Volunteering & Community

AEG, the world’s leading sports and live entertainment company, concluded its Season of Giving, the company’s annual holiday initiative that encourages its employees throughout the world to engage in charitable activities in their local communities, with a community holiday party near the company’s global headquarters in Los Angeles at L.A. LIVE and the Los Angeles Convention Center.

More than 500 residents of the nearby Pico-Union district along with various Los Angeles County-based nonprofit organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles, several neighborhood Boys & Girls Clubs and others, enjoyed free ice skating at LA Kings Holiday Ice at L.A. LIVE, a full dinner service, holiday crafts and games in addition to photos with Santa Claus.

Whirlpool Corporation employees volunteer in schools, shelters and service organizations for a service initiative known as "United We Serve." The initiative calls for Americans to work together to provide solutions to pressing problems within their communities.

On MLK Day of Service, hundreds of Duke Energy employees fanned out across our communities to serve others. From teaching girls about STEM in aviation and building homes to serving meals and beautifying parks, Duke Energy In Action volunteers put our purpose into action: to power the lives of our customers and the vitality of our communities.

There is a desire by companies to show customers and employees that they are not just interested in profits, but that they care about the state of the world. And saying so is not enough. So determined are they to show impact — the latest buzzword in philanthropy — that they are marshaling metrics to prove it.

Consider Subaru of America. In the first nine months of 2017, 512 employees have volunteered their time for 105 events for 46 different organizations.

Calling all young scholars from Canada* and the U.S. who are advancing sustainable agriculture or alleviating hunger.

Today, General Mills launched the “General Mills Feeding Better Futures Scholars Program,” which is designed to encourage young people ages 13 to 21 to submit their best ideas for addressing these important global issues.

With a common goal of improving recycling access and increasing recycling rates by educating consumers about the value of recycling, the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) and Keep America Beautiful announced their partnership today at the 2018 Keep America Beautiful National Conference, taking place Jan. 17-19 at The Fairmont Dallas Hotel in Dallas, Texas. IBWA will become a national sponsor of America Recycles Day, a Keep America Beautiful national initiative that takes place annually on and in the weeks leading into Nov. 15.

Next City today announced the launch of its newest editorial section, The Bottom Line, made possible with support from Citi Community Development. Through enterprise reporting, news coverage and op-eds written by public and private sector leaders, The Bottom Line will explore new and promising programs, partnerships, policies, technologies and financial tools emerging in response to increasing inequality, household financial vulnerability and other troubling economic trends affecting American cities. Visit The Bottom Line at nextcity.org/thebottomline.

Did you make a new year’s resolution? Each year many of us resolve to change a disliked trait or accomplish a personal goal. Whether you love them or hate them, resolutions serve a purpose. They encourage us to make a conscious decision to improve our life in the coming year.

In the spring of 2016, CommonLit.org was a collection of about 100 individual PDF reading lessons that English teachers could download and use with their students. Despite its humble start, I had a big vision. I came to the AT&T Aspire team with a simple pitch: Create the best reading and writing program in America and make it available for free so that even the most vulnerable students could access it online.

Not many executives can say that in their first week on the job they – literally and figuratively – pulled on their boots to help restore a vacant lot in the South Bronx into a community garden. But doing just that is how I quickly began to understand and experience the Timberland philosophy of being an “Earthkeeper.”