Below is an article originally written by PowerToFly Partner AppNexus, and published on February 12, 2018. Go to AppNexus' page on PowerToFly to see their open positions and learn more.

Global Impact Week began after we joined with Pledge 1%, but the urge to do good has always been a part of AppNexus. One of our core values is to see and improve the whole system, and to us, "system" doesn't only mean "the internet." It means the entire world.

The week of October 20th was a particularly special one at AppNexus, but not because of anything to do with ad tech. Instead, it was AppNexus Global Impact Week, which is when AppNexians around the world carry out charitable events in their local communities.

This year's Impact Week was a huge success. More than half our global workforce – about 540 AppNexians in all – volunteered their time for causes they're passionate about. This led to a total of 1,800 total hours given to charity across 16 different offices to support more than 30 non-profit organizations.

Below, we'd like to tell you more about the approach that led to this success and share some highlights from the week.

Our approach to making an impact

Global Impact Week began after we joined with Pledge 1%, but the urge to do good has always been a part of AppNexus. One of our core values is to see and improve the whole system, and to us, "system" doesn't only mean "the internet." It means the entire world.

That's why, for example, well before we joined Pledge 1%, we had an official "Do Good" club that organized informal charity efforts in our New York office. But as we grew into a global company, we wanted a way to spread the "do good" instinct to our offices around the world. At the same time, we also wanted these efforts to be for local causes that AppNexians of all stripes are passionate about, rather than organize top down efforts for causes dictated by people in our New York headquarters.

That's what led us to join the Pledge 1% movement and create the AppNexus Impact steering committee. The steering committee works with global ambassadors in each office to organize local volunteer events or fundraisers – usually about one per quarter for each office. The committee has also built a platform for any AppNexian to organize events for causes they're passionate about and that impact the communities they live and work in.

Some highlights from Impact Week

Nearly all of our Impact Week efforts were self-directed, local efforts organized by the global ambassadors in each of the 16 offices that participated. So, in addition to the outstanding stats we cited at the beginning of the article, highlights of the week included:

• Our New York office partnering with the National Parks Conservation Association, Lower East Side Ecology Center, and New York Restoration Project to clean up parks and plant trees all over the city
• Our Boulder office teaming up with the Butterfly Pavilion to build habitats for monarch butterflies
• Our San Francisco office preparing and serving over 500 dinners for the homeless with Glide Food Bank
• Our Sao Paulo office spending time reading, drawing, and playing music for sick children with AFPCC
• Our Portland and Eugene offices working with Free Geek to help dissemble 48 full computer towers and CD drives for recycling

And those are just examples from six offices of the 16 who participated – with many of those 16 holding multiple initiatives. From building butterfly habitats to preparing meals for folks who are less fortunate, the common theme that unites all of these projects is that the participants chose them themselves because they were passionate about them. We can't wait to see where AppNexians choose to make a difference next year!