Every year, the Goodies remind us what's possible when companies lead with purpose.
From bold grantmaking experiments to programs that reached millions of lives, the 2026 class represents the very best of what the Benevity client community is building.
Congratulations to the 2026 Goodie Award winners announced at the corporate purpose event of the year, Benevity Live! in Scottsdale, Arizona on June 4, 2026.
The Bestie Award (more than 5,000 employees) — UPS
For best-in-class approach and overall impact
UPS doesn't run a social impact program alongside its business - it runs one through it. With 460,000 employees across every continent, the UPS Foundation deploys the same assets that power its core operations: transportation networks, supply chain expertise and a global workforce mobilized around health, humanitarian relief, economic empowerment and environmental outcomes. In 2025, that translated to more than 86 million lives reached. They set a goal of 30 million volunteer hours and hit it five years early.
The Bestie Award (less than 5,000 employees) — Elastic
For best-in-class approach and overall impact
At Elastic, purpose isn’t just part of onboarding, it’s one of the first choices a new hire makes. When offered standard swag or Benevity Bucks to donate, more than 80% choose to give, setting the tone from day one. With 3,800 employees across 40+ countries, Elastic has built a program for distributed teams: 40 hours of paid volunteer time, $2,000 in donation matching, and virtual challenges that connect employees globally. In 2025, 80% of Elasticians engaged, group volunteering rose 154%, and Giving Tuesday participation grew 90% year over year. Elastic’s Candidate NPS is 93 and the top reason candidates accept offers isn’t compensation - it’s culture.
The BeCause Award — Sage
For dedication to causes
Sage Foundation Grow sent senior leaders into under-resourced nonprofits for six-month placements with no preset agenda, guided only by the question: what do you actually need? In 2025, the program reached 27 organizations globally and 96% described the experience as transformative. The impact went both ways, with 92% of participating leaders saying they returned changed as well, bringing back skills and perspectives they could not have developed elsewhere. Many of the six-month engagements evolved into lasting partnerships, not because that outcome was designed in, but because trust was built naturally over the course of the work together.
The Buzz Award — BMO
For catalyzing purpose through communications and storytelling
BMO handed the microphone to its people, and 45 million social impressions followed. By activating 3,700 ERG leaders as Giving Ambassadors, BMO turned personal stories into a company-wide movement. Senior leaders shared honest accounts of why giving mattered to them, with no polished statements, just real experiences. The results reflected that authenticity: 91% employee participation, $36 million raised, and 47 earned media stories with 100% positive sentiment. Proving that authentic stories travel further than any campaign can take them.
The Community Hero Award — Enbridge
For best-in-class approach to granting
Enbridge Fueling Futures made a deliberate shift toward trust over compliance. By removing forward-looking reporting requirements for nonprofit partners, Enbridge gave organizations working in food security, emergency preparedness, and community resilience more time to focus on their work rather than paperwork. In 2025, $24.8 million was invested across these focus areas. One of the clearest signals came directly from community partners, many of whom voluntarily submitted letters of regulatory support for Enbridge. That kind of response isn't requested, it’s earned.
The Moonshot Award — Micron
For boldness and creativity
Micron paired AI scoring with local human governance committees to reimagine how grantmaking works. Every nomination is evaluated against the same outcomes-based criteria, with full transparency in each decision. AI handles consistency, and people handle context. In the first cycle, 393 nominations were reviewed across 16 global sites, 22,000 administrative hours were freed and 177 employees participated in decision-making. A third of finalist organizations were groups Micron had never partnered with before, and $2.5 million was deployed, reflecting a new model for grantmaking that stays human at the core while scaling efficiently.
The NewB Award — Lennox
For most transformational approach
When Lennox launched their giving program, they didn’t wait for adoption. They went to the factory floor. Across multiple buildings and shifts, the team hand-delivered pocket-sized login cards preloaded with a seed credit, creating a physical, personal introduction for frontline and manufacturing workers who could have easily been left out of a digital rollout. Participation increased 55% year over year, with 3,750 employees contributing 6,388 volunteer hours. The bigger shift was cultural, as workers who had always supported their communities now had a way to do it that the company could see and recognize.
The People Power Award (Under 5,000 Employees) — PagerDuty
For promoting purpose through people's passions
PagerDuty STEPtember challenge is employee-led, movement-based and designed to work across time zones. Individuals and teams set their own goals, raise funds as they go, and direct those funds to nonprofits that are also PagerDuty customers, including Crisis Text Line, Mercy Corps and World Central Kitchen. At PagerDuty, purpose and business strategy are not separate conversations. In total, more than $300,000 was raised for 800+ nonprofits worldwide, and 80% of employees said the program made them proud to work there.
The People Power Award (5,000+ Employees) — RBC
For promoting purpose through people's passions
The RBC Communities Together Fund connects volunteer hours directly to grant funding, so when employee teams volunteer with a local charity, that time unlocks financial support for the organization. The program ran across nine countries, with 7,635 employees contributing 46,000 volunteer hours and activating $4.8 million in grants. When you trust your people and build the infrastructure to support them, impact doesn’t just grow, it compounds.
The Buffy Award — Cathy Scott and Nikki Clifton from UPS
For individual leadership, innovation and impact
The winners of the Buffy Award are corporate purpose leaders who exemplify what we call the "Benevity Unicorn Factor." They are a rare breed of risk-takers, changemakers and goodness leaders who are defining what it means to be purpose-driven.
For the first time in Goodies history, two leaders are being recognized together — because some impact is too big, and some partnerships too powerful, to honor separately.
Nikki Clifton, President of The UPS Foundation, started her career as a labor attorney and found a larger calling in mobilizing business as a force for good. When invited to give a TED Talk, she set aside the suggested topic to speak about something she believed in: the role companies can play in fighting human trafficking. That talk reached more than 1.5 million people and influenced policy — and if you've seen anti-trafficking awareness materials in airports or transportation hubs, that movement carries her fingerprints. Her north star is bold: positively impacting one billion lives by 2040. After five minutes with her, you know she'll get there.
Cathy Scott, Vice President of Social Impact at UPS, began her career in finance and talent leadership — and chose purpose instead. Today she directs tens of millions of dollars annually toward equity and justice, overseeing an employee giving program that mobilizes millions in dollars and volunteer hours each year. But the real story lives underneath those numbers. Cathy has a rare gift for making people feel personally connected to the mission. Her team describes someone who pushes others toward the spotlight while working quietly behind the scenes — who leads with grace, and brings deep personal conviction to the work, including advocacy for health equity rooted in her own experience as a breast cancer survivor. She doesn't just champion this work. She lives it.
What makes both leaders extraordinary is that this is not a job to either of them. It is soul work. They connect individual efforts into a story people understand and feel — creating not just awareness, but shared ownership of the mission. Two leaders. One vision. Recognized together, exactly as they've done the work.
This year's winners, and all of the nominees, are setting the standard and raising the bar for what it means to be a purpose-driven company.
We can't wait to see all of the amazing impact the Benevity client community will achieve in the coming year within their companies, their communities and around the world.
