Taking Twilio.org To The Next Level

Taking Twilio.org To The Next Level

One of our key values at Twilio is to empower others. That doesn’t mean “sell to others.” Rather, it means you help bring out the best in the people you serve, supporting and enabling them to achieve their goals however you can. Since we started Twilio, developers have amazed us with their ingenuity – building products and companies that we could never have imagined.

But something else we never imagined was how communications plays into fixing the world. We’ve encountered many non-profit organizations whose work has shown that communications, or the lack thereof, is the root of many societal problems. Two years ago we started Twilio.org to empower those non-profit organizations with communications technology to improve lives around the world – through use of Twilio technology, grants, and volunteer work from Twilio’s employees worldwide. Yet Twilio.org was not sustainably funded – until now.

Today we’re excited to announce we’re setting aside 1% of our current equity, as part of Pledge 1%, to extend the impact of Twilio.org. This 1% of equity, or approximately $10M in today’s value, will fund the Twilio.org initiative for the next ten years and beyond. Our objective is to enable non-profit organizations to send a billion messages for good. By making the 1% Pledge, we will substantially accelerate our investment in that goal.

We hear amazing stories from Twilio.org customers like the Polaris Project, who rescue victims of human trafficking, and bring them to safety by leveraging the power of a shortcode, Doctors Without Borders helps build better care programs for Tuberculosis patients in Zimbabwe using Twilio SMS, and The American Red Cross, who has reduced disaster response times by 50% using better communication technology. These Twilio.org customers’ work is vital and we’re proud to support it.

Some companies believe that philanthropy is a personal endeavor, best left to the individual. Yet I’ve seen firsthand how Twilio.org helps Team Twilio come together with yet another dimension of meaning and purpose to our work. We love building technology to empower all kinds of developers, but when we know our work contributes to saving a life, it truly brings out our best. By pledging 1% of our equity, our goal is to sustainably scale that bit of Twilio’s collective soul.

Twilio will be joining Pledge 1%’s corporate philanthropy initiative alongside corporate philanthropy leaders including the Salesforce Foundation, Atlassian, Rally Software, and more. We can’t wait to see how powerful the collective impact of 1% will be.

Onward!