A Recap of Give To Get's Busy Fall Season
Whew! After months of planning and prepping, from mid-September through the end of October, Give To Get ran 35 volunteer events for more than 4,000 employees and meeting attendees around the world.
We ran programs for groups with as few as 25 attendees up 600 employees in locations as close as Denver, where we're headquartered, to as far away as Malaysia. Events also took place in Budapest, Dublin, Singapore, Puerto Rico, and Tokyo — as well as 25+ programs throughout the continental United States.
To say it's the busiest we've ever been is an understatement.
Yet, regardless of the location, each client received a program that was tailored to their interest areas from environmental initiatives that involved picking up hundreds of pounds of trash and planting thousands of flowers and saplings to education-based programs that included assembling hundreds of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) kits to programs that improved the lives of the homeless by making thousands of blankets and packing hygiene kits.
More importantly, though we often partner with nonprofits that clients have existing relationships with, we often bring in our own ideas. Instead of donating pet beds to animal shelters, we may ask volunteers to make beds, toys, and collars. This way, in addition to the nonprofit getting the items they need, the corporations that we work with can accomplish their own goals like building employees’ communication and teamwork skills. We also, thanks to our global network, can help clients find new nonprofits to work with that support cause areas that they care about.
We keep our nonprofit partners happy, too. Many times they are simply told that they will receive a certain number of items, but at Give2Get, we start with the question, "What do you need?" This is a game changer because nonprofits don't have to worry about finding places to house extra items or worry that the items they receive will be inappropriate for their clientele.
Instead, they received shoes that are sized appropriately (My New Red Shoes) and backpacks that are filled with the required healthy foods for children who were effected by Hurricane Florence (Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina).
Give To Get events are also designed to fit each client's needs from a logistical standpoint — whether hosting events in large conference centers as part of a networking kickoff, at the company's office during the workday, or offsite at a local school, park, or food bank. We also consider all of the extra items that you may not think of — transportation, snacks, entertainment, photographers, and waivers — just to name a few items.
As we wrap up 2018, we're excited to see the number of corporations that have moved past hosting traditional end-of-year toy and food drives to providing exciting opportunities for employees (and, sometimes, their families) to volunteer together for the same organizations.
We're also thrilled to see that many corporations are championing employee giveback programs for January's Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which has long been a day that highlighted volunteering, or Earth Day, which was started to encourage individuals to improve the environment they live in.