Ky Begley
I’m an Employee Impact Project Lead with the Autodesk Foundation team, where I manage Autodesk’s Pro Bono Consulting program, which is a skilled-based volunteer program for Autodesk employees. This includes sourcing partner nonprofits and start-ups, vetting projects and volunteers, and overseeing each project to its completion.
What exactly is Pro Bono Consulting at Autodesk, you ask? It allows Autodesk employees to apply their professional skills in environments and settings they don’t usually get to, which makes for an enriching and fun experience. And nonprofits and start-ups in the Autodesk Foundation portfolio get to tap into Autodesk talent and expertise that is either hard to find or that organizations would otherwise have to pay for. A real win-win!
Pro Bono Consulting comes in two different varieties. First, through our platform, organizations can reach out to Autodeskers for an hour-long 1:1 consulting session, up to five sessions. Second, we host two cohort sessions of team projects each year, where we connect up to six Autodesk employees per project to a Foundation customer to assist with important and compelling projects over 12 weeks.
Building a better world
Autodesk employees bring relevant expertise and skills that can advance the design and scale of innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges. Through this program, employees use their expertise to equip and enable impact innovators while also finding a greater sense of purpose in their own work through meaningful collaboration and connection.
Since our projects vary, our volunteer skill sets vary as well. Pro Bono Consultants are skilled in everything from software development and engineering, product design and manufacturing, and UX and UI design, to finance operations, people management, human resources, business strategy, marketing, and more. All of Autodesk’s 12,600+ employees are welcome to sign up!
Here are just a few examples of recent projects where Autodeskers lent their time and talent:
A race to restore the world’s coral reefs
Coral Maker is an Australian company that’s taking a new, accelerated approach to restoring coral reefs. The company has harnessed the power of AI technology and modern manufacturing processes with the help of Fusion 360, which the Coral Maker team used to design prototypes of coral skeletons and seed plugs.
In 2019, Autodesk began a multi-year pro bono consulting collaboration supported by Autodeskers at the Autodesk Technology Centers in Birmingham, and San Francisco. Employees played a vital role in proving out the manufacturing process, and thanks to their help, Coral Maker is converting common brick-making machines into coral skeleton manufacturers. Local manufacturers near restoration sites can deploy this technology using locally sourced aggregate mixes, ensuring cost-effectiveness, scalability, and environmental sustainability.
“Working with Coral Maker over the last four years has been a great opportunity to make an impact,” says Tom Hemans, a Manufacturing Specialist and pro bono volunteer at Autodesk. “Seeing the first prototypes being deployed into the ocean for the initial tests was a proud and pivotal moment. Since designing and manufacturing the skeleton tamp prototypes at the Autodesk Technology Center in Birmingham, UK, we have been able to iterate and manufacture more options to achieve a skeleton base that is both easily manufacturable and optimal for corals to grow to adult size in just 12-18 months.”
Connecting to impact while establishing an employer brand
Vartega, a Colorado-based recycling technology company, is redefining circularity in manufacturing by producing recycled carbon fiber from waste that would otherwise end up in landfills. For a lean startup like Vartega, hiring and recruiting the right talent is critical to achieving its mission. That’s why Vartega turned to Autodesk’s Pro Bono Consulting program for marketing expertise to develop an employer brand strategy that aligns with its culture.
Kassidi Sorensen, Employer Brand Manager, and Raymond Leung, Senior Manager, Employer Brand, stepped in as Autodesk pro bono consultants to develop a talent marketing strategy that would set Vartega up for successful hiring and impact delivery in the years to come. Over three months, Kassidi and Raymond worked alongside Vartega’s founder and new marketing lead to build an employer brand strategy and provide tactical recommendations around social media and content creation.
“Being part of this pro bono project helped me feel more connected and aligned to Autodesk’s broader mission,” Kassidi says. “It was a chance to step outside my day job and experience how big of an impact we really do have.”
Vartega left the pro bono engagement equipped with a strong talent attraction strategy and awareness of how to implement key tactics.
Embedding gender equity into a marketing strategy for climate tech
Sangam Ventures is a venture fund that invests in startups and technology solutions that help under-resourced communities in India become more resilient to climate change. Sangam’s mission is to inspire entrepreneurs and investors to tackle environmental crises in India, enabling widespread change that will create inclusive and resilient communities.
Sangam’s leadership team knew they needed to develop a stronger public-facing presence to draw more investors into India’s climate tech space, but they lacked the resources and time to build and execute a comprehensive marketing strategy.
An Autodesk Pro Bono Consulting team provided what Sangam founder Karthik Chandrasekar described as a “customized Marketing 101 course,” guiding Sangam through evaluating its brand personality, developing a clear value proposition for investors, and building a marketing strategy with a two-month action plan.
Autodesk Product Manager Chaitra Somasundar says that as an Indian woman, working with Sangam to embed gender equity and women’s empowerment into its marketing strategy was particularly meaningful.
“Autodesk’s employees – a global network of experts spanning everything from product design to human resources – are called upon to work alongside the Autodesk Foundation portfolio to address pressing social and environmental challenges. As a corporate foundation, skilled pro bono consulting is one of our most potent accelerators of impact, allowing our influence to go well beyond a check.”
— Christine Stoner, Director, Autodesk Foundation
Pro Bono Consulting is an excellent way for Autodeskers to develop their professional skills and networks while giving back. Employees can think about which skills they’re hoping to flex or fine-tune within their professional development plan and can also become project leads to establish people management and leadership skills.
We receive consistent feedback from managers that learning more about how their direct reports are contributing to projects is valuable and can provide positive contributions to performance reviews and award nominations.
Learn more about how the Autodesk Foundation partners with employees to create impact here.