Our new community program: 2% for People and Planet

One of our priorities at KnowledgeOwl is to try to think about people first. We think of ourselves as a service company first, and a software company second. A focus on providing awesome support drives many of the decisions we make. So, naturally, we've spent a lot of 2020 asking ourselves: what can we, as a small but global company, do to give back to our communities?

Often, small businesses give back to their local communities, supporting fundraisers and local organizations.

That works great if you're a brick-and-mortar business, but KnowledgeOwl is totally remote. We have team members across the globe (currently in four countries and five time zones). What does giving back to your local community mean when your team is part of many communities?

Our answer to this question has been a new community program we call 2% for People and Planet.

As part of this program, we give 2% of our profits to help our local communities. Each month, a different team member chooses a local charity, nonprofit, or organization with the goal of helping people and the planet. Our goal is to use our global company to do good in each team member's local community.

We began this program in the month of June, and so far we have donated to support:

• Broomfield FISH - A Broomfield County, Colorado nonprofit offering food, emergency financial assistance, referral services to 30+ partner organizations, and strengths-based whole family development pathways to Broomfield County residents living at or below 200% of the federal poverty level.
• The Social Studio - An Australian non-profit that uses a fashion business to provide training, work experience, volunteer opportunities, and employment to young Australians who come from a refugee or migrant background and who may have experienced barriers to accessing education and/or securing employment.
• Little Jubba Central Maine Agrarian Commons - An Agrarian Commons fundraising effort to help the Somali Bantu Community Association in central Maine to purchase 104 acres of farmland and supplies to to provide farmland, food security, and employment opportunities to Somalian refugees.

Although we're still in the early stages of this program, we're already pleased with how it's working. Our team members have spent time researching organizations they want to donate to and get to see the direct benefit of those donations in their local communities. And we feel like we've found a great solution to participating in all of the communities we belong to.

Change is often most effective at a small, local scale, and we feel proud to be able to support such a diverse set of organizations!