Community Involvement

Outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland celebrates the 25th anniversary of its award-winning Path of Service™ program by kicking off a season of volunteer events around the globe. The events will reinforce the brand’s commitment to be Earthkeepers by working to protect and restore the outdoors and support the communities where it does business. To mark this milestone, the brand will lead various service initiatives throughout August, September and October, including its annual Serv-a-palooza and Urban Greening events, while also encouraging consumers to find volunteer opportunities in their own communities through VolunteerMatch.org.

For any corporate leader looking to optimize their corporate sustainability strategy, this book is a must-have.

By bringing together so many employees and towns into one #NestleCares day, we’re able to celebrate and give back to the communities where we work and live. For us, though, engaging in our communities is about more than one special day. Enhancing quality of life and contributing to a healthier future is our purpose.

As Gwen Joseph revisited hours and hours of family memories – Christmas Eves spent with her extended family celebrating their Swedish traditions with performances, a family choir and food – the familiar sounds of joy brought her back to those moments, captured by her grandfather, who would hit record on the tape player at the start of the night and let the tape roll.

Comcast Cares Day takes place every April, but summer interns wanted to make change happen, too. Many of the nearly 140 interns and co-ops working in Comcast’s Philadelphia headquarters spent a recent afternoon volunteering at Share Food Program, a Philadelphia nonprofit with a mission of providing fresh produce to communities in need.

Equinix is a US-based company that connects the world’s leading businesses to their customers, employees and partners inside the world’s most connected data centers in 44 markets across five continents. They launched an international giving and volunteering program with Benevity in 2016, and the results have been impressive. Their 2016 one-month annual Impact Month campaign saw donations jump by 50%, while participation grew by 62%, and volunteer hours increased by 72% year-over-year versus 2015 (before they rolled out their international program).

We spoke with Equinix's Director of Corporate Citizenship, Sujata Narayan, about the business and social drivers behind their program, how they made it work, its impact and the value of local champions to an international Goodness program.

On July 7, 2017, approximately 400 participants came out to the Xylem Innovation Official Opening in Montecchio Maggiore, Italy. A Xylem Watermark section of the opening was managed by Xylem volunteers, who were available all evening to answer questions, collect donations and raise awareness of Xylem Watermark.

Las Vegas Sands and Clean the World have announced a first-of-its-kind service in Las Vegas to help homeless people. The Sands Cares Fresh Start Mobile Showers Powered by Clean the World is a traveling hygiene unit that visits locations serving the homeless to provide showers, hygiene supplies and other resources.

Whirlpool Corporation interns joined employees to volunteer and build homes as part of the company's longstanding partnership with Habitat for Humanity.

Companies are focusing more on the power of purpose and mission to engage their employees and help create a corporate culture that is compelling to today’s diverse and socially conscious workforce. This translates into changes in the tactics and execution of what a mission-driven organization looks like. For instance, charitable efforts have evolved from annual fundraising campaigns to a people-centric approach to Goodness, with year-round giving and volunteering programs that allow employees to choose which charity they support. With this, they’re seeing employees who are far more engaged, loyal and productive.