The social impact team at On is driven by a shared goal: to cultivate a culture where everyone, regardless of circumstance, has the opportunity to ignite their human spirit through movement, as this unlocks progress for people and communities. We're building this road through authentic, value-led collaborations, partnerships and programs.
Learn more about On’s social impact strategy with Head of Social Impact, Sahra Kaboli-Nejad and Global Social Impact Senior Lead, Jordan Farwell.
We’re building a strategy to sustain impactful growth.
Social impact at On became a dedicated focus area in 2021, and we’ve seen steady growth and interest in the program, both internally and externally. In 2021, our core social impact program, Right To Run, donated 180k CHF in financial grants and 1,700 units of product to 17 community organizations. In only three years, our social impact donations increased to 2.5M CHF in financial grants and 35k units of product to 85+ community organizations, reaching over 290k community members.
“The earliest days of working with our team in Portland to imagine what Social Impact could mean to On and our community was one of my personal highlights over the past decade with the company. When you get to connect the passion of our teams with true meaning and purpose, the results mean a more connected team with alignment on what matters most. I am a firm believer that businesses have the power to affect the most change if they direct it in the right way and support people in being entrepreneurial, kind and human. This is what makes up the magic of On that so many are curious about.” – Britt Olsen, Chief Commercial Officer
After seeing the natural evolution of the program, we reached a place in 2024 where we realized that sustaining impactful growth would require dedicated resources, programs, and an overall strategy connected to our broader business initiatives. We want to be intentional about the investments we’re making across our communities, and this led us to solidify four recently launched program pillars: Research, Education, Motivation and Access.
We were inspired by On’s approach to sustainability, especially when thinking about research and data. And so the Research pillar is the base of the strategy. We’re first collecting feedback and listening to what would be most impactful to our communities, to then design and launch programs of support that can be accurately monitored to ensure we are making the greatest impact.
Education and Motivation focus mainly on our consumers and our community members. We’re driven by a number of questions: How are we educating them about our research findings, barriers and accelerators to movement? How can we motivate them to get out and move? Can we inspire them to support others in participating in movement?
Finally, Access encompasses a majority of the work we built over the last four years, with a goal of ultimately increasing access to movement for communities around the world. The core of our work will continue to be grassroots, community partnerships, which will span across the pillars mentioned before (with many of our partners supporting multiple pillars).
Our four pillars are the result of a series of workshops involving the social impact team and On’s Senior Leadership, combined with the support of external partners, with the objective of building a framework that would impact and connect dots across the business.
To ensure that we were building a holistic program, we integrated natural disaster relief and team member engagement efforts into our strategy. While both were topics that the social impact team had taken the lead on in years past, we knew a long-term, strategic approach would ensure the best outcomes, especially when it comes to our work in team member engagement. Our culture is imperative to our success as a business and building a culture of impact, whether through volunteering, giving back financially, or incorporating impact into day-to-day functions, we want every member of the Oniverse to feel they are contributing.
Right To Run has been pivotal in how we show up.
On’s mission is to ignite the human spirit through movement. Right To Run comes into play when we think about the communities around the world that have historically not had access to movement for a variety of reasons – whether it’s a lack of resources, education, safety, or inclusion, to name a few.
The goal of the program is to amplify the work of organizations across the globe that are doing transformative work. For example, this could be helping underrepresented communities gain access to sporting events or rebuilding the lives of refugees through sports. All in all, it’s always about preserving everyone’s fundamental human right to run and move.
“ Whether it's championing the visually impaired community in Shanghai with the joys of running or promoting education and youth empowerment through board sports in Ghana, our Right To Run initiative allows us to empower people all over the world with the gift of movement. Since I'm passionate about tennis, I'm volunteering time to help support a grass roots tennis club in Suriname through one of our Right To Run partners, KLABU, who builds clubhouses in refugee camps all over the world. This October, I'm excited to spend time renovating their tennis court and teaching tennis to the kids who may never have picked up a racquet before. Looking forward to helping On make an impact and ignite the human spirit through movement. ” – Daniel Ou, Director of Apparel Creation
Our teams are actively involved in our social impact efforts.
Social impact is a core part of our culture, so we actively encourage our team members to get involved.
Throughout the year and particularly during our Give Back Month, an activation we’re launching this year in November, we coordinate opportunities across the globe for our team members to engage with their local communities. These are office-wide volunteer events that enable teams in each region to have a direct impact on the communities closer to where they work and live. In 2024, our team members volunteered more than 1800 hours supporting local organizations and donated more than 400,000 CHF.
Additionally, we recently launched our first Volunteer Ambassadors Program. This group of team members work to deepen and scale our work in communities around the world by contributing monthly to discover, host and encourage volunteer opportunities local to their office. We currently have team member ambassadors across multiple locations and are looking forward to seeing this group grow.
“ Through Right To Run, I’ve had the privilege of working closely with one of our partners, The Run Beyond Project , since June 2023, and it has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my career. The number of schools participating in their program has doubled in the past two years, and I'm proud to play a small role in supporting that growth. It is true that the Right To Run is more than a typical social impact program - it’s involved, collaborative and meaningful. The program aligns with my own values and makes coming to work each day even more enjoyable. ” – James Cousins, Key Account Services
“ National Future Career Day is an annual day celebrated in Switzerland where kids around the age of 10 get to come to the workplace and explore what their future profession could look like. Every year the team prepares a variety of activities and in 2024 we wanted to bring Right To Run to the agenda. Other team members and I got to present the program and answer any questions they had, ending the activity by crafting cards with thoughts and warm wishes that were added to care packages our teammates created to gift to our partners supporting refugees. It was just really cool to see everyone come together to ensure the next generation understands the importance of giving back. ” – Muriel Cunningham, Account Services Enablement Team Lead
We’re excited about what the future holds.
2025 is an important year for us as we enter the first implementation year of our long-term social impact strategy. This year, our existing programs and initiatives will be expanded into the new four-pillar structure. We are implementing monitoring and evaluation practices across the function and our partnerships – meaning, 2025 will be able to provide a baseline to benchmark our impact going forward. With the data collection, we’ll be able to accurately gauge outcomes over time, set clear goals and hold ourselves accountable.
Our key social impact goals for this year cover financial and product donations, the launch of the research arm of Right To Run and the continued work with our team members internally to increase engagement in give back initiatives, number of volunteers and volunteer hours.
