“I have always strived to volunteer my time, but I did step it up a notch (or five) after leaning about the Crowe Challenge,” said Perla Ramirez, a Crowe employee and top volunteer during the 75th Anniversary Community Service Challenge who received a $500 grant for the Northern Illinois Food Pantry and St. John’s Food Bank in Will County. “We feed more than 300 families a month and this grant will purchase two months’ worth of food for families. To quantify that, it’s a 24-foot truck stuffed with food to help feed those in my area.”
What is the 75th Anniversary Community Service Challenge?
During Jim’s May CEO video, he challenged Crowe Horwath personnel to complete 75,000 hours of community service in honor of the firms 75th anniversary. This is a stretch goal for the firm — but one they can achieve together. It will mean almost doubling the volunteer efforts they tracked this past year but translates to less than 2 hours of volunteering per person each month.
In addition to the types of volunteer hours currently offered, Crowe is expanding the definition of volunteerism for this challenge to include additional activities including personal volunteerism and participation by retired Crowe personnel. With opportunities for all employees to earn money for their charitable organizations throughout this time as well.
Eligible Hours include things like*:
- Time spent utilizing Crowe volunteer PTO policy
- Time spent performing activities associated with service on a not-for-profit board
- Time spent volunteering with co-workers on a Crowe sponsored community service activity or event
- Time spent volunteering with a charitable organization selected by/endorsed by the firm or a Crowe local office during working hours
- Volunteer work performed outside of traditional work hours that is not connected to a Crowe event or activity
*Time at charity events where you are not serving in a volunteer capacity (i.e. board member, event staff, guest speaker), fundraising directly (i.e. bowl-a-thon, walk –a-thon etc.) and are receiving something of benefit (i.e. dinner or golf outing) are not be counted as volunteer hours.
Crowe has representatives known as Community Service Champions throughout their locations and teams to encourage participation, share best practices and help organize projects.
Between last July and December, 51 Crowe employees recorded 75 or more volunteer hours as part of the 75th anniversary community service challenge. Each of these individuals received a $500 grant from the Crowe Horwath Foundation for their not-for-profit of choice.
Additional opportunities for employees to earn grants for their not-for-profits of choice includes: sharing videos of how you give back, logging volunteer hours, and the occasionally fun video challenge- a recent one asked for clips of people dressed up in costumes to represent the firm’s decades- from the 1940’s to present day.
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