Zendesk and Tech for Good partner, The International Rescue Committee’s (IRC), have won two Engage for Good Halo Awards for their exceptional contributions to corporate social impact initiatives through the Signpost Project. The Halo Awards annually celebrate partnerships between companies and nonprofits that combine their resources to make a real difference for a specific cause. This year, Zendesk and the IRC were honored with both the Best Tech for Good Initiative and Best Emergency Response Initiative awards.
The Zendesk Foundation’s Tech for Good program is committed to empowering nonprofit organizations by offering complimentary software solutions and financial grants. In 2023, Tech for Good donated $10.5 million in software to over 110 organizations. The IRC has received $1.5 million USD in unrestricted support from Zendesk since 2019, affirming their ongoing dedication to refugees and asylum seekers on a global scale.
How Zendesk and the Signpost project work together
Signpost is the world’s first scalable approach to community-driven, responsive information platforms that empower people impacted by conflict, disasters, poverty, and violence. It combines technology, aid expertise, and grassroots knowledge of civil society. Signpost programs provide life-saving information for people to navigate crises and access essential services.
Previously, Signpost’s use of incompatible systems made it hard to communicate well and grow effectively. In a strategic move to enhance its operational capacity, the IRC and its Signpost partners sought the expertise of Zendesk in 2020. Zendesk’s impact on the IRC’s Welcome Center was a strong indication of potential benefits, leading to the deployment of the first Zendesk-supported Signpost platform in Colombia during the same year.
As a Tech for Good partner, Zendesk provides Signpost with free software and pro bono support to increase the scale of their humanitarian work. Using Zendesk as a base system for their program, Signpost can deploy its core offerings to any crisis within 48 hours. Signpost then connects with a flexible toolkit of applications and integrations to meet project needs which may include cash distribution, identity verification, case matchmaking, user feedback tracking, case anonymization, document management, or process management.
In 2023, Signpost successfully provided nearly seven million users with essential information and served 150,000 people in one-to-one customer service interactions, significantly impacting their decision-making processes and access to crucial services.
See here to find out more about the Zendesk Tech for Good program and how to apply.