On June 7th at the 2016 Technology Impact Awards we will be presenting the Community Engagement Award to a company that embraces corporate culture and social responsibility. As all three of our finalists are having a positive impact on the community, we have chosen to shine a spotlight on each of them individually to spread the inspiration!

Get to know the second Community Engagement Award finalist company for the 2016 TIAs, Traction on Demand!

Traction for Good: Giving the Gift of Technology

Content provided by Traction on Demand

Traction for Good was inspired by the words of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso who once said, “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”

Our gift is technology and our purpose is helping non-profit organizations leverage technology to make the good work they do more efficient. Traction for Good, led by Michelle Malpass, Director of Community Performance, and Jessica Langelaan, Non-profit Practice Lead, exists to provide strong community engagement both inside and outside Traction on Demand. We have nurtured a culture that stimulates innovation, fosters friendship, rewards teamwork and inspires giving.

Traction on Demand is a cloud-technology consulting firm with unparalleled expertise using the Salesforce platform. From the very beginning, CEO and Founder Greg Malpass emphasized community development, engagement and philanthropy. Traction for Good was born in 2010 with the realization that as the company grew, so should our commitment to support the wider community.

Traction for Good provides Salesforce implementation grants for services to non-profits; it also provides volunteer hours and monetary donations to causes we believe in, like Girls Learning Code and Engineers Without Borders. The total monetary value of the grants, time and donations given to these organizations has exceeded $250,000.

Traction for Good recently provided a grant and services to the First Nations Technology Council (FNTC), which is in charge of ensuring all of British Columbia’s 203 First Nations communities have the capacity to utilize digital technologies to the fullest potential. The challenge was how to manage the expressions of interest and delivery of the program with minimal funds. Enter: Traction for Good. Working together to define the requirements of the project, we determined the true cost of the work, as well as what contribution FNTC could make. With that in mind, we supported FNTC to seek third-party funding through the McConnell Foundation’s Innoweave program. Between FNTC, Innoweave and a Traction for Good grant, FNTC was able to fully fund this project.

We support causes that are meaningful to our staff, customers and partners, because without our clients and the relentless dedication of our team, neither Traction on Demand nor Traction for Good would exist. Our reach is wide; our philanthropic efforts take us from Vancouver to San Francisco during the Bandit Tour for Good every year.

While we are active in the outside community, within our walls, Traction for Good engages employees by encouraging them to be individual philanthropists. From the very beginning, at the point of hire, Traction for Good provides every team member with the opportunity to make a loan to low-income entrepreneurs in 82 countries through Kiva. This spirit of giving permeates everything we do, and last year, Tractionites and others in the community donated to sponsor a refugee family from Syria. We surpassed our goal of $27,000 in just one month.

On a business level, Traction for Good motivates social business adoption. As a certified B Corp, it is a leader in building a community and not just a company.

We have recognized from the beginning that a company doing good is not just a trend. It’s the way things ought to be. We are fortunate to have a gift that we can share with the community, and we want to keep inspiring people along the way.

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Find out who will take home the Community Engagement Award at the Technology Impact Awards on June 7th!

Ticket sales close June 1st at 5PM, so act fast!