Gillihan and CauseLabs provide websites and apps, mostly for small companies, nonprofits, education, and government entities.

SOCIAL INNOVATION 
Web Weaver
Sheryle Gillihan

They also champion local entrepreneurship, and, in Fall 2021, they plan to hold their second Impact Fort Worth conference. Last year’s inaugural event featured game-changing leaders and ideas, including Symbology’s Marissa Heyl, Feel the Color’s Jakayla Dixon, and Jeff Williams of The Taste Project.

“We were inspired by local business owners and we’re excited to bring it back to our community,” Gillihan says.

The firm’s biggest recent task has been building a portal for the California Child Care Resource & Referral Network with user-friendly features for parents, childcare providers, and its network.

So far this year, CauseLabs added two new services: website accessibility audits and website care plans, and the organization promoted a new managing director from within, Rebecca Colgate. The former HR director has held a number of positions since joining the team in 2014.

Next up, they intend to offer Launch for Good with websites and apps at a variety of price points, which CEO Gillihan says will “help CauseLabs better serve nonprofits and other purpose-driven businesses so they can continue thriving and serving our community.”

Meet the innovator

Sheryle Gillihan was featured in Dallas Innovates’ Future 50 in Dallas-Fort Worth in the 2021 edition of our annual magazine. We talk with Gillihan about innovation, about the mission and future of CauseLabs and how they build staying power in turbulent times. Here’s a takeaway:

On why website development matters:

In a world that has been digital, but has now forced us to function in almost every capacity using digital tools, it is easy to react and select whatever works for the moment. Technology starts to take over and we’ve experienced or have heard of the negative impacts. The web is a tool to improve our lives, give us more access, and help us help others. The human experience and the resulting impact cannot be removed from designing and choosing our tools or how we plan and build our digital presence. Our aim is to help everyone, even those who don’t hire us for a project, to use technology as a force for good.

On CauseLabs’ biggest project in 2020:

In 2020 we were able to build a portal for the California Child Care Resource & Referral Network in partnership with AJWI, the California Department of Education, and the California Department of Social Services. The goal was to design and develop a user friendly, accessible, centralized portal for parents, childcare providers, and supporting Resource & Referral offices. With so many stakeholders, our human-centered approach to design and development has created a robust system that we hope to launch soon and we hope will inspire similar systems in other states.

Affordable child care is an issue. Affordable child care that is within proximity to your area, available for your child’s age, available for your work schedule, is licensed quality care in a healthy safe environment, offers education, and meets your child’s special needs, as well as potentially your cultural desires for your child’s upbringing, takes time and energy and can seem impossible… We accepted this project because we saw the need, but what we learned – especially as we faced a global crisis in the midst of building it – is that the need is far greater than we thought. It is national. It is also global. It affects our current success, but it also affects future generations. This is only one way to tackle this issue. There are many facets of it and many ways in which technology can be used as a solution and an accelerator for positive, long-term change.

On the intersection between COVID-19 and social injustice and being a force for good:

I can’t deny that COVID-19 has put a spotlight on the inequality and injustices of our society and our biased systems. As a public benefit corporation, much of our work is with companies that reduce inequalities. As a UN Global Compact company, we abide by the International Bill of Human Rights and communicate throughout the year with our team and publicly on social media. Our stance has not changed due to the escalation of events in 2020 because we were already an ally for justice. These issues are not new, the policies we put in place have been in place since our formation, and our alignment with reducing inequalities, creating equity, and promoting justice is a constant, even through our work with the web.

On building resilience in the CauseLabs’ team:

We bought everyone a six-month coffee subscription. In all seriousness though… leaders must lead by example. There were times when I certainly felt like I was simply reacting to the challenges and obstacles that were thrown into our path. But in hindsight, I was responding quickly in the only way I could by aligning with our values. I mentioned our transparency with our team. We are also transparent with our clients, potential clients, community, and agency partners. They don’t always get the optimistic picture because in the midst of this we have had some challenges. However, despite those challenges and some very hard decisions, it didn’t change our commitment to doing work that matters or providing quality benefits to our team or achieving our goal of becoming carbon neutral or championing change in our community. If anything, our values led us through an incredibly tough year and our resilience is a testament to our alignment with those values.

On where CauseLabs goes from here:

There are so many recent changes and things on the horizon. First, we launched Impact Fort Worth during Global Entrepreneurship Week and are hoping to grow that initiative to more than just a one-day event, but also a community recognizing, fostering, and supporting social entrepreneurship. Second, in 2020 we fine-tuned CauseLabs Strategy Workshop to collaborate virtually with the same valuable outcomes. These workshops span anywhere from a half day to four days depending on the project needs. We’ve also provided free downloadable templates on CauseLabs’ website for teams who want to do a strategy workshop without facilitation. Lastly, we have a new DIY website platform for those who either don’t need or aren’t ready for a custom website or web app. We’ve seen a rise in these types of platforms over the past two years, but they haven’t been focused on serving purpose-driven organizations. Launch For Good will launch in 2021 to help CauseLabs better serve nonprofits and other purpose-driven businesses so that they can continuing thriving and serving our community.

A version of this story was originally published in Dallas Innovates 2021: The Resilience Issue.

Our fourth annual magazine, Dallas Innovates 2021: The Resilience Issue, highlights Dallas-Fort Worth as a hub for innovation. The collective strength of the innovation ecosystem and intellectual capital in Dallas-Fort Worth is a force to be reckoned with.

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