Cross-posted from the Pledge 1% Gives campaign as part of Giving Tuesday.
Each November, staff at Vera Solutions nominate peers for annual Recognition Awards, tipping their hats to teammates who have exemplified the company’s five values: Impact, Excellence, Sustainability, Teamwork, and Leadership. The five awards are announced publicly before the holidays on Veraforce, the company’s Salesforce-based system for managing everything from projects to expenses to performance reviews. But award recipients don’t just receive acknowledgement, they help direct which organizations receive a portion of the company’s profits from the year. Over the years, Vera has donated to a range of charitable organizations, with focus areas ranging from global health to civil rights to poverty alleviation.
“We were already giving back from the beginning,” says Vera Co-Founder and CEO Zak Kaufman. “We created the Recognition Awards to say thanks to our MVPs and to let them drive how we give back as a company.” And staff are into it. In 2016, Vera staff made over 150 nominations. Carol Ernst, a Vera Consultant who has worked in Mumbai and Geneva, received the 2016 Recognition Award for Excellence. “I think it’s a really unique initiative,” says Ernst. “It feels great to work for a company that not only focuses its work on social impact but also goes further to give back and to recognize staff.”
This is just one way that Vera, a member of the Pledge 1% Movement, is giving back to social sector organizations around the globe. Vera also discounts its consulting rates for non-profits as well as license fees for its Salesforce-based performance indicator management app, Amp Impact. “In reality, we put 100% of our time, energy, and knowledge towards helping social sector organizations,” says Kaufman. “We joined the Pledge 1% movement because we wanted to join other great companies in giving back and setting an example.”
