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.
“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 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!
SPARKS and SIPS: Engaging Employees Effectively
Employee engagement is a commonly used term, but it’s not as easily understood. Engaged employees are enthusiastic about their work, more productive and can serve as powerful brand ambassadors. They also spark the innovation and growth that propel businesses forward. Yet, Gallup recently announced that only 30% of the U.S. workforce is actively engaged.Companies large and small grapple with this challenge, and there are multiple ways they can try to solve it.
Join us at B:CIVIC’s July SPARKS and SIPS to learn from select diverse, local companies that approach the engagement challenge in vastly different ways, as well as Mile High United Way, who has been an expert in employee engagement for more than 128 years. The companies represent a wide range of sizes and industries with varying missions, staff sizes and budgets, but one common goal: to effectively engage every employee through community-oriented initiatives, ultimately boosting productivity, increasing retention and improving overall culture. Attendees will hear from the panel on three primary employee engagement topics:
- Volunteer Engagement – How to develop effective volunteer recruitment, strategically select relevant projects and prevent employee burnout.
- Employee Resource Groups/Professional Development – The importance of fostering employee-led groups and structured educational opportunities that can enhance a company’s mission and make employees feel valued.
- Employee Giving – Best practices for engaging employees in structured giving campaigns of different shapes and sizes.
Attendees will also have a chance to reflect on their own employee engagement efforts and determine the most strategic and appropriate methods for their companies through relevant exercises.
PANELISTS
Christina Frantz, Great-West Financial
Ellen Sandberg, CH2M
Sera Smith, Newalta
WHEN:
Tuesday, July 21
3:30-5:30 p.m.: SPARKS panel and workshop
5:30-7:00 p.m.: SIPS networking (free drinks and appetizers provided).
WHERE:
Mile High United Way
711 Park Avenue West
Denver, CO 80205
HOW:
RSVP Here: www.julysparksandsips.eventbrite.com
B:CIVIC Members: FREE
Non-members: $15
Sign Up Today For The Corporate Citizenship Fast Track Certificate!
Are you and your company interested in learning more about developing a corporate social responsibility program? Or have you been around the block a few times and just want to know the best ways to refine your existing strategy?
We are proud to offer our members and the broader Colorado business community Boston College’s highly-esteemed Corporate Citizenship Fast Track certification this fall, discounted at more than half of the standard tuition rate. This five-day educational certification is a program of the college’s Center for Corporate Citizenship, Carroll School of Management and will be led by Boston College faculty members.
Please note: consultants and nonprofit representatives are not eligible to attend this certification.
The Corporate Citizenship Fast Track Certificate program is designed for professionals tasked with developing community engagement, philanthropy, sustainability or corporate social responsibility for their companies. Instructors will educate students on how to develop, execute, measure and scale good corporate citizenship efforts, ultimately improving the Colorado communities they operate in and strengthening the companies they serve.
Obtaining this certificate normally requires professionals to travel to five cities across the country over the course of a year or more, but B:CIVIC’s program will be hosted in five consecutive days at DaVita HealthCare Partners’ downtown Denver headquarters. This allows Colorado professionals to complete the certification in one workweek at a significantly discounted rate without the added burden of travel and lodging in other cities.
Tuition for the Corporate Citizenship Fast Track Certificate program varies based on B:CIVIC membership status and company size and seats are limited.
Member Rate: $5,000
Nonmember Rate: $6,000
Bundled Rate (New B:CIVIC Membership + Tuition): Price varies, please see chart for details.
Interested in attending? Please sign up here!
State of the Arts – Faegre Baker Daniels
As part of our efforts to recognize the incredible impact of local businesses collaborating with arts + culture organizations, we asked our members to share stories of their involvement. The following guest post was provided by Founding Member Faegre Baker Daniels.
FaegreBD is a sponsor of the VIP Evening Series for Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA). We find our sponsorship of the DCPA not only a unique opportunity to entertain our clients, prospective clients and friends of the firm, but also a meaningful way for us to contribute to the health and livelihood of the theater in Colorado. Theater has been one of humanity’s earliest and most communal forms of entertainment and societal enrichment. We are proud to support DCPA as they help to further enhance community awareness, education and appreciation of the arts.
Our firm also works closely with the Denver Ballet Guild, and has handled several pro bono matters for Colorado Lawyers for the Arts.
It is extremely important for Faegre Baker Daniels to be a good corporate citizen and give back to the communities in which we live and work. Our firm’s contributions to the Colorado community are significant and varied, and include a mix of pro bono legal services, firm-sponsored community service projects and charitable giving through the Faegre Baker Daniels Foundation. With each contribution of time, talent and treasure, we hope to further enrich our community and continue to work in tandem with other area business to make a lasting difference for future generations.
State of the Arts – CBS4
As part of our efforts to recognize the incredible impact of local businesses collaborating with arts + culture organizations, we asked our members to share stories of their involvement. The following guest post was provided by Founding Member CBS4.
CBS4 has been committed to the arts for easily over two decades. Our primary contribution to the arts has been through creating awareness for Denver’s vibrant arts and cultural communities and by informing viewers about the broad range of organizations, exhibitions, and programs available to the everyone in the community.
CBS4 has been proud to partner with a number of different arts organizations over the years including the Denver Art Museum, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the Butterfly Pavilion, the Biennial of the Americas, the Colorado Symphony and numerous others. CBS4 has partnered with VISIT Denver to support Denver Arts Week each year and in March 2015 we were delighted to be able to sponsor Boulder Arts Week.
We understand how important arts and culture is to our economy and we believe art, culture and creativity positively impacts individuals and communities in so many meaningful ways. We believe our coverage and support of the arts brings value to all of our viewers throughout the state and beyond.
In 2013, CBS4 was honored to receive the Philanthropy Award from the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts (CBCA). CBS4 has been a longtime member and sponsor of CBCA because we support their mission of serving as a catalyst for Colorado’s business community to leverage the arts for economic vitality.
photo credit: Colorado-8 via photopin (license)
State of the Arts – First Western Trust
As part of our efforts to recognize the incredible impact of local businesses collaborating with arts + culture organizations, we asked our members to share stories of their involvement. The following guest post was provided by Founding Board Member First Western Trust. 
Every community is a canvas. A canvas needs to be filled in with brush strokes by people who care and who see infinite possibilities to make a lasting difference.
At First Western Trust, we see art as means to inspire those in our community who are driven to make an impact, and as a way to connect with our colleagues and community.
As a company, we’ve invested in contemporary western artists, building a corporate art collection that fills the walls of our 10 offices. These artists look beyond predictable, romanticized images of the West and create works that speak to the complexities of our local communities.
Art in a business environment leads to deeper inquisitiveness, encourages intuitive capacities and awakens fresh responses in thinking, feeling, and seeing. We believe that the artwork in our collection creates a culture of creativity in our company and that it inspires our associates to bring new ideas to the forefront.
In addition to our support of local artists within our company, we partner with visual and performing arts organizations out in our community.
“Supporting the arts is important to us because it means that we are helping those organizations that expose our communities to diverse cultural experiences and inspire new ways of thinking,” said Scott Wylie, CEO of First Western Trust. “Art and art education help our communities become more creative, more inquisitive, and more vibrant.”
Working with organizations like Central City Opera, Fort Collins Symphony Guild, Childsplay, and the Denver Art Museum, we have donated our time, talent, and treasure to art organizations across our 10 western offices. These and other organizations play an important role in helping our communities learn about different cultures and forms of expression. They help us think more openly and encourage new ideas that we can use to make an impact on our communities.
We appreciate the role art play in fostering new possibilities and vibrant communities, and we are proud to support local organizations who are making a difference in our cities.
To learn more about our community work and see an example of the contemporary artists we support, we invite you to visit our community report here.