Giving Back, Taking Action, Making a Difference

At times like this it’s so easy to feel helpless and at the mercy of something you can’t control. There is a fair amount of uncertainty in the world today, but we are not helpless. As individuals and as companies, we are empowered to make a difference, it is our opportunity and our obligation. It starts with taking action to help us keep ourselves, our families, our teams, and our communities as safe as possible (something we are learning how to do more and more with each passing day). But it goes beyond that to helping and supporting our extended networks; our business communities, our customers, and the people where we live and work. How we best offer help has changed given “social distancing” “shelter-in-place” orders and “lockdowns.” This means near term we need to find ways to be creative and help make a difference near term while we prepare to continue to give back in more traditional ways longer term.  

When I first joined Puppet, I was incredibly impressed by the people who work here and their conviction to help and support their local communities. Being “Community empowered. Empowering community” was not just one of the values we had printed up on stickers; it truly was how we lived and worked. I feel lucky to be part of a team who deeply believes in giving back to the communities that we are involved in: the open source ecosystem, our customers and business partners, and the cities and towns we live and work in. We are stronger, have better results, and move faster because we are engaged with people and organizations beyond our walls as part of our work and as part of our lives outside of work.

As a company, Puppet has always helped support the communities we live in with our philanthropic efforts focused on helping underrepresented people in tech and leadership roles. Whether it's providing space and mentorship to entrepreneurs via Portland Incubation Experiment, working to build more diversity and acceptance with our peers through TechTown, or most recently signing up for Pledge 1% including committing 1% of our equity to further increase the impact our company and employees can have around in our communities around the world.

With COVID-19 spreading at a rapid pace and institutions shutting down to curb its further spread, food scarcity and security has become a key issue during this pandemic. While this is a time of stress and uncertainty for many of us, this is also the time when our communities need us the most. From a Puppet company perspective we are taking this opportunity to make financial contributions to food banks in the regions we live and work in:

• Singapore - Courage Fund 
• UK (London & Belfast) The Trussel Trust 
• Sydney - Food Bank
• Portland - Food Bank

And our people are doing even more. Across Puppet, individuals have stepped up and donated on their own to a number of different charities from supporting food scarcity causes Hunger Fighters Oregon, Feeding America, COVID-19 Holiday Hunger - Empowering Mothers Programme, Meals on Wheels to those impacted by job loss like National Domestic Workers Alliance, Big Table to more general funds to support the ways COVID-19 is impacting people on multiple fronts like the Social Justice Fund Crisis Fund, CDP COVID-19 Response Fund, Portland Coronavirus Mutual Aid Fund, United Way PDX and Street Roots.

While it would be easy to become immersed in isolation; there is no more important time than now to be empowered and engaged with the communities you live and work in. One way to give back is through financial donations and if you are able to do this, thank you. There are other ways to give back as well. Perhaps you can help pack up care packages for those in need in the safety of your own home, or you can clean your closets and find great things to donate to charity once the virus passes, or you can read to school children via video chat, or you can adopt a pet from an animal shelter, or you can call some of the people in your community to check in and provide a social outlet to those who may be living alone and feeling very lonely….. the list goes on. What is important in times like these is not so much what you give back but that you give back. By doing so you will be more in control of your own situation and helping to bring a comfort and security to others.

Together we can move the needle in a positive direction. Thank you for making a difference and take care.