Originally published in GoDaddy’s 2023 Sustainability Report
Inclusive Entrepreneurship
We empower and champion entrepreneurs globally.
As a trusted growth partner to millions of entrepreneurs globally, we recognize that the entrepreneurial journey is as diverse and unique as the entrepreneurs themselves. And we know that barriers along each entrepreneur’s journey are not experienced equally. That’s why we’re on a mission to make opportunity more inclusive for all, inspiring entrepreneurship to change the way people around the world work and live for the better.
At GoDaddy, inclusive entrepreneurship means that everyone — no matter their age, race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, location, or other experience or identity — should have the opportunity to pursue their independent ventures and forge their own path. On a larger scale, this drives innovation, fuels local economies globally, increases generational wealth, decreases wealth gaps, and ultimately improves livelihoods.
We uphold our commitment to inclusive entrepreneurship by offering support to entrepreneurs in underserved communities and studying and promoting the beneficial impact our entrepreneurs have on their communities.
For more information on how we foster inclusivity within our own workforce, please read the Our Employees section.
Empower by GoDaddy
Launched in 2017, Empower by GoDaddy is our signature social impact program. We partner with nonprofit and community organizations and engage our employee volunteers to provide education, mentoring, and networking to help underserved small and microbusiness owners grow their businesses online and in-person. With our three strategic pillars, we help accelerate entrepreneurs’ business journeys.
Empower by GoDaddy Pillars
EducationMentorshipNetworking
Through strong relationships with both community partners and employee volunteers, Empower by GoDaddy offers entrepreneurs practical and emotional support at various stages of their journeys. We provide:
A ten course educational series, offered in English, French, German, and Spanish.In-person and virtual workshops with training on branding, marketing, website building, social media management, and other foundational business topics related to growing their businesses online.Virtual one-on-one and group mentorship and coaching.Wraparound services to enable access to the Empower by GoDaddy program, including transportation, technology, loan readiness, legal advice, business planning, and financial planning.In-kind product donations, including web hosting, domain registration, and email essentials.
We’re pleased to have provided more than $1 million in funding to our community partners through Empower by GoDaddy in 2023. We served nearly 2,900 entrepreneurs in communities across the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the U.K. through 250 workshops and more than 1,450 one-on-one mentorship sessions. In recognition of our meaningful impact, Entrepreneur magazine’s website named Empower by GoDaddy a top accelerator program for small business owners in the U.S.
While the number of entrepreneurs served is one way we measure our annual impact, we also prioritize the quality of our programming and depth of the support we provide. Our goal is for participating entrepreneurs to feel more empowered and prepared to grow their businesses after completing the program. GoDaddy employees are relentless advocates for entrepreneurs and drive our mission. In 2023, our employees led nearly 60 out of the total 250 educational workshops and events through Empower by GoDaddy.
Empower by GoDaddy Spotlights
We recognize Empower by GoDaddy as an inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem. The organizations and people we bring together generously contribute their resources to create a holistic, meaningful experience for participating entrepreneurs. These spotlights honor all our community partners, employees, and the entrepreneurs themselves who make Empower by GoDaddy special.
PARTNER
Through Empower by GoDaddy, Better Business Bureau Serving the Pacific Southwest led a 10-week business coaching program, impacting more than 240 entrepreneurs through 350 one-on-one mentorship sessions.
CUSTOMER
Ade McCray of Pilates King L.L.C is on a mission to make Pilates more accessible for all. In 2023, Empower by GoDaddy accelerated Ade’s development of key digital skills, mentorship, resources, and networking opportunities between GoDaddy and the Better Business Bureau of the Pacific Southwest.
“I had a clear vision for my business but there were just some nuances in running a business that I needed support with. Getting involved with Empower by GoDaddy helped me to make sense of all that goes into business ownership, and my operations are getting much better.”
— Ade McCray Pilates King L.L.C., Phoenix, AZ
EMPLOYEE
The opportunity to give back to the entrepreneurial community rests at the core of our employees’ roles.
“Having grown up with family members who owned their own enterprises, I understand the challenges and triumphs faced by entrepreneurs. I’m honored to support entrepreneurs as they grow their businesses.”
— Geoffrey Brown GoDaddy Marketing Manager and Lead Empower by GoDaddy Volunteer since 2022
Made in America
We understand the importance of giving entrepreneurs from underserved communities a platform to tell their unique stories. That’s why we created the documentary series, Made in America, which follows entrepreneurs over time as they start and build their businesses. The series celebrates the resilience and determination of small business owners from varying backgrounds across the country who are making a difference in their communities. Our most recent season, which premiered in 2022, follows Baltimoreans who push through adversity — from chronic pain to a pandemic-fueled supply chain crisis — to achieve success.
The series won numerous awards, including the YouTube Breaking Barriers Award, the Digiday Content Marketing Award, and the Ragan Communications Corporate Social Responsibility & Diversity Award. Through Made in America, we hope to inspire entrepreneurs and encourage audiences around the world to support small businesses in their local communities.
A new season of Made in America that is targeted to launch in 2024. We’re excited to continue bringing attention to the experience and importance of small businesses throughout the U.S.
Venture Forward
We know that the long-term success of entrepreneurs and their microbusinesses meaningfully contributes to their communities’ economic well-being and resilience. It’s important to understand these impacts to understand holistically the benefits entrepreneurs create, like increasing the median household income, creating jobs, and lowering unemployment in their communities.
GoDaddy Venture Forward is a research initiative that quantifies the growth and economic impact of more than 20 million microbusinesses and offers insight into the people who own them.
Since 2018, Venture Forward has surveyed over 30,000 entrepreneurs with a digital presence. In 2023, Venture Forward conducted its tenth nationwide survey of over 3,500 microbusiness entrepreneurs in the U.S. and U.K. to better understand and capture the trends, needs, demographics, and insights around what’s happening with microbusinesses. The research program also probed small business operators’ attitudes toward emerging artificial intelligence technologies and, in the U.S., evolving perceptions about what the American Dream means to them.
Venture Forward Key U.S. Survey Findings
1/7 Microbusinesses started since the pandemic were founded by Black women.1/3 Microbusinesses contribute 51% or more to household income.67% Of survey participants required less than $5K to start.51% Of microbusinesses are women-owned and 29% are owned by people of color.
Venture Forward’s Microbusiness Data Hub
Microbusinesses are often too small to be measured by traditional reports and government statistics, and therefore, are not broadly understood. This lack of data makes it challenging for entrepreneurs — especially those in underserved communities — to carve out a voice in the policy and technology debates that affect their businesses, including issues regarding taxation, skills training, benefits portability, and access to capital, broadband, and internet.
Through Venture Forward, we created the Microbusiness Data Hub, which offers unprecedented access to free, downloadable anonymized data on U.S. and U.K microbusinesses and the entrepreneurs who own them. We provide robust data and insights, including measurements of microbusiness density by geography. We update this data on a quarterly basis and are broadening our coverage around the world. We began publishing this data for Canada and Australia in 2024.
Venture Forward enables advocates for entrepreneurship to build stronger, more inclusive, and equitable communities and economies. Our data provides timely insight to drive resources, programs, and policies that microbusinesses need to start and thrive, and it offers a better understanding of the economy at both local and national levels.
Amplifying the Diversity of Customer Voices
We recognize the importance of championing diversity and equity outside of our own workforce. Our top-level domains have the power to influence, change, and create impact. That’s why in 2023 we acquired the .gay top-level domain, a domain of choice for those who want to fly their virtual Pride flag. It brings together national organizations, local community centers, health care systems, activists, businesses, and other organizations and individuals who are allied with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, or asexual (LGBTQIA+) communities and issues. It’s an inclusive badge of honor that sets our customers’ sites apart and clearly signals to LGBTQIA+ entrepreneurs and their allies that everyone is welcome. The .gay top-level domain registry dedicates 20% of its new registration revenue to benefit LGBTQIA+ nonprofits, including the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and CenterLink. By empowering our customers with .gay top-level domains, we continue our allyship with the LGBTQIA+ community.
For more information on how we empower diversity in our workforce, please read the Our Employees section.
Bursting Through — Las Vegas, Nevada
We proudly empower our diverse customer base to champion diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. This includes supporting entrepreneurs, like Bursting Through, a storytelling movement for LGBTQIA+ people and their allies, centered around social justice. Bursting Through’s mission is to help create sustainable equality and safety for the Queer Community through personal storytelling. The organization believes that these stories of connection, allyship, awareness, and breakthrough “move us closer to sustainable equality and safety” for the LGBTQIA+ community.
“BurstingThrough.gay is a Disruptor, and we need disruption. This is important because the current way of connecting is not working. Through storytelling, we have created a safe space online for allies and the Queer Community to come together on a balanced platform where everyone’s story is valued. The GoDaddy team helps support our effort by always going above and beyond to help resolve any issues with the website. Having that type of support is huge as a solopreneur.”
— Steve Petersen Founder, Bursting Through
Ambitions for 2024
We’ll continue to improve our inclusive entrepreneurship programs to increase the breadth and depth of our support for entrepreneurs, including those in underserved communities. We plan to hone key performance indicators for our Empower by GoDaddy program to better track our progress and impact. We are also aiming to partner with new community organizations in 2024, focusing on groups in communities we have not previously served. Through our planned initiatives, we strive to empower entrepreneurs, encourage their success, and make opportunity more inclusive for all.
To learn more, read our 2023 Sustainability Report.
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About this Report
The GoDaddy 2023 Sustainability Report details our progress toward our corporate sustainability goals, strategies, and initiatives in support of our overarching corporate mission and values. Unless otherwise noted, this report reflects our corporate sustainability performance across our global operations covering the fiscal year period from January 1 to December 31, 2023. To demonstrate our commitment to transparent communication regarding our sustainability progress, we routinely share updates through our website and our annual Sustainability Report. We welcome your questions, comments, and feedback on this report by contacting ESG@GoDaddy.com.
This report references the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards and includes select Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) metrics for the Internet Media and Services sector. We also disclose our contributions and progress toward priority UN SDGs. For additional information on how we align with these frameworks and key indicators demonstrating our sustainability performance, please review the Frameworks and Metrics section.
