Twilio commits to donating 1% of its equity to its nonprofit foundation

Telecommunications API provider Twilio has committed itself to setting aside 1 percent of its equity to be used to support its nonprofit foundation, Twilio.org, over the next decade. This could generate more than $10 million for the organization.

The move comes as part of the 1% pledge that was started in 2014 by Atlassian, the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado, Rally Software, and the Salesforce Foundation as a means to accelerate philanthropy within businesses around the world. But it’s not just a financial transaction. The pledge includes 1 percent of employees’ time and the company’s product as well — the 1/1/1 pledge that has been heavily touted by Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff.

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Twilio’s pledge has it joining a slew of technology companies, including Weebly, Box, DemandBase, DocuSign, Galvanize, General Assembly, Lookout, Oracle, Optimizely, TechStars, Udemy, Yelp, and dozens of others.

As mentioned earlier, Twilio’s investment will be going to Twilio.org, a foundation that the company established in 2013 to provide nonprofits with access to the company’s cloud telephony APIs. Programs that have benefited from Twilio.org include Code for America, the Polaris Project and Thorn, the American Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and many others.

“We founded Twilio.org to provide nonprofits with the best communication technology to solve social problems,” Twilio chief executive Jeff Lawson said in a statement. “Our objective is to enable them to send a billion messages for good. By joining Pledge 1%, we will substantially accelerate our investment in that goal. We can’t wait to see what our nonprofit partners will build.”

Today’s announcement is timed to come as Salesforce hosts its annual Dreamforce customer conference in San Francisco. Salesforce’s Benioff has certainly made it a point throughout this three-day event to promote philanthropy and giving back.