Taking Corporate Social Responsibility to the world.
Many companies and organizations want to do good for the world; few know how. Austin +SocialGood identified this need and provided a global platform for programming and mentorship through SXSW and the City of Austin.
I cofounded Austin +SocialGood with a consortium of other entrepreneurs that wanted to make an impact, led by Ruben Cantu. Our organization was a chapter of a global movement formed by the UN Foundation and Mashable to promote the global sustainability goals among the tech and product industries, and to lead the thought on corporate social responsibility.
We created a movement that led to:
SXSW officially launching a Social Good tract of programming, called #SXGood
Austin being declared the Social Innovation Capital of the World
the creation of the State of Texas’s official Work From Home Day to reduce traffic and pollution
the Social Innovators Fast Pitch, a competition we ran annually that provided funding and mentorship to over 25 startups and founders creating businesses focused on social good
Austin +SocialGood Banner featuring SXSW & the UN Foundation
2015 - Panel on impact investing
2015 Austin +SocialGood team
2015 - Panel on Innovation through Impact Filmmaking
Me sitting with the other judges for the SXSW edition of the Social Innovators Fast Pitch
A collection of our many amazing sponsors
Eli Chan, winner of the 2014 Social Innovators Fast Pitch, giving the SXSW crowd an update on the last year since winning
Promotional graphic of our SXSW official after party, Arts +SocialGood
We partnered with Uber to get attendees to and from Austin City Hall safely and efficiently
2014 - Panel on How Corporate Brands are Changing the World
Promotional graphic for our 2014 SXSW official event
2014 - Panel on taking the Global Goals to the local level
SXSW & UN Foundation - Innovators +Social Good
3 official (and 1 unofficial) SXSW events at Austin City Hall, run by Austin +SocialGood in partnership with the UN Foundation
Thousands of attendees to all-day programming, including hundreds of thousands viewing our livestreams
Featuring celebrities involved in social good, politicians, activists, nonprofits, and corporations all discussing best practices to save the planet and support humanity through the UN Global Goals
Our events led to Austin being declared the Social Innovation Capital of the World.
Me kicking off the 2015 Social Innovators Fast Pitch at Google Fiber
Roy Lopez of the Federal Reserve Bank was our keynote speaker
To break the ice, I made the whole audience do the "buffalo stance" - look it up if you don't know what that is
The winner of the 2015 Fast Pitch, Chelsea Elliot of the Half Helen Foundation
Chelsea hearing her name announced as the winner
Explanation slide in our presentation of the accelerator program and the impact it makes
Audience congregated at the Google Fiber building in downtown Austin
One of our accelerator classes with the 2015 cohort at Austin Community College
Open call for entrepreneurs to join the Social Innovators Fast Pitch in 2014
Contestants of the 2015 Social Innovators Fast Pitch
Coaches of the 2015 Social Innovators Fast Pitch
Lineup of the 2014 Social Innovators Fast Pitch contestants
While votes are tallied in the 2014 Fast Pitch, Ruben Cantu leads a panel discussing corporate social responsibility
Winner of the 2014 Fast Pitch, Christopher Hastings of Puente Phone with Ruben Cantu and Chris Nieto of Austin +SocialGood
Christopher Hastings of Puente Phone announced as winner of the 2014 Fast Pitch
Keith Pattison of Prepify pitching at the 2015 Social Innovators Fast Pitch
The RecruitHer founders discussing their pitch with the judges of the 2015 Social Innovators Fast Pitch
Ashley Doyal of RecruitHer pitching at the 2015 Social Innovators Fast Pitch
Austin +SocialGood team at the 2013 Social Innovators Fast Pitch at University of Texas campus
2014 Accelerator program in full swing, doing pitch review
2015 Accelerator class at Austin Community College
2015 Accelerator class at Austin Community College
Austin +SocialGood team at the 2015 Social Innovators Fast Pitch at Google Fiber
Ruben and I going over votes for the 2015 Fast Pitch competition
Standing room only at the 2015 Social Innovators Fast Pitch
Voting screen and sheet for the 2013 Social Innovators Fast Pitch
Carl Settles of E4 Youth, winner of the 2013 Social Innovators Fast Pitch
Social Innovators Fast Pitch
We created an accelerator program that accepted cohorts of 5 every year to receive mentorship, coaching, business planning and pitch preparation. The intention was to arm these entrepreneurs with what it takes to receive investment.
At the end of the 8-week accelerator program, we would host an event called the Social Innovators Fast Pitch, which would bring investors, financiers, and the business community together to support and ultimately fund these ventures. The winner of the Fast Pitch received seed funding from Austin +SocialGood.
5 years of Fast Pitch events, awarding over $50,000 in seed funding to social innovation startups
Over 25 companies entered the program and received immense value, regardless if they won the competition
Diverse coaches and mentors recruited from some of the most successful organizations, companies, and investment funds in Austin
Partnered with Google, the Austin Startup Week event series, SXSW, IBM, Austin Community College, and many more to host these events and programs
Work From Home Day initiative logo
Proclamation of Work From Home Day signed by the Governor of Texas
Me featured in a remote interview live on Austin's biggest tv news station - a very novel interview format, as most were done in person at that time
KVUE showing our Work From Home Day Savings Calculator to help businesses calculate savings on instituting remote work
A page from our published WFH Day report showing total impact across participating companies and orgs
Coverage on KUT Austin of Work From Home Day and the reduction in commute
Brad presenting Work From Home Day results at SXSW during GoodXGlobal 2013
Work From Home Day - Official TX Holiday
In 2012, we learned that Austin TX had the worst traffic density in the nation; this was a shocking announcement for a city of just over 1M people. Austin +SocialGood got busy fixing this problem. In 2013, we launched Work From Home Day, an initiative aimed at reducing traffic by 10,000 cars in one day. We received support from many major employers in the Austin area, including many community orgs and even the city and state administrations.
As a result of our work, the Rocky Mountain Institute chose Austin as it’s test city for a new mobility solution featuring driverless fleets of cars run by the city, announcing it with the Mayor Steve Adler at a press conference in Austin City Hall.
Work From Home Day took on a whole new life in the years following, becoming Mobility Week: taking the progress of year 1 and extending it beyond a day to make a much bigger impact.
Our results were tremendous:
Reduced traffic by 22,000 cars, well above our goal of 10,000, a reduction of nearly 20% of Austin’s daily car commuters
Received sponsorship and participation from Google, Dell, xAMD, Rackspace, City of Austin, St. Edward’s University, Austin Community College, CapMetro, GSD&M Agency, Austin Young Chamber of Commerce, Travis County, and the Office of the Governor of Texas
The governor signed an official proclamation for Work From Home Day, making 2/8 a state holiday
Rocky Mountain Institute chose Austin as it’s lead implementation city for it’s carbon-free mobility initiative
Received news coverage from 4 major TV stations (one running all day coverage feat. many of our team), 2 major radio stations, and 2 print publications