Society

Businesses must seek to do the right thing — from the way they build products, to the way they treat customers, to the impact they have on their community. At Snap we believe this is a moral imperative and a key part of being kind. The Society section of our report describes our efforts in 2021 to deepen our commitment to inclusion by design while continuing to strengthen our privacy and safety by design programs; spread kindness to our communities through our expanded Snap Academies, World Kindness Week and Yellow Accelerator; and leverage our platform to engage snapchatters on mental health, drug education/prevention, and civic engagement.

Pillar Highlights Graphic  - Society

SOCIETY
Strengthening communities through strategic
partnerships, giving, and volunteering

Implementing responsible design principles to
ensure inclusion, safety, and privacy for everyone
who uses our products

Leveraging our platform to support mental health
and civic engagement, and promote initiatives
and causes with a positive social impact

$9 million in advertising donated to nonprofits, $4.5M in community giving
50%+ of hosts or leads in Snap Originals BIPOC or LGBQT+.
4.5 million Snapchatters have used the Run for Office Mini.

Responsible Products

Empowering people to express themselves through the products we create is critical in our approach to kind business. We foster trust in our platform by considering the privacy, safety, and inclusiveness of a new feature at the front end of the design process.
As we develop products that overlay computing onto the world around us, we have a big opportunity and responsibility to do it in a way that respects, empowers, and improves the lives of those who use our product. We seek to develop products that are human-centered, approachable, and easy to understand. We work to anticipate and mitigate unintended consequences of our products in use. 
In 2021, we made major progress advancing inclusion by design at Snap. We launched our Safety & Impact blog and Safety Snapshot, and we expanded our Transparency Reporting.
grouping of Snapchat screens showing the "My Friends" screen and a user profile screen and a Bitmoji sticker of a man sitting on a pile of books reading.
Image depicting a Snapchat activation to help people get ready to vote in public elections with key words like "Representation matters" and "Vote".

Social Impact on Our Platform

At Snap we aim to educate and empower Snapchatters on the most pressing issues impacting our communities. Through the Snapchat ecosystem, we help people learn about issues that matter most to them and provide them with resources to take action. We bring these issues to light through several different features and products on Snapchat including Lenses, creative tools, Minis, and our content platform, Discover. Discover features content from vetted media publishers and content creators, including Snapchat original shows.
In 2021, we donated over $9 million in advertising space and creative assets to help nonprofit organizations leverage Snapchat to highlight their messages through in-app activations. An example of this is the Run for Office Mini on Snapchat, which more than 4.5 million Snapchatters have used. We also developed our Snap Originals DEI Pledge, a public commitment to having 50% of Snap Originals partners consist of women and/or people from historically excluded backgrounds by 2025.


3D Bitmoji of Jill Dickerson
"We see the fact that Snapchat has such broad reach among young people both in the US and globally as both an opportunity and a huge responsibility for our Originals brand, and we work hard to create exceptional mobile-first content that promotes our values of curiosity, diversity, kindness (to self and others), empathy, and inclusion.”
-JILL DICKERSON, HEAD OF UNSCRIPTED ORIGINALS, SNAP

Community and Giving

The mission of Snap's Philanthropy program is to empower students from under-resourced communities by supporting equitable access to education and exposure to career pathways in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics), while strengthening the cities where we live and work.
We believe the most meaningful way to make a difference is by supporting hyperlocal community organizations that offer our team members opportunities to roll up our sleeves and volunteer. By taking a “volunteer-first” approach to philanthropy, we make it easy for team members to give back to our local communities. Snap Philanthropy builds authentic relationships with our nonprofit partners and listens to their needs so that we are able to make the most strategic and impactful local investments.
IN 2021, we donated $4.5+ million to global organizations supporting access to education, exposure to career pathways, and community wellbeing. We also devoted 6,800+ hours dedicated to Snap Philanthropy projects in 61 cities across 21 countries
Image depicting a group of young people of diverse backgrounds posting for the photo in front of a yellow door.

Snap Foundation

The mission of the Snap Foundation is to develop pathways to the creative economy for underrepresented youth in Los Angeles. Through it, Snap imagines a future where youth thrive from opportunities to engage in artistic expression, and experience economic inclusivity as working creatives. The creative economy transforms individual lives and society at large — in particular when centering racial equity and uplifting arts as a healing modality. The Foundation is funded by donations from Snap Inc. and our co-founders, Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, who have each pledged 13 million shares of Snap stock (39 million total) and continue to make contributions since the initial commitment.
In 2021, Snap Foundation distributed $6.2 million into the community through Responsive and Strategic grants. 

Yellow Accelerator

Snap created Yellow as an ecosystem that serves companies at the intersection of creativity and technology. Yellow Accelerator serves as a gateway to the startup community to access capital, mentorship, and partnerships that help bring world-changing innovations to life. Since launching Yellow Accelerator in 2018, Snap has chosen a group of individuals and teams from around the world each year to join our three-month program.
Across five classes, 76% of our participating companies have been founded by women or BIPOC, of which 45% of the companies have a female founder, and 60% of the companies have a BIPOC founder. 
Group of images of people in rectangle frame with a black background and a few yellow and white graphics surrounding the people.

Download the CitizenSnap Report

We recount our efforts, our shortcomings, and offer a way forward.