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YourCause Hackathon Results in Tracking Technology for United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

YourCause Hackathon Results in Tracking Technology for United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Published 08-25-16

Submitted by YourCause

YourCause is the first Employee Engagement Platform provider to develop technology directly related to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) allowing users to track and report on donations and volunteer hours related to the IMPACT 2030 initiative. The initiative to support the United Nations’ program was the impetus for a company-wide hackathon that sparked innovation, teamwork, and incremental development of additional tools that will integrate the UN’s SDGs into YourCause’s existing CSRconnect Employee Engagement platform. The tracking and reporting functionality allows nonprofit organizations to identify which of the United Nation’s SDGs appropriately align with their mission, and displays the results to enterprises and their respective employees within CSRconnect’s charity search functionality. In total, the UN and its partners have established 17 overall Sustainable Development Goals – also referred to as ‘Global Goals’ – that are designed to tackle issues such as poverty, inequality, and climate change, and were developed as part of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“More than a year ago, we established a small internal team to research and become quasi-experts on what the United Nations and many of our top clients are pushing forward within the established 17 Sustainable Development Goals,” stated Matt Combs, Founder and CEO of YourCause. “Not only has our internal team achieved their goal of fully understanding the initiative, but our entire company has rallied together to develop new technology that we feel will fully support the entire nonprofit world and all our clients, and will open up new ways in which donors and volunteers will direct their ability to impact.” 

YourCause’s Chief Technology Officer, Leo D’Angelo, initiated the hackathon in which the company was divided into two teams with the focus to optimize development productivity and model a sustainable production plan for enhancements and new technology within the existing corporate engagement platform.

“In past careers, I have had the opportunity to participate in Hackathons,” stated D’Angelo. “I found these exercises are beneficial on multiple levels - producing a new product in record time; interdepartmental understanding of each other’s roles within a product launch; and overall interpersonal camaraderie. Not only did this hackathon accomplish all those things, but it also helped YourCause to be the first to market with the ability to track the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”

The new product, which has assumed the name of ‘The Global Goals Gateway’, is scheduled for a three-phase rollout plan that will begin in the fourth quarter of 2016. The phases are geared towards: nonprofit partners, enterprise clients, and the general consumer community. Phase one will focus on encouraging charities to register and declare alignment with the SDGs, while in turn provides data that nonprofits and companies will use to report on SDG-related donations and volunteering.

The IMPACT 2030 initiative is centered on a global private sector led collaboration, which mobilizes employee volunteers to directly contribute to the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. IMPACT 2030 consists of Partner companies that believe in a corporate volunteering commitment to accelerate the global achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Agenda, advance the practice and impact of employee volunteering, and inspire the private sector to positive action.

To learn more about the integration of the Global Goals Gateway, contact Dustin Joost at djoost@yourcause.com.

About YourCause
YourCause, LLC is a Dallas, TX based Software as a Service (“SaaS”) provider of the CSRconnect Employee Engagement Platform (“CSRconnect”) and the Orange Leap Donor Management Platform, two fully hosted and managed solutions for employees and nonprofits to more effectively deploy and mange their philanthropic, volunteering, sustainability, employee engagement, and overall donor relations programs. Being ranked on the Inc. 5000 list for two consecutive years, and  best places to work in Dallas winner, YourCause is rapidly expanding its operations through the ongoing deployment of end-to-end solutions for enterprises, nonprofits, and general users.  YourCause’s ongoing commitment to never taking a portion of any donation transacted within the platform allows the company to deliver maximum support to the more than 80,000+ nonprofits actively engaging with YourCause. 

To learn more about CSRconnect and YourCause visit: http://www.csrconnect.me

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YourCause

YourCause

YourCause, LLC (“YourCause”) is a Software as a Service (“SaaS”) provider of the CSRconnect Employee Engagement Platform (“CSRconnect”) that provides a fully hosted and managed solution for community involvement programs. CSRconnect is a robust and highly configurable platform that caters to each client’s programs with giving, volunteering, and feature-rich engagement tools. To learn more about CSRconnect and YourCause visit: csrconnect.me

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