PagerDuty’s First Social Impact Report: Helping Mission-Driven Organizations Meet Urgent Needs Faster
In today’s dynamic digital economy, seconds matter. Nowhere does this ring more true than for mission-driven organizations, where service reliability can make or break access to suicide and safety hotlines, disaster relief, time-critical healthcare, and more. For the clients and communities these organizations serve, seconds can be life-altering.
Between a once-in-a-generation pandemic and ensuing economic downturn, deepening political schisms, and pressing calls for racial justice, the events of 2020 illuminated inequities in nearly every element of society. This sharpened PagerDuty’s commitments to using our resources to help solve intractable challenges. PagerDuty.org, the social impact arm of the company, was created to advance this vision. We apply an integrated approach that mobilizes our technical platform, grant funding, people, and voice to bring about material change.
PagerDuty.org’s mission is to meet urgent needs faster to advance justice and health. We envision a responsive world where everyone has the freedom to thrive. As we reflect on the challenges of the past year, we also take stock of the progress made in collaboration with our social impact customers, community partners, and employees. This inaugural PagerDuty social impact report reflects this headway and articulates how we are working together to create more equity and opportunity.
Taking Action to Bring About Lasting Change
We’re publishing our first social impact report because transparency is key to how PagerDuty operates. As our CEO Jennifer Tejada shared: “Social impact cannot be performative or symbolic. PagerDuty is taking concrete action to bring about real, meaningful change.” The report explores those actions, the stories of the people PagerDuty.org works with, how our employees contribute, and shares key facts and figures about our social impact over the past year. Here are some of the highlights:
Platform: 255 social impact customers helped
Digital services play a fundamental role in how social impact groups meet the needs of the individuals they serve. These needs are often immediate and time-critical, so technology-enabled services need to be operational 24/7—which is where PagerDuty comes in. Our experience with keeping systems running smoothly ensures users can deliver help faster. In 2020, this included:
- 60 new social impact customers
- $634,971 given in platform discounts and donations
Funding: $1,167,716 in grants to 418 organizations deployed through our PagerDuty.org Fund
We approach grantmaking by focusing on the visions of movement leaders, activists, and their communities to accelerate systemic change. We provide our grants as unrestricted funding and augment it with product donations and access to specialized, pro bono employee expertise. Through strategic giving and employee match donations, we donated more than a million dollars to mission-critical organizations. This included:
- Nearly $287,000 to local communities to address COVID-19, racial injustice, and natural disasters
- $350,000 to three organizations as part of our Time-Critical Health grantmaking portfolio
- More than $250,000 to 15 organizations as part of our new Just & Equitable Communities portfolio
People: 93% of employees gave back through volunteering or financial donations
Our employees (Dutonians) are at the heart of our social impact work. We seek to empower all Dutonians to become change agents in their own communities by putting their talents to use beyond the workplace.
PagerDuty.org makes it easy for every Dutonian to contribute through 20 hours of annual volunteer time off and strategic programs that build agency, empathy, connection, and leadership. In 2020, 93% of Dutonians gave back through volunteering or financial contributions:
- 110+ organizations received volunteer support from PagerDuty staff
- 2,860+ tracked volunteer hours
- Close to $196,000 donated through employee contributions and our employee matching program
Voice: Created Civic Engagement and Social Justice toolkits, held our first Day for Change
PagerDuty has an opportunity and a responsibility to effect change through our actions and voice. Alongside product donations, strategic grantmaking, and volunteering, we amplify the work of partners and seek to inspire collective action. For example, by spotlighting nonprofits like Democracy Works on PagerDuty’s homepage to drive voter registration as part of our eight-week civic engagement campaign. We also add our voice to issues that are essential to social impact. In 2020 this included:
- Open-sourced Civic Engagement and Day for Change employee engagement toolkits
- Signed onto the Board Challenge and appointed two new Black board members
- Published our first Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity report
What’s Ahead in 2021?
Social impact work is never “done.” As the last year has shown, unpredictable and unmet needs are continually emerging. We need more responsive and equitable health systems, and new climate safeguards must be a priority. Organizations doing work on these issues must be equipped with the support and tools to meet these challenges.
We will build off of the work of the last 12 months by expanding investments we’ve made in our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) program to ensure we generate positive impact and continue to serve as good corporate citizens. Recognizing that health, equity, and climate outcomes are linked, we will cultivate cross-sector partnerships with other funders, government groups, and businesses to advance progress in these areas. We’ll also continue to be transparent, to share our methodologies, to hold frank conversations rooted in empathy, and to practice radical collaboration with our partners and grantees.
Read the full PagerDuty Social Impact Report 2021 here.
To find out more about PagerDuty.org and our Impact Pricing for nonprofits and social enterprises, visit: https://www.pagerduty.com/foundation/.