Key Notes
- Canva’s reorganization affects 1,271 employees through role changes, relocations and job cuts, with the number of departures still undisclosed.
- Departing employees are promised at least six months’ salary, continued benefits where available and career support, including a year of LinkedIn Premium.
- A separate fund offers US$10,000 grants for new ventures or community projects, with employees able to register interest until December 14.
Canva is offering departing employees at least six months’ salary, extended benefits and the chance to apply for a US$10,000 grant to start something of their own, giving workers a financial cushion as the design-software company undertakes a sweeping reorganization.
The changes affect 1,271 people, or 22% of Canva’s workforce, according to a staff memo from cofounder and Chief Executive Melanie Perkins. That includes employees facing new roles or relocation as well as those losing their jobs. Canva has not disclosed how many people will leave.
The support package has drawn praise, but its value rests on the details: the salary payment includes statutory entitlements, healthcare continues where the company already provides it, and the grants are a separate program requiring employees to register their interest. Those distinctions matter for workers trying to work out what comes next.
What Departing Employees Will Receive
In the staff memo, Perkins set out a package that combines cash, benefits, equity changes and help finding another job. The main elements are:
- At least six months’ salary for departing employees, regardless of location, inclusive of statutory entitlements.
- Twelve months of healthcare coverage in countries where Canva currently provides it.
- Twelve months of Canva Care, the company’s employee-assistance program, with support also extending to family members.
- Removal of the one-year equity vesting cliff for employees who joined within the past year.
- Career support, including individual coaching, interview preparation, résumé help and a year of LinkedIn Premium.
- An optional alumni talent directory to connect departing staff with investors, partners and potential employers.
- Their company-issued MacBooks, which employees leaving Canva can keep.
For a household losing a regular paycheck, salary support and continued healthcare address two immediate pressures. Keeping a laptop also removes a practical obstacle to applying for jobs or taking on independent work. The package combines that short-term breathing room with resources intended to help employees earn again.
The equity provision is different from a cash payment. Removing the first-year cliff changes the position of recent hires, but the memo does not put a cash value on their individual awards. Nor does its six-month salary promise mean six months is automatically added on top of every local statutory payment.
A $10,000 Fund for Starting Again
The Canva Collective Fund will offer US$10,000 grants to departing employees who want to launch a business or undertake a community initiative. People leaving through the restructuring have until December 14 to register their interest. Canva says it will take no ownership stake in what they build.
This is an application-based opportunity alongside the departure package, rather than a guaranteed extra $10,000 payment for every employee. Its scope also extends beyond conventional startups: the company explicitly includes projects serving a local community.
The distinction gives the program a different purpose from severance. Salary support helps bridge a break in employment; a grant could cover some of the initial costs of a new venture. It would not provide the ongoing income, customer base or commercial certainty that a former employee would still need to establish.
Why Canva Is Reorganizing
Perkins said Canva’s growth had slowed for the first time in a decade and that incremental changes would no longer be enough. The company is combining Product, Growth and Platform into one product organization, broadening narrowly defined roles and reducing overlapping layers of responsibility.
Sydney will become the main base for more product teams and other roles requiring close collaboration. Most hybrid employees will be expected to spend around two or three days a week in the office from January 2027, with arrangements varying by team.
The announcement comes as software companies adapt to rapidly changing technology, but Canva’s memo does not identify AI as the direct cause of every departure. Its explanation centers on slower growth, fragmented responsibilities and the way teams work together.
Severance Comes Into Focus Across Tech
The attention to Canva’s package comes amid a wider reassessment of technology jobs. Google has expanded voluntary buyout offers across five countries, while Microsoft has made exit offers available to about 60,000 eligible employees. Those figures describe offers and eligibility, rather than completed departures.
Fast Company reported praise for Canva’s approach. Responses to Perkins’s own LinkedIn post also included criticism of the cuts, alongside support for the assistance being offered. A generous departure package can ease the financial shock without removing the loss of a job.
Canva plans a company-wide meeting on November 10, followed by team meetings from November 11. For affected employees, the more immediate work is already beginning: finding another role, deciding whether to relocate or considering whether to build a business. For those leaving, the promised pay and benefits buy time for the transition; they do not make it easy.
