From Overwhelmed to Action: Turning Company Values into Community Impact
Article by Kristin Quiroz Bayona, Social Impact Communications Consultant
As policy shifts, the erosion of civic norms, and economic uncertainty reshape the landscape around us, many employees are showing up to work carrying more than their workload. They're carrying anxiety, grief, and a growing sense of powerlessness.
Sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom argues it's not the polycrisis itself that's draining us. It's that we're consuming it constantly, through news cycles and the relentless scroll, without feeling like we can do anything about it. The exhaustion comes from witnessing without acting. Action creates agency. Agency creates hope.
Your social impact programs are one of the most underutilized tools you have to help employees move from feeling powerless to feeling powerful, connected, and hopeful. By building strategic programs that meet this moment, you can move employees from passive observers of global problems to active participants in local solutions.
Here's how.
Draw a Straight Line to Your Values
Authentic social impact isn't an add-on. It's woven into your company's DNA. When employees can draw a straight line from company values to community efforts, the work feels integrated, not performative.
Salesforce famously codified this through their 1-1-1 model. With Equality as a core value and the belief that "businesses can be powerful platforms for social change," they created the 1-1-1 model: 1% of equity, 1% of product, and 1% of employee time dedicated to community. Not as a program they added later, but as a founding commitment.
While not every startup has Salesforce’s scale, the principle remains: when community work flows naturally from what your company believes, employees don't need to be convinced to participate. They already see themselves in it.
Move From Photo Ops to Strategic Partnerships
Strategic social impact is about investing intentionally and for the long term. It's a sustained commitment to the same causes, the same partners, and the same community, approached with the same rigor you bring to your business. This can look like pro bono services, mentorship, or building pipelines with local schools and workforce programs to create pathways into your industry for people who wouldn't otherwise have access.
The organizations doing this work on the ground are the experts. These relationships deserve the same strategy and respect as your highest-paying clients.
Track Outcomes, Not Just Hours
Many companies default to vanity metrics. Instead, track outcomes that make the value undeniable.
Old way: "$5,000 worth of lab time donated."
Better way: "Identified three pollutants in the San Lorenzo River, leading to a 20% faster remediation plan."
Start Here
Two questions worth asking about your social impact program:
"If we announced this partnership today, would it feel like a natural extension of our expertise, or a pivot that confuses our team and clients?"
"When I think about our last volunteer event, did our team leave feeling empowered and helpful, or like they'd just had a day off?"
Santa Cruz has a legacy of grassroots action and bold innovation. By being creative and intentional, even small, well-placed efforts give your employees meaningful ways to act and create ripple effects in a community as connected as ours.