NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / April 23, 2024 / Empower by GoDaddy 2023 Graduates - Better Business Bureau of the Pacific Southwest.

By April Skeete, Manager of Corporate Sustainability at GoDaddy

In 2023, GoDaddy employees played a valuable role in working to fulfill our mission of empowering entrepreneurs everywhere, making opportunity more inclusive for all. Employees donated their time and resources to important causes, and the result was a positive impact across several communities. Through volunteerism and philanthropy, we aim to strengthen our GoDaddy community by giving back to the communities in which we live and work.

As we recognize National Volunteer Month this April in the U.S., we'd like to highlight some of the ways our employees made a positive impact during 2023, including:

• Raising more than $370K in donations for over 350 organizations around the world, during a 200% donation matching campaign by GoDaddy.
• Reporting more than 4,600 volunteer hours supporting a wide variety of causes from inclusive entrepreneurship, food security, mentoring youth, housing, human services and more.
• Helping improve or curate new websites for 445 different Empower by GoDaddy entrepreneurs.
• Teaching 95 Empower by GoDaddy sessions on branding, social media and website design to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses online.

Empower by GoDaddy is our signature global social impact program that propels underserved entrepreneurs forward in their business journeys through education, networking and mentoring. In 2023, 57% of participating Empower by GoDaddy employees volunteered two or more times. Collectively, our Empower by GoDaddy employee volunteers positively impacted thousands of entrepreneurs throughout 2023.

Throughout 2023, GoDaddy employees came together as a united force, creating a sense of unity and camaraderie that was truly inspiring. They collaborated with peers, empowered underserved entrepreneurs and championed the work of GoDaddy's employee resource groups (ERGs).

GoDaddy volunteers tackled crucial tasks supporting the operations of various community organizations worldwide, including:

• Arizona employees, in coordination with our GoDaddy Black in Tech (GDBIT) and GoDaddy Latinx in Tech (GDLIT) ERGs tackled food insecurity with several events at the United Food Bank, Feed My Starving Children and St. Mary's Food Bank. Arizona employees also came together on two separate occasions to uplift youth by building and donating bicycles and hosting a children's holiday party benefiting the Boys & Girls Club of the Valley.
• The Beeston, U.K. team joined efforts to end homelessness by volunteering their time with Emmanuel House.
• In Kirkland, Washington, employees hosted a STEM activity for youth at the Boys & Girls Club of Kirkland, championing their mission of enabling young people to realize their full potential. Later in the year, employees gave their time to prepare and serve dinner to families staying at the Ronald McDonald House of Seattle, an organization supporting critically ill children and their families.
• Our GoDaddy interns came together virtually to decorate luggage bags for children transitioning into Foster Care through Foster Love.
• And lastly, hundreds of employees independently devoted their valuable time to countless causes that are personally meaningful to them.

GoDaddy employees provided entrepreneurs with access to capital.

GoDaddy Venture Forward, a research initiative that quantifies the impact 20 million online microbusinesses have on their local economies, identified access to capital as one of the top three challenges microbusiness owners encounter when starting a business.

Through GoDaddy's partnership with Kiva, a nonprofit organization on a mission to expand financial access to help underserved communities thrive, GoDaddy employees provided crucial funding to entrepreneurs around the world.

In 2023, employees had the opportunity to choose which eco-friendly entrepreneurs received GoDaddy funds in celebration of Earth Day, and by supporting the entrepreneurs of their choosing during U.S. Small Business Month. Additionally, GoDaddy publicly matched loans up to four times the giving amount, supporting select U.S. communities where Empower by GoDaddy has had programming. With employee help, in 2023, GoDaddy disbursed $114,050 across 640 loans to small business owners.

More than 200 employees, with support from GoDaddy, raised over $370K in donations for 350 organizations through GoDaddy's 'Power of Giving' 200% donation match campaign.

Our employees care about a wide variety of causes that hold personal value to them. 

In addition to the $370K in donations raised last year, our ERGs proactively bolstered the work of several organizations. GDLIT provided hope for children through funds raised and donated to Toys for Tots, and GD Green financially supported GoDaddy customer, the Cookstove Project's mission to eliminate preventable health hazards by helping women and their families gain access to efficient, clean cookstoves.

GoDaddy encourages employees to continue making a difference in their communities.

At GoDaddy, we know that our employees' volunteerism and charitable giving not only strengthen our communities, but they also strengthen us as a team. Empowering our people here at GoDaddy moves us closer to realizing our vision to radically shift the global economy toward life-fulfilling entrepreneurial ventures. We are incredibly proud to celebrate our employees who share their resources to help others. We know, however, there isn't a finish line, and we're committed to our ongoing journey.

"GoDaddy is heart-led and that's why I chose to join the company eight years ago, because at heart, we are aligned," said Terri Wong, GoDaddy senior product designer and active volunteer. "It's heart-expanding for me to grow with people who care, nurtured by the heart-led leadership, and now practicing the act of giving in everything I do - from empowering 20 million customers to achieve more impact and fulfillment, to contributing our time, money and energy to our communities, without asking anything in return. Greater good for all is our gift to this world."

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from GoDaddy on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:
Spokesperson: GoDaddy

SOURCE: GoDaddy