Annual Public Benefit Report

2022

One
Year in
Business

In our first full year in operation, we made great strides to live into our status as a benefit corporation and provide a public good beyond simply making a profit.

With a mission to increase equity and diversity in the workforce, we built partnerships, launched a scholarship program, and engaged with the Alabama Workforce Stabilization Program to provide opportunities to a wide range of people from Alabama to around the globe.

A more equitable workforce

CAVU exists to make a more equitable workforce. We do that by creating engaging, effective, and accessible learning experiences. We just happen to teach Agile.

In other words… we elevate Agile by elevating the workforce.

2022 Benefit Goals

2022 was a roller coaster year. Despite being a first-year company, we worked hard and accomplished much in 2022 – here’s a review of our performance, highlighting some of what we learned along the way.

Get B-Labs Certified

In August, we successfully achieved our B-Labs Certification pending with a score of 100/200 or 20 points over the required score for certification.

We are in line to earn our full B-Labs certification and improve on our assessment score in Q2 of 2023!

This was a team effort that allowed us to look and assess every aspect of our operations. We are proud to have earned the Pending certification and are excited to complete the full certification.

Implement a Scholarship program

We launched our LevelUp Scholarship program in June and received an overwhelming response from applicants throughout the world that are hungry and excited to build their career through our Scrum bootcamp. Shortly after launching, we received over 1,000 applications and a total of 4,000 applications in the year. Unfortunately, we only had 40 funded scholarships. Given the tremendous response, we have committed to setting aside 50% of our public bootcamps and self-funding our scholarship program for 2023. To date, we have awarded 180 scholarships and are looking to fund and expand this program in 2023.

Actively promote an inclusive Agile workforce

This is perhaps not only our most ambitious goal, but the goal that most closely aligns with our Public Benefit Purpose. An important step towards this goal was to ensure that 50% of our learners joined from an underserved population and that 100% of our learning experiences were accessible by a diverse community.

We have work to do. Currently, only 24% of our user community has reported their demographic information. Of those reporting, 100% are from an underserved community. This means, that based on our data at least 24% of our community is from a diverse background.

For 2023, we want to dramatically expand those numbers. In 2023, we are fundamentally rebuilding our platform and learning experiences to better target, promote, and grow diversity in the Agile community.

CAVU LevelUp Scholarship Program

After months of preparation, the CAVU LevelUp Scholarship Program officially began accepting applications in June 2022, with support from the Alabama Power Foundation. While the team anticipated somewhere between 100-200 applications, the interest – and the need – was far greater than we ever imagined.

Over 4,000 people applied in 2022

The LevelUp Scholarship Program was designed to help bring balance and diversity to the tech industry. Scholarships were open to anyone from the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities, women, and people who needed financial aid to take advantage of professional development opportunities.  

LevelUp Scholarship By The Numbers

Scholarships Awarded

$ 0

Invested in LevelUp

Launchpad Members

Low Income Members

LGBTQ+

BIPOC

Women+

We got REALLY good at training

Don't take our word for it...

Course NPS

Instructor NPS

0 %

Completion Rate

0 %

Certification Rate

Republic REG CF
Fundraise

In May, we launched a fundraising effort on Republic, a highly regarded Regulation Crowdfunding platform. Regulation Crowdfunding, or RegCF for short, is “an exemption from securities laws that allows a private company to raise capital from the public.” The idea is similar to a Kickstarter campaign, but in addition to any potential tangible rewards, the investors receive a level of equity or other securities.

The great part of a RegCF is that anyone can invest in a Regulation Crowdfunding offering. One of our goals as a Benefit Corporation is to move the needle on diversity in the tech industry. With this commitment, we wanted to be able to offer access to investment opportunities in addition to learning opportunities. Republic’s lower limits on investing can be much more accessible for most people than the typical accredited investor’s five-figure investment.

In August, we received Pending B Status from B Lab, an international nonprofit that recognizes organizations for their commitment to building and sustaining purpose-driven missions benefiting the community through social impact and environmental responsibility.  

“CAVU was founded as a benefit corporation so we could work toward making the workplace more equitable while also being a profitable business, and it’s really rewarding to see the benefit aspect of our business recognized in an official capacity,” said Chris Sims, CAVU’s CEO and Founder.

CAVU’s commitment to equity in the workplace is demonstrated by its LevelUp Scholarship Program, which offers scholarships for members of groups that are traditionally underrepresented in the roles of Scrum Master and Product Owner. To date, Alabama Power Foundation and Innovators Network Foundation have served as supporting partners in the LevelUp Scholarship Program. 

Partnerships

We can’t do this alone. In 2022, we worked hard to identify and build strategic partnerships to grow and sustain our mission. We’re proud to consider these organizations as partners in our mission to build a more equitable workforce.

In 2022, CAVU received a $25,000 sponsorship from the Innovators Network Foundation in support of its LevelUp Scholarship Program.  The grant allowed six learners from communities that are traditionally underrepresented in the tech industry to participate in CAVU’s Scrum Bootcamp.

CAVU partnered closely with Alabama Power Foundation for support and funding, receiving a $250,000 impact investment in the form of a convertible note from the organization. The funding enabled CAVU to fully launch its scholarship program, introducing a formal application and interview process for qualified applicants across the globe

After being named the seed-stage winner of the fall 2022 cycle of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama’s Alabama Launchpad program, CAVU used a portion of the $50,000 to lay the foundation for its LevelUp Scholarship Program.

iObeya is a leading Visual Management platform used in enterprises throughout the world. Our partnership with iObeya allows us to expose learners to practical tools used by companies throughout the world. We are excited to expand our partnership in 2023.

Scrum Inc. is our credentialing partner. Founded by the co-creator of Scrum, Dr. Jeff Sutherland, Scrum Inc. is a premier think tank in the Scrum and Agile community. We are product to partner closely with Scrum Inc. and their Agile Education Program.

Alabama Workforce
Stabilization Program

In August, CAVU received initial approval as an educational provider for the Alabama Workforce Stabilization Program (AWSP). The AWSP provides fully reimbursable training to organizations that are in the Healthcare, Advanced Manufacturing, Information Technology, Transportation, distribution/logistics or Construction sectors.

CAVU pursued the AWSP designation to increase its reach among Alabama workforce populations that had been displaced by COVID and who would not have access to the training otherwise. By working with regional partners across the state, CAVU has continued this work into 2023.

2023 Benefit Goals

At CAVU, our 2023 word of the year is FOCUS! We are reducing our overall goals to two: land the B-Corp certification, and improve our LevelUp scholarship program. 2022 demonstrated to us the impact quality education can have on people’s lives. By focusing on this effort, we believe we can better embody our goal of creating a more equitable workforce.

LevelUp the Scholarship Program

Continue our commitment to awarding 50% of all Public Bootcamps and train over 330 LevelUp Scholars. Additionally., grow our free on-demand offering to 4,000 learners from under-represented backgrounds.

In addition to increasing our scholars, we plan to relaunch the program under a new brand to better identify and differentiate its purpose to build a more inclusive Agile community. This rebranding will include a more streamlined offering and enhanced benefit to all of our scholars, past, present, and future.

Land the B-Corp Certification

We plan to complete and earn our B-Corp certification in Q2 of 2023. Additionally, we plan to increase our impact score by 20 points from 100 to 120 points. This commitment demonstrates our commitment to embodying and living up to our core purpose.

Join our list

2023 will be full of change, impact, and transformation. Connect with our mailing list so you can keep up with the fast-paced changes we have in store for 2023.

Direct press inquiries to coms@cavu.co.

One Year in Business