Positive Change

Xylem employees in Germany have been active during Xylem Watermark’s October Month of Service and have engaged children in their volunteer efforts. Last week, the Ludwigsburg site participated in a creative event, where they built a beautiful wooden shed at a youth farm for local children. Their neighbors at the Langenhagen site supported the Friends Children Forest in Hannover by planting trees and restoring a stream. Both the Ludswigburg and Langenhagen teams are showing how their volunteer efforts are improving their communities during Xylem’s Global Month of Service!

According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, a person dies by suicide every seven hours in the state of Michigan and it is the 10th leading cause of death in the state.

“A lot of people think they can beat mental illness on their own, so they suffer in silence or take their own lives,” explains Jazmyne Kincaid, FCA US employee at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit. “I hope to be a helping hand to someone struggling with a mental illness and share with them the resources around us that can help guide them toward health.”

Wondering how to create even more purpose and inclusion in your workplace? Get the scoop on how to go beyond giving, volunteering and grantmaking to create next-level engagement through your #CSR program through positive actions.

“Mental health isn’t just one person’s issue, it’s everyone’s issue,” says Karen Jordan.

Karen is not only the Lead of Financial Literacy at Scotiabank, she’s also the Chair of the Scotiabank Alliance for Mental Health (SAMH), one of Scotiabank’s many Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). Karen wants to get the message across that mental health issues are something that happens to people. It’s something we all need to be mindful of.

One of the nonprofit organizations I support and volunteer with is Americans for the Arts, a national advocacy and membership organization. AFTA has recently published its latest public opinion survey on the arts entitled Americans Speak Out about the Arts. The report is based on a nationally representative sample of over 3,000 adults, and it updates a similar study that was conducted two years ago.

Twenty-one Indiana nonprofit organizations are receiving $315,000 in Duke Energy Foundation grants to make a difference in their communities. Their projects range from a holiday food drive for the needy in Howard County to Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra concerts for elementary students from around the state.

Young people are told that if they want to retire comfortably, they need to start saving a little money early in life. Deposits, even with low interest rates, over time, add up to surprisingly large yields of cash.
This same concept can be applied to trees. The “deposits” are trees planted, and the yields are the myriad benefits trees provide.

The term “capacity-building” tends to be thrown around quite a bit in the nonprofit sector. And as jargon, it has the unfortunate fate of being pretty obscure outside of our sector—not to mention losing its meaning when overused within the field. But at the heart of it, nonprofit capacity-building is one of the most exciting and inspirational ways to support an issue. Quite simply, it’s about achieving a multiplier effect—creating more change in the world by helping to strengthen the organizations that are tackling society’s greatest challenges. At Taproot, we are driven by a strong belief in the exponential impact that can come from supporting nonprofits in this way.

Points of Light, the world’s largest organization dedicated to volunteer service, released the “Global Volunteerism Journey Report,” a first-of-its-kind study that examines the similarities and differences in family volunteering from five countries around the world. Underwritten by The Walt Disney Company, the study was commissioned to assess the global state of volunteerism and key barriers to overcome, identify solutions and opportunities to increase family volunteering, and understand the best ways to communicate opportunities.

We are thrilled to welcome Rachel Hutchisson, Vice President of Corporate Citizenship and Philanthropy at Blackbaud to Pro Bono Perspectives. In her day to day role, Rachel is responsible for global corporate social responsibility, leading the company’s 3,300 associates in efforts to serve and give professionally and personally. She is committed to the core philosophy that “good is for everyone,” championing positive change and inspiring individuals to integrate service into their development.