#TwitterForGood Day goes remote

Our goal with Twitter for Good is to bring our company together to be a force for positive change in the communities we serve. While this happens in myriad ways every day at Twitter, we focus on two global days of service annually to harness this energy at scale for maximum impact. 

On May 8, we launched our first-ever fully remote Twitter for Good Day. It was fun, it was meaningful, and it required a complete shift in thinking as we all continue to battle #COVID19.

It became clear in late February that this year would look very different. Our plan to revitalize parks, visit classrooms, and prepare and serve meals in local communities around the world ground to a halt. We faced a decision to cancel the day outright or to reimagine what it might look like for Tweeps to give back from their homesinstead at physical locations within the community. 

As it turns out, the decision was easy: The need in communities around the world had never been greater, and our employees were eager — and yearned — to give back. 

Q&A sessions with Jack

In line with our global approach to Twitter for Good, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey kicked off the first ever remote day of service by hosting Periscope Q&A sessions live on Twitter with nonprofit leaders in every corner of the world.

More than 130,000 people tuned in to hear these conversations with Project RockIt in Australia, SpunOut in Ireland, Voz de Comunidades in Brazil, the Houston Food Bank, and Code Tenderloin in San Francisco. These participating organizations — diverse in location, mission, and purpose — are all longstanding Twitter partners. As the world has shifted to care for their communities amid COVID-19, these conversations reflected the work of nonprofit partners and their agile response tomeet the needs of the people they serve. 

Activations and outcomes

In total, we organized 52 projects, contributed more than 1,500 hours of service, and donated $165,000 (and counting) through our Employee Matching program in the month of May alone. 

Tweeps baked cakes in France for frontline workers, joined a conversation about the risks of domestic violence during COVID in Singapore, prepared food provisions for high-risk populations in Mexico, and faced the daunting challenge of trying to prove they are smarter than a 5th grader in a high-stakes trivia match with students at DeMarillac Academy in San Francisco.

While Twitter provided a set of opportunities for every employee to volunteer, give, or learn, we know that many employees pursued a cause of their own. One example was the ingenuity of a Tweep who used a 3D printer to make mask straps for frontline workers. Through it all, the love, care, and compassion Tweeps felt for our community partners was alive and kicking; a testament to the power of service regardless of the events taking place outside Twitter.

What’s next?

Our first global remote day of service made this abundantly clear: Our community partners are struggling to meet the exponentially increased demand for their services, and we need to embrace our charitable giving, nonprofit partnerships and on-service support for these organizations now more than ever.

This Twitter for Good Day showed us yet again that our community partners and our employees are extraordinarily creative, adaptable, and ready to meet the challenges of our communities. The strength of a virtual day of service is that it allows each of us to approach today’s pressing issues in our own unique way — empowered to innovate, adapt, and give back.

Twitter for Good Day may occur only twice a year, but we know that the real work happens in between, every day and every week. The spirit of giving continues to take flight at Twitter, and we are committed to staying the course as long as it is needed, for our communities and all those in need.