Icertians Give 300 Hours of Their Time in One Month to Help Humanity
At Icertis, we believe in the importance of giving back to the communities where we live, work and play. Last year, we doubled down on our commitment to #takecareofcommunity as the world reeled from the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S. broke out in protest over the killings of George Floyd, Brionna Taylor and Ahmed Aubrey.
In the spring of 2020, our efforts were focused on giving programs that supported the most vulnerable around us – children in the Seattle area at risk of missing meals due to school closures; healthcare workers on the frontlines of the fight against COVID in Pune; the elderly who rely on in-home care in Frankfurt.
But we soon saw that was not enough, especially in light of the racial justice protests over the summer – we needed to empower Icertians to be seen and heard!
To make it easier to take time to make an impact, we instituted a new benefit in 2020 for North American Icertians – 7 fully paid days of volunteer time. We called this "A Week for America" in support of Icertians' anti-racism activities, and Icertians at every level used the benefit to volunteer, support, help, give, and protest.
Going Global and Going Virtual
The benefit was a huge success and a great source of pride for Icertis as we wore our Four Rings of Responsibility. So, this year, we expanded the program for all Icertians globally and renamed it "7 Days for Humanity" to capture our commitment to combating racism and discrimination in all its forms.
We also wanted Icertians to be able to give back as a group and we looked for ways to facilitate team-based volunteering in a virtual setting. We feel very lucky to have been able to partner with Team4Tech, a non-profit organization that connects technology companies with education-focused non-profits, and hold a series of virtual "Design Thinking" workshops in June. The goal of the workshops was to address a unique challenge faced by each organization by leveraging the design thinking process – essentially exploring each challenge systematically to come up with innovative solutions.
Over the course of the month, we held three workshops with 49 Icertians from across the globe. Specifically:
- 19 Icertians worked with Digital NEST to strategize ways to ramp up their business development and partnering efforts. Digital NEST does fantastic work helping underserved youth in agricultural communities in California gain the skills they need to build careers in the digital economy. Learn more here.
- 16 Icertians worked with BUILD to help develop their social media strategy. BUILD is an extraordinary organization that uses entrepreneurship to ignite the potential of youth from under-resourced communities in the U.S. and propel them to high school, college and career success. Learn more here.
- 14 Icertians worked with EDUcare to help them strategize ways to help their members with literacy and being comfortable in the digital arena. EDUcare partners with women in Liberia who identify issues and create and enact their own solutions to transform their communities to be equipped for a better livelihood. Learn more here.
It was an honor to work with such great mission-driven organizations and, in our small way, help them achieve their goals. All told, these sessions represented Icertians volunteering more than 300 hours of their time to make the world a better place for humanity. And most importantly, we heard from the organizations that our efforts helped them on their missions. E Griffin-Ortiz, Development Director at Digital Nest, shared with us the following:
"I was SO impressed with the collaborative work that came out of this project! Thank you to Team4Tech for making this happen and thank you to the good and wise people at Icertis for giving us your time and bringing your passion, innovative spirit, and brilliant ideas to this workshop."
Underlying our efforts is a recognition that we would not be the company we are without the support of the communities around us, and a firm belief that on our mission to be the contract intelligence platform of the world, how we get there is as important as the destination.
We look forward to continuing and building on our early successes to empower Icertians to #takecareofcommunity.