The Right Mindset for Businesses to Succeed in Social Impact Actions

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It’s common to hear the question “ why are you making social impact? ” We can say that we do it because it’s the right thing to do and because it encourages important conversations.

It took us a while to understand that we were on the right path. As with any company, we were not born prepared; we just knew that we wanted to be better for our shareholders, customers, investors and society at large.

The first step was recognizing that we can use our purchase shareholder database knowledge, experience, and tools to support people in our community. Rock Content was founded in 2013 following an educational path to help grow the market. That’s why we have Rock University, which has certified more than 500,000 people in Digital Marketing courses.

In 2019 we took another step: we structured our impact initiatives with Rock.org, our social arm, to achieve the current results and paths.

As a company, our mission is to share our knowledge, products and services to promote social change. We look analytically and understand that change must also come from the inside out.

The result of all our efforts speaks for itself: in 2021, Rock Content impacted 20,000 people by donating Rock University scholarships and volunteering our employees’ time. Today, 52.8% of the Rock Content team is made up of women, and 49% of the leadership positions are women as well. The question is: what did we do to achieve this?

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We share our mission
The whole process of becoming a structured and committed company that wants a better world was only possible by making sure that Rock Content 's mission made sense to all of our 400 Rockers from 20 countries!

For a while, our mission statement to grow into the global company we are today was to "provide opportunities for growth." We built a strong presence in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, and Mexico.

Beyond the commercial aspect, this phrase helped us to encourage opportunities for underrepresented groups among our Rockers and the community.

Today we have a broader mission that better represents our desire to create growth opportunities with incredible content: "Improving marketing while generating positive impact in the world ." This is how we certify that this approach can be multiplied in our community.

Wherever your company goes, remember that your mission must make sense to all stakeholders. If you want growth, it must be shared. Your mission is the core of your company, the purpose by which it will be remembered and held accountable.

Social Impact Report 2021
Social impact is a commitment that all Rockers share. We are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in four commitments: Quality Education, Growth and Decent Employment Opportunities, Gender Equality and Reduction of Inequalities .

We have been members of the 1% Pledge since 2021 and in the agreement we commit to accelerate social change, donating 1% of our actions, products, time and capital to education and employability initiatives.

In this way, João Medeiros (18 years old), participant of Rock 'nGrow and Rock Camp (both to bring education to young people with fewer conditions to enter the labor market) says:

“I am a professional communicator thanks to the Rock Content and Rock.org programs . With scholarships for courses and participation in the programs, I realized that I like communication, my area of ​​work today. With support, I delved deeper into the field and today I am doing an internship in Social Media applying what I learned in the Rock 'n' Grow courses. With this internship, I improved my quality of life. The courses are amazing and help many young people find opportunities in the job market. The company excels and always tries to help participants in its programs. I am very proud to have completed it and I wish that everyone I know can do it too.”


In 2021, to achieve these results with education initiatives, Rock Content focused on two important things: collaborating to develop skills and getting closer to people who need development.

We sustain our Rock 'n' Grow with scholarship donations at Rock University. This is a way to support underrepresented individuals who have a household income under $48,000/year. The courses help most of our beneficiaries develop their technical skills in marketing, social media, sales, and customer success.

Analyzing the labor market, we created the new Rock Camp program, based on the idea of ​​an ex-Rocker to focus on the soft skills of young people starting their professional careers, accompanying them with weekly mentoring sessions for three months.

The program is not focused on climbing, but on accompanying young people and allowing them to grow in their experiences on how to behave at the beginning of their journey. In the pilot edition of June 2021, we had the participation of 15 students. Of these, 33% found a job during or after the program (within 3 months). Two of them work as apprentices at Rock Content .

To make these results possible, we needed to join forces with 15 partner organisations. This amounted to 1,698 volunteer hours from our employees.

For Helena Chang, our Product Manager and participant in our Volunteer Week 2021, volunteering means: “caring, giving back and helping create the same opportunities you had or would have liked to have had.”

In fact, volunteering is an excellent strategy to get involved, reinforce your culture and develop skills such as communication and leadership within your team.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Achievements
Rock Content also hosts several internal and external events related to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I).

We create internal policies and respect our Code of Conduct against any type of discrimination and we carry out training and campaigns focused on the well-being, health and empowerment of our employees.

We’re nearing the end of the article. But it’s important to repeat the question I asked at the beginning: why do we do it? To make our entire team feel like Raissa Costa, our Employer Branding Analyst. For the first time in her 13-year career, she finally feels like she’s working in an organization that actually turned its talk into action:

“Seeing the things that happen made me think about a better world. I am a woman, a mother, black, visually impaired and from a poor community. I am directly impacted by these initiatives. Being understood and being able to build development opportunities is something new in my professional life. Finally, I feel that I am in a place that gives me psychological security to face the barriers that have held back my development for years. Being involved in these activities has allowed me to look at myself, understand my identity and be proud of who I am.”

We have a long way to go, but we believe we are on the right path. We will continue working to have a culture of education and policies that fight against any type of discrimination and reduce all gaps based on gender, race, disability, affective-sexual orientation, among other factors.

Why do we do this? Because it's the right thing to do. And it encourages important conversations in many places.