Aha! Commits $350,000 to Charitable Giving in 2021

You can find Aha! teammates located across eight countries and 89 cities. Our team has a global reach — especially when it comes to helping those in need. I recently spoke to a few folks who had just completed their annual Aha! Cares community service day. One person delivered children's books to an elementary school, while others donated blood. A group of Aha!s got together virtually to decorate panels for duffel bags that will go to children in foster care. Although these acts of service might seem small, they make a real impact on people's lives.

I believe that we all have a responsibility to create as much hope as possible for people in need. And those of us who have been the most fortunate must act with urgency.

We formalized Aha! Cares in 2018. It is a philanthropic initiative to share our company's success and improve people's lives — focused on providing food, safety, and shelter. The program is unique in that rather than the company identifying nonprofits, our team members champion charitable organizations in their local communities.

Within the first two years, we were able to give $245,000 to community-based nonprofits. Our team members also clocked a collective 1,130 hours of service. These financial contributions and hands-on volunteering have directly benefited homeless families, children in need, and survivors of domestic violence — just to name a few.

But midway through 2020 it became clear to us that companies have a moral responsibility to stand for equal opportunity, too. This is why we added "opportunity" as the fourth pillar of Aha! Cares so that teammates could nominate nonprofits that address issues of social justice.

At the same time we launched the Aha! Fellowship to provide product management training to people from historically disadvantaged and underrepresented groups. And we continue to increase our overall investment via Aha! Cares as our company grows.

Today I am honored to share that we are raising our financial giving commitment to $350,000 for 2021. That will include our financial contributions to nonprofits and the awards we pay to fellows.

We kicked off our nonprofit financial giving program for 2021 by granting $145,000 to organizations in the U.S., Canada, Ireland, and South Africa. Each organization was chosen and championed by a member of our team. Here are the 26 nonprofits receiving funding so far, grouped by the four pillars of Aha! Cares:

Food

• Madison Community Services (Madison, Connecticut, USA) — food refrigeration
• Moveable Feast (Baltimore, Maryland, USA) — food and transportation
• P:ear (Portland, Oregon, USA) — COVID-friendly hot meals
• PEAS (Austin, Texas, USA) — community garden
• Servant’s Heart Ministry (Pine Castle, Florida, USA) — refrigerated truck
• The Sharing Place (Orillia, Ontario, Canada) — grab-and-go snacks
• Table (Carrboro, North Carolina, USA) — feeding at-risk kids

Safety

• Domestic Violence Resource Center (Hillsboro, Oregon, USA) — emergency stay fund
• Haven (Bozeman, Montana, USA) — emergency response fund
• Impilo (Johannesburg, South Africa) — child protective services
• Project Safe (Athens, Georgia, USA) — domestic violence intervention
• Rowan House Society (High River, Alberta, Canada) — abuse education programs
• SafeHouse Denver (Denver, Colorado, USA) — crisis line and counseling
• Susie's Place (Avon, Indiana, USA) — abuse intervention
• WestSide Baby (Seattle, Washington, USA) — child safety needs

Shelter

• The Maui Farm (Maui, Hawaii, USA) — family accommodations
• Room One (Twisp, Washington, USA) — temporary housing
• Rose Brooks (Kansas City, Missouri, USA) — deposits toward permanent housing
• Rose Haven (Portland, Oregon, USA) — shower program
• Safe Passage (Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA) — housing costs
• Simon Community (Dublin, Ireland) — shelter and programming

Opportunity

• African American Youth Harvest Foundation (Austin, Texas, USA) — youth summer employment program
• Austin Angels (Austin, Texas, USA) — foster children holiday gifts
• Chess and Community (Athens, Georgia, USA) — youth STEM program
• East Lake Initiative (Birmingham, Alabama, USA) — micro-grant program
• New Hope for Youth (San Jose, California, USA) — at-risk youth programming

During periods of turmoil, it is more important than ever to cultivate hope, kindness, and light.

Our first class of Aha! fellows recently completed eight weeks of immersive learning. I'm thrilled to report that a number of the fellows have already accepted full-time roles at software and technology companies. And we are looking forward to welcoming our second class of fellows next year and continuing to invest in opportunity for all.

If you are interested in starting a similar philanthropic giving program at your company, these resources can help you get started. You can learn about the core tenets of our unique corporate giving program and get access to downloadable templates for nonprofit emails, funding applications, and impact reports.

Whether or not your team is 100 percent distributed like ours, we hope that you feel inspired to make a positive difference in your community — so we can all build towards a brighter future.

Learn more about Aha! Cares.

About Brian and Aha!

Brian de Haaff seeks business and wilderness adventure. He is the co-founder and CEO of Aha! — the world’s #1 roadmap software and one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. He is also the author of the bestseller Lovability. Brian writes and speaks about product and company growth and the adventure of living a meaningful life.

Aha! is the world's #1 roadmap software. We help more than 5,000 companies and 400,000 users create strategic plans. The company was founded in 2013 by Silicon Valley veterans and product management experts Brian de Haaff and Dr. Chris Waters. Aha! is one of the fastest-growing software companies in the U.S. The company is self-funded and profitable, with an entirely remote team. Learn more at www.aha.io.