Canva cofounder and CEO Melanie Perkins (Photo by Nina Franova/Getty Images for SXSW Sydney)Getty Images for SXSW SydneyOn Thursday, billionaires Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins, the husband and wife cofounders of Australian design software maker Canva announced the launch of a new philanthropic initiative called the Global Goals Platform. The effort, funded by their Canva Foundation, will survey citizens across the globe about the changes they’d most like to see in the world; it is an initial step toward fulfilling their pledge to eventually give away a 30% stake in their $42 billion private company.“We have this optimistic belief that there’s enough resources and goodwill in the world to achieve all of our goals, but goals aren't given much of a voice,” said Perkins, who serves as Canva’s CEO, in an exclusive interview with Forbes. “So the idea behind the Goals Platform is…to ask everyone, ‘What is the one goal you’d like to see achieved in your lifetime for the world, for your country, and your local community’…and then to help everyone understand that those are the goals that are shared in our communities.”Perkins and Obrecht, who Forbes estimates each own an 18% stake in Canva worth $7.6 billion, signed The Giving Pledge in 2021, promising to donate more than 80% of their wealth to charity through the Canva Foundation, as part of what Perkins calls their “lifetime journey” of giving. Their cofounder Cameron Adams, who Forbes estimates owns a 9% stake in Canva worth $3.8 billion, has also committed to donating the majority of his wealth to charity via The Giving Pledge but plans to do so outside the Canva Foundation. The nonprofit, which receives the majority of its funding from Perkins and Obrecht—with the remainder coming from Canva’s pledge to contribute 1% of its equity, profits, employee time and product to philanthropy—is just getting started. It has doled out more than $80 million to date through 2025, including more than $50 million of its $150 million pledge toward eradicating extreme poverty in Malawi via its partner GiveDirectly. That’s in addition to the $2.5 billion in product value Canva says it has donated to students, teachers, and more than one million nonprofits.“That’s been incredible to see that money being deployed to people living in extreme poverty through our partnership with Give Directly,” says Perkins of the Canva Foundation’s work in Malawi, where more than 130,000 people have received direct cash transfers as part of the initiative. “The impact that a small amount of money can have on people's lives to be able to afford their basic human needs has been extraordinarily profound.”Canva’s partnership with GiveDirectly in Malawi also helped inspire the Global Goals Platform, Perkins says, by reinforcing her belief that local communities are in the best position to identify their own needs. The initiative seeks answers directly from the people who are most in need of help and others who know them best, like their neighbors and local nonprofit and government officials. The target demographic is intended to be as broad as possible. The Goals Platform is still in its nascent stage, with pilot programs running across the US, in partnership with the public service advertising nonprofit Ad Council, and in the Australian city of Wollongong, which is nearly 90 minutes from Canva’s headquarters in Sydney, with the help of the local city council. The survey can be taken by anyone on the initiative’s new website. The plan is to publish the survey’s findings in a report next year that will hopefully be read by philanthropists, business leaders, governments and more. It remains to be seen how the platform will evolve beyond this initial data collection and reporting phase. But it’s sure to influence both Canva and its charitable arm, which Perkins says both strive to serve the same purpose.Adds Perkins, “We have a very unifying objective, which is to empower people.”