Ball Corporation’s commitment to flood relief

The following Member Spotlight was submitted by Ball Corporation.
Do you want to see your community investment story featured? Fill out a Share Your Story form today!

Ball Corporation, in partnership with the Oskar Blues Can’d Aid Foundation, is sending nearly 200,000 cans of water to areas of South Carolina affected by the recent floods. Oskar Blues Brewery in Brevard, North Carolina, is filling cans donated by Ball’s Rome, Georgia, facility with city drinking water to assist flood victims.

Assisting with flood relief efforts is not new to Oskar Blues and Ball. Colorado’s 2013 floods devastated several communities, including Oskar Blues’ hometown of Lyons. In response to the floods, the Ball Foundation pledged $1 million to several nonprofits that assisted with relief efforts in areas impacted by the flood. These organizations included Community Food Share, Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley, Flatirons Habitat for Humanity, Impact on Education Foundation for Boulder Valley Schools and the Foothills United Way’s Foothills Flood Relief Fund.

Learn more about Ball Corporation’s community efforts here.

Tackling Hunger: B:CIVIC Members in the Community

Our second B:CIVIC Academy is this Wednesday, October 21! Attendees will enjoy an interactive panel discussion with representatives from Kaiser Permanente, 34 Degrees and Albertsons/Safeway (if you haven’t RSVP’d yet, limited seats remain, so save your seat soon!)

While we can’t wait to hear the impacts that the panelist’s companies have made on hunger in Colorado as well as lessons learned along the way, we also want to highlight B:CIVIC member initiatives in the area. Ask and you shall receive! Our members show that there is some serious good brewing in Denver’s corporate giving scene.


DaVita Health Care Partners
“At DaVita we believe in being good stewards of resources and participating citizens of our community, which is why we’re committed to supporting organizations like B:CIVIC. We contribute to various programs aimed to end hunger in metro Denver, including Project Angel Heart and Urban Peak, among others, that meet the needs of students receiving low and reduced lunch services.”  – Nancy Walters, corporate social responsibility manager at DaVita HealthCare Partners


 

Janus Capital Group

Janus Donates More Than 1,000 Snack Packs to DPS Students in Need
Each day, hundreds of DPS students go to school without knowing where they will sleep that night or where their next weekend meal will come from.  And that’s not their only challenge, getting to class is hurdle on its own without dependable transportation and often they are without the proper clothing or supplies. They feel alone, embarrassed and frustrated.?But with the desire to blend in with their peers, the impact of personal pride and, at times, an anxiety for how they will provide for their younger siblings, these students do not always surface and their issues struggles can remain concealed.

Janus Gives Back
The Janus team stepped up to the plate to combat these conditions during the Have a Heart for Homeless Children Food Drive. Through this effort, Janus employees donated nonperishable food items and fully constructed Snack Packs for the DPS Educational Outreach Program, an organization who aims to foster education by providing children identified as experiencing homelessness with the most basic needs.

In all, Janus contributed a total of 1,100 snack packs and $1,475 in monetary donations. These contributions were delivered to George Washington High School, the DPS school with the highest percentage of students in the program, and to the EOP administrative building for future use.


 

Every year the Denver Post Charities operates Season to Share. With the generous support of donors and matching funds provided by the McCormick Foundation, grants are made to qualified nonprofit organizations that focus on child and youth education, health and wellness, homelessness and hunger.

The hunger funding area supports Food banks and other large scale programs in areas areas where severe gaps for nutritional services exist, or that address the nutritional needs of specific groups such as children, families and seniors.

Eligible Programs include:

  • Food Banks: Organizations that support the efforts of community hunger-relief agencies in high-need areas, and/or provide benefits linkage, job training and other poverty alleviation strategies
  • Multi-Service Network: Includes community networks (multi-agency collaborations) providing comprehensive crisis-to-stabilization services aligned with hunger-relief efforts
  • Childhood Hunger-Relief Initiatives: Addresses acute needs of low income children/youth at times when they are at most risk of hunger (before/after school, weekend, holidays, and summertime)
  • Systems Support: program supporting an agency’s ability to affect systemic change by promoting policies that bring additional resources to a sector and/or leading coordinated planning initiatives shared by multiple stakeholders.

Does your company have a hunger initiative you would like us to highlight on the blog or at the B:CIVIC Academy? Please email us and we’ll help you spread the word!

Member Spotlight: Brownstein Denver Office Congratulates Las Vegas Office for Being Named Private Philanthropic Business Of The Year

The following Member Spotlight was submitted by Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.
Want to see your story featured? Fill out a Share Your Story form today!

 


Congratulations to Founding Member Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck’s Las Vegas office for being named the Philanthropic Business Partner of the Year – Private for 2015 by Vegas Inc. and Angel Media Groups in the annual Angel Awards!

According to the company blog, “Brownstein contributes to the community through board service, hands-on volunteerism, financial contributions and pro bono legal work. Approximately 70 percent of the firm’s attorneys and policy professionals sit on nonprofit boards. In addition to board service, Brownstein’s attorneys and policy professionals provided more than 11,000 hours of pro bono service in 2014. Brownstein’s pro bono commitment to the Las Vegas community includes significant work for the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, the largest low-income civil legal services provider in Las Vegas, including representation of children in the foster care system through the Children’s Attorney Program (CAP).

 


k
The firm’s Las Vegas office has adopted Halle Hewetson Elementary School, where more than 90 percent of students receive free or reduced-price lunch. Firm employees built bikes for students, cleaned school grounds, installed a garden, painted classroom doors, adopted students’ families for the holidays, read to students during Nevada Reading Week, and contributed books, school uniforms and a washer/dryer to the school. Brownstein team members also volunteer at Three Square Food Bank, Southern Nevada’s only food bank providing food assistance to the residents of Lincoln, Nye, Esmeralda and Clark counties, and the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, which strives to be the model for providing hope and change to the homeless, addicted, and others in need.”

B:CIVIC is proud to have Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck as a member and looks forward to sharing more of its generous community work in the future!

Mindful Mixer for Local Biz

Does your company have a strong commitment to Colorado communities?
You should be part of B:CIVIC!

Please join us for our first Mindful Mixer to learn more about who we are, the programs we offer, and the benefits this exciting, rapidly growing organization offers to its members. B:CIVIC members include 100+ companies of all sizes actively engaged in doing good and running profitable businesses.

As a special bonus, you’ll get to tour one of the newest collaborative office spaces in town – INDUSTRY Denver. This event is on tax day so join us at Will Call for some well-deserved relief, have an adult beverage and meet B:CIVIC founders.

RSVP HERE!

Drinks at the Mindful Mixer + INDUSTRY Tour are complimentary for guests who RSVP in advance. Please share this invitation with other companies you know that might be interested!

Questions about this event or B:CIVIC membership? Please contact us at info@bcivic.org.

B:CIVIC Welcomes The Corporate Community Investment Network

ccin logoWe’re excited to announce a great opportunity for B:CIVIC Members! The Corporate Community Investment Network (CCIN), a long-standing peer network for professionals tasked with making a positive impact on communities on behalf of their companies in a for-profit business setting will now be managed by B:CIVIC. Joyce Witte of Founding Board Member Encana started CCIN, and the network has held regular meetings every other month for years. The role of CCIN is to provide a confidential forum to share and discuss best and worst practices, engage in peer networking, encourage personal development and share resources to enhance the CI profession.

CCIN has now transitioned to serve as a B:CIVIC Affinity Group and will continue as a corporate funders peer group. The first meeting will take place next month.

Interested in joining? There are a few qualifiers your business has to meet.

CCIN Eligibility:

  • You must be employed by a for-profit company, perform a community investment (CI) role and have influence over a CI budget.
  • The budget must include an allocation by the company directed to corporate grants, employee volunteerism, employee matching gifts, or in-kind products or services.
  • CCIN is not a forum for fundraising or solicitation, and is closed to non-profit organizations.
  • To participate, you are required to sign a confidentiality agreement.

Please note that other B:CIVIC Affinity Groups (such as for small businesses and companies just starting a community investment program) are under development and will be announced shortly.

CCIN February Meeting
Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Time: 8:00 – 9:30 am
Location: Petroleum Room 1, Denver Athletic Club, 1325 Glenarm Place, Denver, CO 80204
Cost: FREE (February Breakfast is sponsored by Western Union)

CLICK HERE TO RSVP.

 

B:CIVIC Member Spotlight: Level 3 Communications

MemberSpotlight_L3

Level 3 Cares

B:CIVIC Founding Member Level 3 Communications sets an example in Colorado and across the country with its community involvement efforts. Through its corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, Level 3 Cares, the company strives to connect its volunteers to an organization that meets their volunteer expectations, while ensuring their valuable time L3supports local communities in creative and rewarding ways.

Level 3 strongly encourages teams to volunteer together as a way to strengthen team camaraderie and foster a culture of giving back. One of Level 3’s signature volunteer programs, Everyone Deserves a Cookie, was designed to fill a gap identified by the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless. Level 3 volunteers go into their kitchen and personally make desserts the shelter’s guests can enjoy that evening. Since the launch of this program in May, Level 3 has sent nine small groups to volunteer their time and bake cookies, serving approximately 1,800 people.

This program not only provides a bit of home-baked goodness to the shelter’s guests, but also provides Level 3 volunteers a tangible way to do good.


Do you have a story you’d like featured in B:CIVIC’s Member Spotlight? Email
info@bcivic.org with all the details! Photos are encouraged.