Our software company voted to save giant anteaters, jaguars, and the black-and-chestnut eagle. Let me explain.

Last month, our team voted to help protect the black-and-chestnut eagle in Argentina. This month, we're voting to save pangolins and bonobos in the Congo. This is what our 1% for the Planet giving looks like in practice – and it's why I’m excited to announce Rainforest Trust as our 2026 environmental giving recipient.

KnowledgeOwl is a member of 1% for the Planet, which means we’ve committed to donating 1% of our revenue, not just profit, to environmental causes. For the past few years, we've been proud to direct it toward Eden Reforestation Projects (now Eden: People+Planet), whose tree-planting work in communities across the globe is something we admire deeply. Owls live in trees, and it made great sense to plant them. Over time, tree-planting no longer felt quite right and Eden also moved away from simple tree-planting to a more holistic approach. This year, we decided to find a new home for that 1% of revenue.

I'm thrilled to announce that our new environmental giving recipient is Rainforest Trust. And as a company called KnowledgeOwl, directing our giving toward protecting the rainforests where owls and countless other species actually live felt right. You can’t spell “knowledgeowl” without “owl”, and we can’t live on this planet without the rainforests. 

Rainforests also do so much quiet, essential work for all of us like storing billions of tons of carbon, stabilizing global weather patterns, providing clean water, and sheltering 50% of the world's species, many of which are critically endangered. Protecting them isn't just about the trees. It's about everything downstream from those trees, including us.

For over 36 years, Rainforest Trust has worked to safeguard critical habitat for species, and less than 1% of the forest area within their 50 million protected acres has been lost to deforestation. That’s right, they protect fifty million acres — an area 40 times the size of Grand Canyon National Park (or twice the size of Austria or Portugal for our European friends!). What’s more, they acquired these acres not just with cash but through relationships with Indigenous and local organizations across more than 62 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

Rainforest Trust works with local communities to protect wild lands, building relationships that respect and embrace local knowledge and land stewardship because that's what makes long-term protection actually work. They don't parachute in; they show up with support for the people who have been stewarding these places all along. Thousands of Indigenous communities rely on these forests for their food, water, and economic prosperity, and Rainforest Trust's model is built around that reality.

What makes this even more tangible for me is how Rainforest Trust structures their giving and the fun it allows our team to have with it. Each month, we vote on a specific project to fund. Last month we supported efforts to safeguard a critical gap in protection for jaguars, giant anteaters, and the black-and-chestnut eagle in Argentina. This month we're helping protect pangolins and bonobos in the Congo. Who doesn't love a bonobo? Seeing exactly where the money goes — and what it protects — makes the whole thing feel real in a way that a generic annual donation never could. And starting in June, we'll be inviting our customers to weigh in on which projects we fund through our annual survey. We can't wait to see which animals they champion.

For a small software company, it can feel abstract — what does our 1% actually do? Choosing Rainforest Trust as our recipient makes it concrete. Every dollar directed their way goes toward establishing and monitoring protected areas in places where that protection is urgent and real. We're grateful to be able to contribute to work that matters this much.

March is B Corp Month, a time to celebrate using business as a force for good. This month, we celebrate not just our 3rd year of being a B Corp and the 5th year of our 2% for People and Planet program but our new relationship with Rainforest Trust. Long live the black-and-chestnut eagle. HOOT!

Want to learn more about Rainforest Trust? Visit rainforesttrust.org.