Alter.Nation
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Donating your time for the greater good is a powerful thing; no matter the cause, opportunity, or size of the impact, the mark you make and the footprint you leave behind means a lot to the people and organizations they benefit. But what makes volunteering even more powerful? When individual passion inspires community and one hour or one dollar donated becomes billions of hours, billions of dollars.
Some of you may remember that about a year ago, I announced a new Alteryx for Good (AFG) initiative addressing the number of toxic emissions generated from employee flights to and from our Global Kickoff (GKO) event (if you haven’t already read about it, check out my blog post). With 3.8 million miles flown and 760 tons of toxic emissions generated, I knew there had to be something we could do – as an organization – to offset these negative environmental effects. Most research suggested that the positive effect of planting a single tree can wipe out the negative effect of travel by generating 26 pounds of CO2, so I challenged our global associate base to plant as many trees needed to mitigate the travel impact of GKO: 58,462 trees. Achieving this in a year’s time wouldn’t be easy, but our AFG volunteers jumped at a chance to reduce their carbon footprint in their local communities, motivated by purpose-driven outcomes.
Today, I am pleased to announce that in 2019, we achieved this goal, planting 58,500 trees worldwide through organized AFG events and company-based donations. I was inspired by our associates’ dedication to this initiative and the power of our collective, localized efforts in making a huge global impact. By partnering with One Tree Planted (OTP), a non-profit organization dedicated to creating a healthier climate, protecting biodiversity and helping reforestation efforts, our employees gathered in cities around the world to get their hands dirty and plant trees.
These efforts impacted several of OTP’s priority projects, stretching across continents. One example is the Orca project: Salmon stocks are diminishing due to loss of habitat and increasing pollution, which is affecting the orca’s downstream migration patterns. By planting trees along rivers and streams in the Pacific Northwest, we helped restore habitat for the endangered orca – as trees help reduce pollution and improve the health and quanitity of salmon for the orca to eat. Another example is a project in Indonesia, home to lush rainforests, diverse wildlife and over 1,700 species of birds. In 2015, rampant fires burnt and destroyed more than 30,000 hectares of forest in the Kalimantan region in Borneo, including Tanjung Puting National Park. By working with OTP, we helped restore areas affected by these fires. We are proud to partner with an organization that shares similar values and understands the impact of local, community efforts and the purpose they serve on a global scale.
It’s amazing what people can accomplish together when they rally around a greater purpose and how individual commitment inspires community. Yes, we planted thousands of trees and reduced our carbon footprint, but we were also able to help restore habitat for orca whales in the U.S. and British Columbia, rebuild rainforests across Asia, provide income stability for female coffee farmers in Africa, and more. I am incredibly proud of our team, not for just achieving this goal, but for embodying the the AFG mission every day to make a difference in their communities and drive meaningful outcomes. I also want to take a moment to recognize our customers and partners that help extend the reach of Alteryx for Good, volunteering their time and skills to help students, academic institutions and non-profits in their own communities leverage the Alteryx platform to drive social impact.
In 2019, associates dedicated 3,423 volunteer hours with the program, up 93% year-over-year and 400 non-profits across 23 countries are generating data insights with the Alteryx Platform as a result of donated licenses. More than 22,000 students and educators across 64 countries are incorporating Alteryx into either their learning paths or cirriculums, allowing lifelong learners to advance their analytic skills and prepare for their careers. At last year’s Global Kickoff (GKO) event, we worked with an international hunger relief organization to pack 103,000 meals to ship to Southeast Asia, and at this year’s GKO, we built 140 LEGO brick pictures to inspire creativity for children in foster care and hospitals in the Las Vegas area.
In 2020, we’re doubling down on our AFG local initiatives with a global purpose and focusing our efforts in disaster relief. In addition to our partnerships with educators, students and non-profits, we will seek purpose in volunteer activities benefitting the people and places impacted by extreme disaster. In continued partnership with OTP, we’ve already launched a fundraising campaign supporting local non-profit reforestation efforts for areas affected by the recent Australian bushfires. We plan to further our impact through AFG initatives and opportunities at our annual user conference, Inspire APAC, happening later this month in Sydney.
For more on the AFG program, including key growth highlights and success stories from 2019, click here.
