One percent of profit, product, and time goes back.
Profit, product, time. The three parts of our Pledge 1% commitment, sized so the floor moves with the business and never moves down.
We wanted a number, not a stock photo.
We did not want this page to land at a sentiment. We wanted it to land at a number. Pledge 1% does that work without us having to invent a framework for it. An independent non-profit runs it. It sets out four areas a member can commit: equity, profit, product, and time. We commit three of them: profit, product, and time. The numbers scale with the business. The structure does not move.
For a small AI-native studio that is what makes it sustainable. If we have a thin quarter, one percent of profit is still one percent of profit. If a Build is delayed and a Discovery slips, two days per associate is still two days per associate. We do not have to choose between running the studio and keeping the commitment.
What we have pledged.
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One percent of annual profit
We donate one percent of post-tax profit each financial year. The founders pick recipients. The network can nominate and we listen, but the call sits with the founders. We publish amounts and recipients on this page in the year-end update.
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One percent of product
Each year we deliver one full Discovery, or one full Build, at cost. The recipient is a non-profit or community organisation working in education, climate, or public-interest technology. The founders pick it. We cap the scope at our usual team size so it does not crowd out paying work or stretch a team thin.
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One percent of time
Every associate dedicates roughly two working days per year to pro-bono delivery. We do not run timesheets on paid work, so we do not run them on this either. The proof is what gets shipped to the recipient, named in the year-end update on this page.
Founders choose, against two rules.
Recipients are chosen by the founders once a year. The network can nominate, and we listen, but the call sits with the people whose names are on the company. We would rather own the choice than hide behind a vote.
Two rules apply to every recipient. First, the cause has to be work we would be proud to be publicly associated with. Second, the recipient has to be able to use what we are giving. There is no point dropping a five-week Build on a charity that needs a website fixed, and no point posting a cheque to a cause that needs hours. The match has to be honest.
A few specific lines we will not cross.
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We will not turn recipients into case studies
No "in partnership with" badges across the home page, no impact film, no quotes mined from a charity we have helped. If a recipient asks us to talk about the work, we will, on their terms. Otherwise the work shows up on this page as a line and a number, and that is the whole story.
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We will not buy carbon offsets in lieu of a commitment
Our footprint is small enough that buying offsets would cost less than measuring it, which is the wrong reason to do it. When we are big enough that the footprint is worth measuring, we will measure it. Offsets are not a substitute for either.
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We will not pursue a charity-of-the-year sponsorship
Sponsorship pages and logo placements are marketing, not giving. We would rather give cash, time, and product than pay a shop to put our name on a banner.
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We will not pretend the pledge is a feature of the studio
The one percent is a floor, not a ceiling. If we want to do more in a given year, we will. The point of the pledge is that it is structural, so the floor never moves down.
A pledge with numbers behind it, not a certification badge.
Pledge 1% asks for specific commitments and publishes them. One percent of profit. One percent of product. One percent of time. The numbers are on this page, the recipients are named in the year-end update, and the commitment is auditable from outside the studio.
B-Corp certifies a whole company's policies, which is a serious exercise and a good fit for many businesses. It was not the right shape for us. We wanted a small set of numbers anyone can check from outside, and Pledge 1% is that.
This page is updated once a year.
We refresh this page once a year, after the financial year closes, with the profit recipients, the product recipient, and the pro-bono work the network shipped. If anything here conflicts with what someone at LevelFive has told you, this page wins.
Tell us what you are building.
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