Introducing Okta for Good’s First Impact Report

When Okta took the 1% pledge in 2016, we founded our social impact arm, Okta for Good, with a mission to strengthen the connections between people, technology, and community. The importance of these connections has never been more clear than over the last year — when we experienced a global pandemic, rising inequality, and global calls for racial justice. We also saw many people and organisations turn to technology to support resiliency and innovation. 

It was a year of urgent need in our communities and accelerated giving from Okta. That’s why today, we’re launching Okta for Good’s first Impact Report: a look at the organisations and communities we’ve invested in over the last year. 

What We’re Sharing and Why

Okta for Good significantly increased its philanthropic activity in 2020*, driven by an acceleration of our strategy and vision as well as urgent community needs. We believe it’s important to be transparent about the organisations who have received our support and why. We also include our own learnings in the report, in the hope that this information can be helpful for other companies and community partners. 

Here are the headlines: 

In an unprecedented year, Okta made deeper and longer-term commitments to social impact. 

The Okta for Good Fund, Okta Inc., and Okta employees combined giving exceeded $4M in 2020. Within that amount, the Okta for Good Fund alone distributed more than twice as much philanthropic giving than in the prior two years combined. Throughout 2020, Okta for Good made major long-term commitments to support important causes over the next 3 years, including $10M in cash donations, $10M in technology and services donations, and launching our Nonprofit Technology Initiative. Okta for Good and Okta’s co-founders also collectively made a 3-year, $3M grant commitment specifically for racial justice.

Okta employees mobilised for their communities.

In 2020, employees accelerated their personal giving through Okta for Good, donating over 3.5 times more per person than in 2019. Combined with Okta for Good’s matching funds, employees directed more than $950K into their local communities in 2020. 

In a year of rapid technology transformation, Okta enabled our customers to make a difference.

Okta donated $3.5M in products and services in 2020 to help accelerate the missions of nonprofit customers around the world. And customers across every segment accelerated their use of giving apps through Okta via Apps for Good in 2020. Nearly 1M of our customers’ employees were given access to at least one of the apps in the last year. 

What We Learned

We pivoted to new ways of connecting with our communities, such as virtual volunteering. We organised faster, with more urgency, and in collaboration with our employees, technology partners and communities. We doubled down on our commitment to investing in the digital infrastructure and tech capacity that will build resiliency long-term for the nonprofit sector. And we re-centered our long-term focus on equity. It was a year of reaffirming our focus areas, while at the same time, folding in new insights about community needs, the gaps in our social safety net, and the urgency required to address the systemic challenges we face. 

Looking Ahead

The work of Okta for Good is not the work of one team. It’s driven by the passion and dedication of the wider Okta community. Over the next year, we’ll continue to learn from our nonprofit partners and customers who bring knowledge of what their own communities are experiencing, and what resources are most needed. And, we’ll continue to amplify Okta’s efforts through our employees, who dig deep, offering their time, their dollars, and their expertise to support organisations around the world. We know that strong relationships take time to build, and the toughest problems cannot be fixed overnight. We are still finding our way in this journey and are hopeful about the ways in which we can continue to drive long-term change—together. We look forward to sharing more updates as our efforts continue. 

Read the full report here. 

*In this report, we refer to years based on a February 1 start date, which is the start of Okta’s fiscal year. The year that began on February 1, 2020, and ended on January 31, 2021, is referred to as “2020”, and “this year.”