This time of year we like to take a moment to reflect on giving back to the community. One of the biggest themes of giving back in the startup world is returning the love to the people and the planet that provides support when you’re getting started.
As part of this reflection, we’d like to bring to light a few companies that keep the community and our environment top of mind.
10 Companies Focused on Community
Livegistics
The Livegistics platform is designed to bring the construction industry into the world of technology through real-time data and predictive software that helps to reduce waste and work more efficiently on a project. When it comes down to it, the product and the community go hand-in-hand and the company culture impacts that. The Livegistics team is focused on community-based environmental projects like illegal dumping and the impact of landfills.
Grand Circus
Founded in Detroit in 2013, Grand Circus is a now-virtual coding bootcamp. With accelerated courses in the daytime or evening, Grand Circus helps people master coding — and supports them long after graduation. “Grand Circus was founded to close the technical skills gap and to create a path for people of all backgrounds into high-paying, high-growth technical careers,” said Damien Rocchi, Grand Circus Co-Founder, and CEO. This mission is significant in a city like Detroit, where Black and Latinx people make up most of the population, but are still underrepresented in tech.
KLA
Founded in Silicon Valley in 1976, KLA is a global tech company that serves semiconductor manufacturers. KLA Foundation is committed to advancing humanity by investing in local communities to create a more equitable, inclusive, and accessible world. The KLA Foundation partners with organizations that know their communities best to create sustainable solutions for sustainable change and empower our employees to get involved in causes close to their hearts.
BrandXR
BrandXR is a no-code Augmented Reality platform and award-winning XR creative studio on a mission to bring art to the greater community for those who don’t have access to it. Through the Electrifly Detroit Augmented Reality Mural Festival BrandXR, along with Electrify.co, hosts a free outdoor festival that brings murals to life. “We want to attract crowds, build our own Art Basel here in Detroit, and drive economic impact. I’m really excited about making Detroit a hub of art and technology,” Moody, CEO of Ann Arbor-based BrandXR said.
Veeva Systems
Veeva Systems has cloud solutions that provide data, software, services, and an extensive ecosystem of partners to support their customers' most critical business processes from Research & Development through commercialization. At the Veeva headquarters in Pleasanton, California, they’ve developed community-focused programs like a laptop donation program for local schools through which they donated over 100 laptops last year, hosting youth coding education events, participating in the young entrepreneur programs at local high schools, sponsoring events supporting local schools, and employee volunteer events.
Rocket Companies
Whether you’re buying a house, or a car, installing solar panels, or renovating your home, Rocket Companies® is creating certainty in life’s most difficult moments so that people can live their dream. Rocket invests heavily in talent from all kinds of avenues: internship programs, partnerships with HBCUs, and Experience IT, a program where Detroit-area businesses invest in building tech talent through bootcamps that break down barriers for those who didn’t have access to a traditional 4-year degree.
Fund That Flip
As an online investment platform and two-sided marketplace, Fund That Flip (now known as Upright) specializes in short-term residential loans for real estate development projects and gives investors the opportunity to invest in fractional shares of those loans to earn passive income. Fund That Flip is using technology, data, and access to capital to modernize real estate financing. They are also focused on educating the community and helping foster jobs and economic prosperity by partnering with organizations like Engage! Cleveland, Unify Jobs, and Diversity Job Board.
T-CETRA
Founded in 2007, T-CETRA is a leader in the prepaid wireless technology space and continues to grow beyond. T-CETRA’s payments platform, VIDAPAY, turns cash payments into cashless transactions. This technology has helped the Columbus tech company expand into transportation, government, healthcare, and nonprofit verticals. Even more, their Charitable Match program allows employees the opportunity to maximize their gifts to 501(c)(3) charities back into the community at either 50% or 100% match.
Dynatrace
Dynatrace is a global software leader with an all-in-one platform. Their software provides answers, not just data, about the performance of applications, the underlying infrastructure, and the experience of all users—it is simply, Software Intelligence. Dynatrace employees have the opportunity to participate in a volunteer paid time-off program and work with charitable organizations they’re passionate about. Additionally, the Dynatrace regional office locations host volunteer days with valued local organizations.
Duo Security
Duo Security, part of Cisco Secure’s suite of security products, was founded in 2010 with security at the core. It is now one of the strongest resources to protect companies from data security breaches. As a company, Duo Security is also looking at the security of its local and global communities through corporate giving and volunteer programs. Duo’s founder, Dug Song, is also a major leader in the community, and heavily gives back through The Song Foundation.
POINT
POINT, a Columbus-based volunteer matching app was created to manage, engage, and mobilize volunteers. Their app was created to minimize the hours spent by Nonprofits on manual tasks that could easily be automated with the right tech, so they have more time to put into their communities.
Looking to join a purpose-driven, community-nurturing organization like one of these? Join Purpose Jobs today and get connected with these companies and more.
