HPE supercharges social impact by funding tech non-profits
JULY 29, 2019 • BLOG POST • GREGG MELINSON, SVP, CORPORATE AFFAIRS, AND PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HPE FOUNDATION
IN THIS ARTICLE
- Nearly 25,000 HPE employees from around the globe recently rallied together to show the power of our shared purpose: to advance the way the world lives and work through the power of technology
- Employees steered $1 million in HPE Foundation funds to 31 tech non-profits with social impact missions
- HPE partnered with non-profit accelerator Fast Forward, which links tech non-profits to critical funding
Employee-directed giving steers more than $1 million to non-profit startups
Nearly 25,000 HPE employees from around the globe recently rallied together to show the power of our shared purpose: to advance the way we live and work.
Through the company’s newly-launched Accelerating Impact program, HPE employees steered more than $1 million from the HPE Foundation to 31 tech non-profits who are building original technology to achieve social impact missions.
For HPE, providing financial support to groups that share its commitment to improving the world through innovation is a no-brainer. Tech non-profits like these are doing tremendous work -- but they frequently struggle to attract funding from traditional philanthropic sources and don’t have access to venture capital funding because they are non-profit organizations.
That’s why HPE partnered with Fast Forward – a tech non-profit accelerator – to maximize its impact through an innovative campaign where employees received $25 credits from HPE Foundation to donate to a tech non-profit of their choosing among Fast Forward’s portfolio of high-impact organizations. Fast Forward has now fostered dozens of non-profit startups, and it continues to advance the overall tech non-profit ecosystem by connecting these organizations with the funding and resources they need to ramp up their efforts.
“Tech non-profits deploy software and hardware to solve our biggest social challenges, but they struggle to raise funding and visibility for their work,” said Shannon Farley, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Fast Forward. “HPE Accelerating Impact leverages the financial and human capital of HPE employees to effect social change globally. It's already having a profound impact on products these tech non-profits can build and the communities they serve.”
Company-wide, three non-profits resonated most with HPE employees and received the most funding: Thorn, which uses AI to combat child sexual abuse; Dost Education, which provides audio content that helps low-literacy parents support the educational success of their children; and Medic Mobile, which builds last mile apps that enable community health workers to efficiently track diseases and communicate about emergencies.
Accelerating Impact’s employee-directed approach leverages the power of HPE’s greatest resource – its people – by giving them a voice in directing financial support to the organizations and causes that matter most to them.
The future for this program only gets brighter as HPE has now begun building off the campaign’s early success to engage employees in different ways – including by utilizing their skills and volunteer time to assist these and other tech non-profits. To kick things off, HPE employees will provide mentoring to this year’s Fast Forward accelerator members, culminating in a Demo Day hosted at the HPE San Jose headquarters.
HPE’s mission to advance the way we live and work extends far beyond what our employees do in their offices, labs, and facilities: our company’s impact on the world also includes our ongoing efforts to improve our communities and advance innovation that drives social impact. And thanks to the thousands of HPE employees who participated in Accelerating Impact (along with our partners at Fast Forward and the tech non-profits who are working so hard to change the world), HPE’s mission is alive and well – and thriving!