Zuora, Inc. (NYSE: ZUO), the leading cloud-based subscription management platform provider, today announced that the Zuora Impact Fund, through Zuora.org, has selected its first Community Impact Grant recipients. The Community Impact Grant program underscores Zuora’s efforts to ensure the Subscription Economy® benefits everyone through its employee time, equity, and product, to contribute to creating more inclusive local economies.
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In its first ever grant cycle, launched in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., Zuora.org sought to fund organizations addressing the needs of underserved individuals and those breaking down barriers to economic participation.
“Philanthropic organizations are not only seeing a steep increase in the numbers of individuals needing their support through emergency relief such as food, shelter, and individual microgrants, but they are also needing to shift their business models to effectively reach their constituents through virtual deployment or social-distanced delivery methods,” said Rory Ihlamur, Director of Zuora.org. “To help alleviate some of that pressure we decided to issue unrestricted funding so that organizations can use the grant money for their highest priorities and pivot to best serve their communities.”
The recipients of Zuora.org’s $250,000 in impact grants represent a global collection of organizations demonstrating their dedication and passion in providing unwavering support to those most negatively affected by COVID-19. Not only are they supplying basic human needs such as food and shelter but they are also committed to helping their constituents find stability and economic mobility in very uncertain times.
Zuora.org Community Impact Grant Recipients
- Aruwe: Serving Tamilnadu, India, Aruwe provides emergency relief such as food and household items to those most negatively affected by COVID-19. Working closely with local families they provide knowledge on how to stop the spread of the virus and provide programs to help these families regain their livelihood.
- Farming Hope: Farming Hope is a San Francisco based farm-to-table nonprofit social enterprise empowering and promoting self-sufficiency for people who have experienced homelessness or incarceration through job training and employment in the culinary industry.
- Hack the Hood: Hack the Hood launched with a mission to build a tech sector that works for everyone. They do this by providing technology education and workforce opportunities to early career youth of color, ages 16-25. To deepen their technical skills and career development, youth serve as digital marketing and technology consultants to local small businesses. They build websites and leverage analytics to help entrepreneurs drive revenue. As one of the first organizations in this field, Hack the Hood has a commitment to implementing a project-based, rigorous curriculum that is relevant to the communities they serve.
- Hospitality Helps: Hospitality Helps/Taste Catering (in partnership with Young Community Developers, Inc.) is producing and delivering delicious, fresh, and ready-to-eat family meals to San Francisco’s District 10 (Hunter’s Point/Bay View), a community disproportionately affected by COVID-19, living in the “food desert” of San Francisco and cut off from school-based nutrition.
- Monthly Miracles: Monthly Miracles saves the Tri-Valley residents from homelessness every month by mobilizing the community through $1/month donations.
- NPO e-Education: Serving Bangladesh, e-Education provides emergency educational support to underserved high school students by matching them with local university student tutors who are out of work due to COVID-19.
- Oasis for Girls: Oasis for Girls partners with young girls of color, aged 14-18, from under-resourced communities in San Francisco to cultivate the skills, knowledge, and confidence to discover their dreams and build strong futures.
- Open Heart Kitchen of Livermore: Open Heart Kitchen serves prepared, nutritious meals free of charge to the hungry people of the Tri-Valley, California. They are the only hot meal program of its kind in the Tri-Valley area and, given new COVID-19 demand, have increased meal delivery to people experiencing homelessness or escaping domestic violence.
- SFMade: SFMade’s mission is to build and support a vibrant manufacturing sector in San Francisco and the Bay Area, that sustains companies producing locally-made products, encourages entrepreneurship and innovation, and creates employment opportunities for a diverse local workforce including for women and people of color.
- Tri-Valley Haven for Women: Tri-Valley Haven creates homes safe from abuse, contributes to a more peaceful society one person, one family, one community at a time. Together, they build a world without violence.
In an effort to further their philanthropic work, Zuora re-committed another $1,000,000 in FY’21 to provide funding to organizations that are building more equitable educational structures, providing innovative workforce development opportunities, and those that support under-represented entrepreneurs. The goal is to create more equitable prosperity for individuals and communities that have been underrepresented. The company’s philanthropic arm, Zuora.org, will use the funds to fuel two initiatives: the Zuora Impact Fund which invests in mission-aligned nonprofits and employee-driven volunteer and fundraising activation.
As a result of its continued efforts to drive inclusivity through philanthropic efforts, Zuora was recently named a San Francisco Business Times Top 100 Philanthropist.
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