How a t-shirt from Atlassian led social impact startup Humanitix to join one of the world’s biggest charity movements, Pledge 1%

Sometimes it’s all about the swag.

Humanitix co-founder Joshua Ross was at an Atlassian charity event when he was handed a Pledge 1% t-shirt.

“We were there to ask Atlassian staff for help hiring our first Chief Technology Officer – a few of the senior Atlassian developers kindly offered to do technical interviews for our top candidates,” he said.

The social impact startup is registered as a charity and the Atlassian team piled in to help as part of their company’s commitment to Pledge 1%. 

For the fledgling startup, Pledge 1% transformed the company and in the process, the lives of thousands of young people.

In the two short years since Ross founded Humanitix with Adam McCurdie, with a goal of directing all profits from booking fees towards projects to close the education gap around the world, the not-for-profit ticketing platform has already provided nearly 3000 days of Indigenous education and more than 121,000 days of literacy programs for young girls

Humanitix co-founder Adam McCurdie at the food charity OzHarvest, one of the organisations they support through Pledge 1%.

Josh is acutely aware of the impact Pledge 1% had on his business and its goals.

“It’s a great reminder that Pledge 1% is more than just the equity – it’s also pledging 1% of your time (and product) which can be incredibly impactful in its own right. Had we hired the wrong person as our CTO we would have failed,” he said.

“Every paid event run on Humanitix becomes a Pledge 1% event. We do this for massive brands like Westfield, the Botanical Gardens, Spark Festival and UTS, and thousands more.”

Humanitix has disrupted the event ticketing industry for the benefit of all and signed up to Pledge 1% 18 months ago. 

“It was super quick and easy. As I understand it, it’s a pledge that when you’re ready you will give 1% of your equity, time and product, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it all on day one,” he said.

“Given our model we did it all on day one, but it’s designed to be inviting to organisations of all structures and stages of the journey.”

He jokes that the Humanitix team are “Pledge extremists” since their business model is all about philanthropy. Yet the ideas that underpin it have also given additional purpose to the many companies who use it for their events, knowing that by choosing Humanitix, they’re helping give children a better education. 

“We are now used by thousands of not-for-profit organisations including  Cancer Council, Rotary Clubs, Vision Australia and the United Nations,” Josh said. 

He’s also seen an unexpected benefit from being involved in Pledge 1%.

“We’ve managed to more easily attract high-calibre staff at all levels of our organisation” Josh said.

Room to Read is another charity Humanitix supports.

“Of most distinction is our customer service team who are best in class – we literally spill-over with 5 star reviews – which is super rare in the ticketing world! It’s because the team bought into our mission and each appreciates how growth in Humanitix directly translates to growth in social impact.”

One of them is Jeremy Tang, a Senior Account Manager who arrived in Australia on a Humanitarian Visa in 2016.

“It’s been a hard journey, but finding Humanitix and having the opportunity to join an organisation and movement which is directly creating a more fair and humane world is core to my ethos and philosophy on life,” he said.

“By purely working here my impact to the world has been amplified, I genuinely love what we do and without sounding too lame it’s my dream job”. 

Josh is struck by the potential for Pledge 1% to become bigger that the world’s current level of philanthropy if more companies sign up

“It’s a global game-changer, and we can all make this choice,” he said, adding that the other benefit of being involved is “it’s an awesome network of ethical and inspiring people.”

With Humanitix currently scaling fast, despite the impact of coronavirus on events in 2020, Josh Ross is on a mission to share the Pledge 1% message and is hoping to find more ways to commit.

“Other than proudly wearing the shirts around North Sydney!” he grins. 

Pledge 1% is an easy model to businesses of all sizes and stages have an impact. It only takes 30 seconds to take the pledge, and you can always update your pledge type and information later. Click here to find our more and take the pledge too.