Okta has become the latest company to commit to the 1 percent pledge, an initiative that asks companies to give services and technology to support their community. The identity management platform provider announced that nonprofits will be able to use any product within its Okta Identity Cloud for free (up to the 25 employees). Additionally, Okta employees will now have a dedicated day to volunteer at nonprofits and causes they care about.
Started in 2014 by Atlassian, the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado, Rally Software, and the Salesforce Foundation, the 1 percent pledge serves as a framework for philanthropy, asking committed companies to give 1 percent of their equity, time, and product in the interests of making the world a better place. Participants include Weebly, Box, DemandBase, DocuSign, Galvanize, General Assembly, Oracle, TechStars, Yelp, and Twilio.
It’s not surprising to see Okta join the pledge, as the company is run by former Salesforce executives Todd McKinnon and Frederic Kerrest who brought a legacy of community giving to the startup. McKinnon acknowledged that today’s move formally establishes philanthropy as a key element in the company’s culture. He admitted that the startup’s previous focus was on making the company work, but said that now, with more than 800 employees, he wants to “make sure that [this commitment is] a broad statement about what Okta is all about.”
Nonprofits will have free access to Okta’s suite of tools — such as single sign-on, provisioning, social authentication, and more. “Nonprofits are a very important market for [us],” McKinnon said. “The thing about nonprofits is ‘lean and mean’ — no big technology centers; they’ve embraced the cloud and are doing a lot with mobile devices people bring to nonprofits. It’s the perfect environment for Okta to be added into the mix, giving employees one system.”
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Another opportunity lies with nonprofits that need added security. Human rights groups and others not only face physical danger from protestors and opposition but also become targets of cyber attacks. Okta hopes that by making itself more available to these groups, it’ll help keep sensitive information locked down.
“We measure our own success by how successful our customers are— whether they’re large, global enterprises like Pitney Bowes, Flex, Engie or News Corp, or local nonprofits like the Global Fund for Women and the Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula,” the company said in a statement.
Updated as of 10:45 a.m. Pacific on Wednesday: This post has been modified to reflect that there are more than 800 employees as the company.
