SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), the leading cloud communications platform, today announced that the company’s social impact arm - Twilio.org - has awarded more than $1.4 million to 15 nonprofits, its largest grant round to date. These grants were made through the Twilio.org Impact Fund, which has awarded more than $3 million to social impact organizations in the past year. These grants are possible through Twilio’s commitment to allocate 1% of its equity as part of the Pledge 1% initiative to support social impact.
“Through the Twilio.org Impact Fund, we’re proud to help nonprofits and social enterprises working on a wide array of issues realize the power of communications to enhance their impact,” said Erin Reilly, Vice President of Social Impact and General Manager of Twilio.org. “With these grants, we want to empower more organizations who are using technology to deliver critical resources and support to the communities they serve."
The organizations that have received grants include:
- Benefits Data Trust helps people live healthier, more independent lives by creating smarter ways to access essential benefits and services. With the funds, Benefits Data Trust will expand its SMS engagement to serve more beneficiaries with greater efficiency and convenience, improving quality of life and reducing long-term healthcare costs.
- CommunityConnect Labs provides high quality and affordable tools for government and service providers to reach low-income and hard-to-engage individuals. With the help of the Twilio Impact Fund, CommunityConnect Labs will educate, motivate, and activate low-income, immigrant, minority and other underserved groups to participate in the 2020 Census, a decennial process that influences $700 billion of federal funding.
- DoSomething is the largest tech organization focused on activating young people to make positive change both online and offline through campaigns that make an impact. DoSomething received its first Twilio.org grant last fall as it helped underrepresented voter populations participate in the 2018 midterm elections. With this new grant, DoSomething will build on their expertise in digital activation to engage youth with DoSomething Clubs, a new initiative in high school and college campuses nationwide.
- Kiva is an international nonprofit that expands financial access to help underserved communities thrive. With the funds, Kiva plans to expand access to capital to low-income entrepreneurs across the United States.
- MindRight is a tech nonprofit that empowers youth of color to heal from trauma from systemic oppression, including structural violence, poverty, and discrimination. MindRight provides personalized mental health support over text message. The grant from Twilio.org will help MindRight grow the number of students receiving its text-based coaching program.
- Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, which has recently merged with Center on Addiction, provides families with the tools they need to take effective action for their child’s addiction. Funding will be used to expand the usage and reach of communications tools providing opioid prevention and recovery resources to youth and families across the US.
- Streetwide built and manages Detention Lifeline, a first of its kind call center and CRM dedicated to immigrants and asylum seekers currently imprisoned in detention facilities. Streetwide plans to use the funds to expand the number of immigrants and asylees receiving support through their newly established national hotline.
- TalkingPoints unlocks the potential of all families to support their children's learning by meaningfully connecting them with their school communities through two-way translated messages and support, especially in underserved, diverse communities. Their grant support will be used to expand the reach of their student, parent and educator engagement tools.
- Tarjimly is a tech nonprofit committed to improving the lives of the world’s 23 million refugees by eliminating language barriers. Twilio.org’s funding will enable Tarjimly to successfully launch an independent mobile app that engages a growing number of volunteers over voice, text, chat, and video.
- Law Centres Network defends the legal rights of people who cannot afford a lawyer. Twilio.org’s support will be used to help scale the Law Centres Network’s SMS support to clients from disadvantaged communities in the UK.
Each of these recipients are using innovative communications strategies that make it easier, faster, and more affordable for organizations to connect with the people they serve.
As a company built by developers, for developers, Twilio believes in the power of a diverse set of voices to create the technologies that will shape the future. To help increase diversity in the tech industry, Twilio.org is also funding the following organizations that provide technical training and career development to adults from underrepresented backgrounds seeking to join the field:
- Inclusion seeks to empower underserved communities through coding programs.
- Hack the Hood introduces members of under-resourced communities of color to careers in tech.
- Lesbians Who Tech + Allies is the largest LGBTQ technology community in the world -- committed to visibility, intersectionality, and changing the face of technology.
- Douar Tech aims to provide technological skills training to rural communities in Morocco.
- BRIDGEGOOD, a project of Oakland Digital, is dedicated to bridging the tech gap for underrepresented communities.
For more information on the Twilio.org Impact Fund, visit twilio.org/impact-fund.
About Twilio.org
Twilio.org works with nonprofits and social enterprises to fuel communications that give hope, power and freedom. By connecting social impact organizations, passionate software developers and the full power of the Twilio platform, Twilio.org ignites positive change on a local and global scale. To date, more than 3,000 charities and nonprofits have used Twilio to send more than a billion messages for good.
About Twilio
Millions of developers around the world have used Twilio to unlock the magic of communications to improve any human experience. Twilio has democratized communications channels like voice, text, chat, video and email by virtualizing the world’s communications infrastructure through APIs that are simple enough for any developer to use, yet robust enough to power the world’s most demanding applications. By making communications a part of every software developer's toolkit, Twilio is enabling innovators across every industry — from emerging leaders to the world’s largest organizations — to reinvent how companies engage with their customers.