GoDaddy Takes Action: Looking Back on 2021 and Forward Into 2022

2021 was another banner year for GoDaddy’s Corporate Sustainability work, and I’m proud to share many efforts and milestones the company has taken to live our values. GoDaddy employees and partners showed up as strong as ever and put their skills, energy, and empathy into action.

Together, our company and employees donated millions of dollars back into our communities and volunteered thousands of hours to support those who need it most.

A few highlights:

Empowering entrepreneurs everywhere and making opportunity more inclusive for all

• Empower, GoDaddy’s signature social impact program continued to grow in 2021 to reach thousands of new entrepreneurs. We continue to evolve the program to meet the current needs of entrepreneurs and introduce new components like capital, which GoDaddy’s Venture Forward initiative found as one of the top issues facing the more than 20 million microbusinesses we support across the country. According to Venture Forward’s data, 55% of microbusinesses started in 2020 or later needed less than $5K to get off the ground, but because many banks will not grant loans in such small amounts, it has become increasingly more difficult for microbusinesses to get the help they need. To address this shortage of funds, we’re working with our Empower partners and Kiva US Hubs to bring local lending to minority and underrepresented small business owners.
• We piloted a mental health service with Life Guides to ensure the Empower entrepreneurs we’re working with have support for their whole selves. 72% of entrepreneurs are directly or indirectly affected by mental health issues compared to just 48% of non-entrepreneurs (Forbes).
• We adapted our Empower programs to continue to meet the needs of entrepreneurs in underserved communities no matter the stage in their journey. We launched into new cities broadening our reach, including Birmingham and Montgomery, Ala.; Portland, Ore.; Detroit, Mich.; and Baltimore, Md. This new model will help us reach more than 7,500 new entrepreneurs in 2022 and support our efforts to scale internationally.

Reducing our environmental impact, operating our business ethically, and managing risk

• We launched our first environment, social, and governance (ESG) report. The report gave us the opportunity to dig into how we can expand our programs and commitments in meaningful ways, and we’ve been hard at work planning for 2022 and beyond.
• We conducted our first greenhouse gas emissions inventory. We know that climate change is a rapidly growing threat to human and planetary health, and the devastating impacts of climate change are more evident than ever. We want to do more to address this crisis and will share our plans to make a difference soon.

Engaging and activating employees in the causes they care most about

• Despite not being able to gather and volunteer in person due to the ongoing global pandemic, GoDaddy employees continued to make a difference in their communities.
• GoDaddy employees gave more than $800K to 911 nonprofit organizations around the world.
• The smallest of businesses received $39K in funds from GoDaddy employees through the Kiva program.
• We continue to learn how to best engage employees in a remote environment and connect employees with causes they care about most. We’re currently gearing up to launch a new program that will allow employees to dive even deeper into GoDaddy’s mission and vision than ever before.

We have some big goals in 2022 – from empowering entrepreneurs around the globe to fighting climate change. Follow along on our journey and keep an eye out for