Feb 07, 2019 09:00 am
SAN FRANCISCO --
Twilio
(NYSE: TWLO), the leading cloud communications platform, today announced
that the company’s social impact arm - Twilio.org
- has awarded more than $1.4 million to 15 nonprofits, its largest grant
round to date. These grants were made through the Twilio.org
Impact Fund, which has awarded more than $3 million to social impact
organizations in the past year. These grants are possible through
Twilio’s commitment to allocate 1% of its equity as part of the
Pledge 1% initiative to support social impact.
“Through the Twilio.org Impact Fund, we’re proud to help nonprofits and
social enterprises working on a wide array of issues realize the power
of communications to enhance their impact,” said Erin Reilly, Vice
President of Social Impact and General Manager of Twilio.org. “With
these grants, we want to empower more organizations who are using
technology to deliver critical resources and support to the communities
they serve."
The organizations that have received grants include:
-
Benefits
Data Trust helps people live healthier, more independent lives
by creating smarter ways to access essential benefits and services.
With the funds, Benefits Data Trust will expand its SMS engagement to
serve more beneficiaries with greater efficiency and convenience,
improving quality of life and reducing long-term healthcare costs.
-
CommunityConnect
Labs provides high quality and affordable tools for government
and service providers to reach low-income and hard-to-engage
individuals. With the help of the Twilio Impact Fund, CommunityConnect
Labs will educate, motivate, and activate low-income, immigrant,
minority and other underserved groups to participate in the
2020 Census, a decennial process that influences $700 billion of
federal funding.
-
DoSomething
is the largest tech organization focused on activating young people to
make positive change both online and offline through campaigns that
make an impact. DoSomething received its first Twilio.org grant last
fall as it helped underrepresented voter populations participate in
the 2018 midterm elections. With this new grant, DoSomething will
build on their expertise in digital activation to engage youth with
DoSomething Clubs, a new initiative in high school and college
campuses nationwide.
-
Kiva
is an international nonprofit that expands financial access to help
underserved communities thrive. With the funds, Kiva plans to expand
access to capital to low-income entrepreneurs across the United States.
-
MindRight
is a tech nonprofit that empowers youth of color to heal from trauma
from systemic oppression, including structural violence, poverty, and
discrimination. MindRight provides personalized mental health support
over text message. The grant from Twilio.org will help MindRight grow
the number of students receiving its text-based coaching program.
-
Partnership
for Drug-Free Kids, which has recently merged with Center on
Addiction, provides families with the tools they need to take
effective action for their child’s addiction. Funding will be used to
expand the usage and reach of communications tools providing opioid
prevention and recovery resources to youth and families across the US.
-
Streetwide
built and manages Detention Lifeline, a first of its kind call center
and CRM dedicated to immigrants and asylum seekers currently
imprisoned in detention facilities. Streetwide plans to use the funds
to expand the number of immigrants and asylees receiving support
through their newly established national hotline.
-
TalkingPoints
unlocks the potential of all families to support their children's
learning by meaningfully connecting them with their school communities
through two-way translated messages and support, especially in
underserved, diverse communities. Their grant support will be used to
expand the reach of their student, parent and educator engagement
tools.
-
Tarjimly
is a tech nonprofit committed to improving the lives of the world’s 23
million refugees by eliminating language barriers. Twilio.org’s
funding will enable Tarjimly to successfully launch an independent
mobile app that engages a growing number of volunteers over voice,
text, chat, and video.
-
Law
Centres Network defends the legal rights of people who
cannot afford a lawyer. Twilio.org’s support will be used to help
scale the Law Centres Network’s SMS support to clients from
disadvantaged communities in the UK.
Each of these recipients are using innovative communications strategies
that make it easier, faster, and more affordable for organizations to
connect with the people they serve.
As a company built by developers, for developers, Twilio believes in the
power of a diverse set of voices to create the technologies that will
shape the future. To help increase diversity in the tech industry,
Twilio.org is also funding the following organizations that provide
technical training and career development to adults from
underrepresented backgrounds seeking to join the field:
-
Inclusion
seeks to empower underserved communities through coding programs.
-
Hack
the Hood introduces members of under-resourced communities of
color to careers in tech.
-
Lesbians
Who Tech + Allies is the largest LGBTQ technology
community in the world -- committed to visibility, intersectionality,
and changing the face of technology.
-
Douar
Tech aims to provide technological skills training to rural
communities in Morocco.
-
BRIDGEGOOD,
a project of Oakland
Digital, is dedicated to bridging the tech gap for
underrepresented communities.
For more information on the Twilio.org Impact Fund, visit twilio.org/impact-fund.
About Twilio.org
Twilio.org works with nonprofits and social enterprises to fuel
communications that give hope, power and freedom. By connecting social
impact organizations, passionate software developers and the full power
of the Twilio platform, Twilio.org ignites positive change on a local
and global scale. To date, more than 3,000 charities and nonprofits have
used Twilio to send more than a billion messages for good.
About Twilio
Millions of developers around the world have used Twilio to unlock the
magic of communications to improve any human experience. Twilio has
democratized communications channels like voice, text, chat, video and
email by virtualizing the world’s communications infrastructure through
APIs that are simple enough for any developer to use, yet robust enough
to power the world’s most demanding applications. By making
communications a part of every software developer's toolkit, Twilio is
enabling innovators across every industry — from emerging leaders to the
world’s largest organizations — to reinvent how companies engage with
their customers.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190207005258/en/
Twilio Media Contacts:
Caitlin
Epstein
[email protected]
Highwire PR
[email protected]