
A week-long takeover
We know there are more people than ever doing it tough – but as Canva grows, so does the positive impact we can have in our communities. We’re proud to have recently hosted our first-ever ‘Force for Good Week’: a special week-long takeover of our quarterly ‘Season Opener’ week, where Canvanauts could lend a helping hand by participating in one of more than 100 events dedicated to helping individuals and communities experiencing homelessness and hardship.
From handwritten letters to the isolated or lonely, mural painting at homeless shelters, kitchen takeovers with Two Good(opens in a new tab or window), Plate It Forward(opens in a new tab or window), and OzHarvest(opens in a new tab or window), and diverting clothing from landfill through clothing packs, more than 1,500 Canvanauts came together to create moments of connection and support for those experiencing hardship. Together, we’re proud to have achieved some incredible results:
Growing our impact
Volunteering makes up a significant portion of the impactful work we do to help our local communities, but we’re also proud to empower nonprofits(opens in a new tab or window), provide accessible education(opens in a new tab or window) and make a difference towards extreme poverty(opens in a new tab or window). We know there’s so much more work to be done, and we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible – and we can’t wait to see our impact continue to grow in the future.
As we look towards the remainder of 2023, we’re focused on empowering even more nonprofits to achieve their goals through Canva for Nonprofits(opens in a new tab or window), engaging even more Canvanauts to be a force for good, and launching our first pilot community project. We often say we’re only 1% of the way there, and we truly believe this when it comes to doing the most good we can.
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