• Philanthropy
• Philanthropy
SMUD facilitates multiple community-based programs, including a partnership with the Sacramento Tree Foundation. SMUD has invested more than $ 1 million in the planting of free shade trees throughout the area. Shade trees cool homes and businesses naturally, leading to lower energy use, which reduces customers’ electric bills and helps the environment. It’ s a program that would seem to reduce the company’ s usefulness, but Manuel says SMUD is more interested in benefitting the community than profiting from higher electricity bills.
“ For us, it’ s more than just giving of dollars— it’ s expansion and distribution of resources to improve the community as a whole,” Manuel says.“ We’ re not-forprofit and we’ re community-owned, so we have a really unique perspective on giving back to the community. Not just with low rates but also with programs and services.”
ENGAGING EMPLOYEES In order to run a successful social responsibility platform, there has to be“ a certain buy-in” from new employees, Raley’ s Minor explains.“ We are a family-owned business and each employee feels as though they’ re part of that family.” Every employee has the opportunity to opt into the company’ s employee giving campaign, where they can deduct a percentage or dollar amount from their paycheck to go toward one of three, rotating nonprofits, Minor says. This year, the three nonprofits chosen include Raley’ s own nonprofit Food For Families, Breathe California( an anti-smoking and clean-air organization) and iFoster, a group that helps foster youth who have aged out of the system.
Raley’ s customers can give back too: Every register has the option for customers to donate money to local charities, Minor says.“ Their dollar, 100 percent, stays local,” she says. It sits in a Raley’ s-operated account for selected charities to buy food at-cost from the supermarket.
SMUD employees regularly participate in events such as the annual Veteran’ s Day Parade, Run to Feed the Hungry and Walk a Mile in Her Shoes, Manuel says. According to SMUD’ s website, their employees annually donate more than $ 350,000 to local nonprofits.
At VSP Global, employees receive one paid day each year that can be used to volunteer for any charitable cause. They can also volunteer at one of the company’ s mobile eye care clinics for up to two weeks per year without taking paid time off, which allows staff to assist patients through the registration process, conduct pre-testing, help with frame selection, and make glasses. Cappelletti-Matthews says,“ It is an amazing opportunity to step aside from your daily duties, get a glimpse into what life is like in an eye doctor’ s office, and see how access to eye care can change a person’ s quality of life,” adding that the experience“ quickly transforms employees into ambassadors” and gives them a sense of pride in the work they do.
“ We have a standing rule that we will match [ employee donations ] up to $ 250 to any organization or charity or school function,” Rogers, of Big Green IT says. An employee simply designates that their donation be matched, he says.
In 2016, Big Green IT employees, managers and contractors got together to try and fill 15 barrels with canned and nonperishable food to donate to the Placer Food Bank.“ Work hard, play hard,” Rogers says— in the days leading up to the donation deadline, the CEO made good on that motto:“ Everyone worked hard, and then we took everyone out to the Jimmy Buffett concert that night to play.”
AT THE END OF THE DAY For businesses looking to give back while continuing to grow their bottom line, social responsibility and charitable giving programs need to be approached with care. Elements like alignment with company values, authentic implementation and employee participation are all considerations to take into account.
Programs like those run by Big Green IT, SMUD, VSP and Raley’ s lead to greater awareness within the community of the goods and services their companies provide, and, as Moss Kanter pointed out in her article,“ Institutional logic holds that companies are more than instruments for generating money; they are also vehicles for accomplishing societal purposes and for providing meaningful livelihoods for those who work in them.” •
Robin Epley is the former associate editor for Comstock’ s. On Twitter @ robin _ epley.
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