Generous, innovative, resilient: this is the web at its best
CEO, Fastly
Fastly’s mission is to build a trustworthy internet, a place where good thrives. And now, more than ever, good is thriving online.
We’ve long recognized that the organizations in our community build more than applications and codebases. Whether it's from our customers and partners or friends and colleagues, we’ve seen extraordinary things built: they’ve pioneered digital experiences, revolutionized their industries by moving them online, and even invented entirely new categories. And in this unprecedented global moment, these same people are showing up for their communities in generous and innovative ways.
Giving back and paying it forward
Across our community, companies are providing the latest news and information, the services we rely on to support local businesses, the portals we’re using to work or learn, and the platforms we turn to when we need a laugh or distraction. And they’re also going further. We’ve seen powerful examples of companies providing free services, creating new funds and nonprofit arms to support their community’s long-term health, and building all-new applications to provide critical and trustworthy information, fast.
Here are a few organizations we’re applauding right now:
The Weather Channel app and weather.com, part of IBM, are offering a hub of COVID-19 data and stats. Using AI to pull together relevant data from state and local governments, the tool provides trend graphs, interactive mapping, details on case data, a Q&A bot, and the latest news and video.
The Financial Times has made a number of articles and curated data sets, including their Coronavirus Tracker, free to read so everyone can access the key information they need to navigate this crisis, especially important at a time of unprecedented demand for trusted content and data journalism.
Google is going far beyond helping people find essential information about COVID-19: they’re providing $800M in support of small businesses and have deployed countless other programs to support their employees, partners, and community.
Brightcove is supporting organizations affected by COVID-19 with free services. Thousands of people are tuning in to daily live streams of the Metropolitan Opera, provided by Brightcove's streaming capabilities.
Gannett created a platform called Support Local to help communities support and discover opportunities to help their favorite local businesses across the nation and access special services they may be providing during these times.
Overstock is matching customer donations to the American Red Cross, donating bedding and cribs to a children’s hospital in their hometown of Salt Lake City, and providing free shipping so customers can make their homes feel safe, comfortable, and productive.
MakerBot is supporting the healthcare community with a range of 3D-printing initiatives aimed at fighting the shortage of critical PPE and medical supplies for frontline workers.
There are many more companies giving back. You can see some of the others we’re celebrating here.
We’re honored to stand behind this community and proud to stand with it. I recently shared that Fastly is providing $50M in support for nonprofits and open-source projects — and we’re actively looking to do more. Please reach out if we can support your efforts. Since the announcement, we’ve connected with several fantastic organizations, including Unify Today, Thank you caretakers, and CSV.org. I’m excited to see the list continue to grow.
Sharing these stories gives me joy during this time, and I hope it does the same for you. Having worked with internet companies for more than 20 years, I am reminded at this time how the strength of the web is as much about its infrastructure as what is built on top of it. Thank you to all the doers, builders, and helpers for meeting this moment and showing us the web at its best.
