JK Goes RED and raises $779!

February 3rd is the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women Day. For the event people wear red to support heart health in women. JK Group took it one step further. Along with selling the American Heart’s signature red dress pins to raise funds; JK also held a raffle, an extreme space makeover contest, a blood pressure screening, and a RED party – complete with red food. 

“One of the most fun things was the balloon raffle. We stuffed balloons with slips of paper. Some of the slips had prizes on them, and some of the slips had hearts – which was a nice way of saying ‘You lose.’  Then we filled the balloons with helium and walked around the office selling each balloon for a dollar. Then each person popped their balloons to find out if they won a prize!” said Joseph Maderazo, Grant Liaison.

A few of the decorations from around the office.

We certainly had fun “going red,” but we learned a lot too. Like the fact that heart disease is the number one killer of American women. So, we are glad to help the American Heart Association with their mission by raising $779 to support the cause. Good job JK!

Volunteering and Donating Still Important in a Recession: How to Engage Employees

Despite the current economic recession, corporations are still offering matching gift, volunteer, and other giving programs as benefits to employees. In fact according to the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP):

• 94 percent of companies offered at least one matching gift program in 2010
• 89 percent of companies had a formal domestic employee volunteer program in 2010

However, only about 25 percent of employees actually participate in corporate giving.[1] Some may argue that employees are not participating because of the economic downturn. The argument can be made that people are busy doing more than one job and cannot volunteer.  An even stronger case could be made for the fact that money is tight and even those who have jobs are unable to spare much time or money.

Yet, nonprofits still need donations and volunteers. Many nonprofits need more in the recession than ever before, just so they can keep up with the growing population in need of their service. The good news is there are ways to increase participation in corporate giving programs even during these tough economic times.

First, we will provide insights on some of the reasons employees don’t participate. Second, we will let you know how to address those issues, including how JK Group can assist. Third, we will discuss how and why to demonstrate the impact of giving programs to employees.

 Why don’t employees participate in giving programs?

There are several reasons why employees don’t utilize company giving programs and none of them have to do with the economy.

• Many times employees are unaware that a benefit is available to them.
• Some employees believe it takes too much time and effort to make a request or learn a new tool.
• Mostly, employees just do not understand the tremendous benefit these programs have on non-profits and communities as a whole.

Communicate Early and Often – The best way to address employee participation challenges.

Create awareness through targeted communications. Before the launch of a giving or volunteer program, develop a launch plan to inform employees of the new benefit.  The plan should involve a carefully considered communications strategy.

One communications tactic JK Group finds useful is to target smaller segments of the employee population.  For example, a company with 80,000 employees would benefit by breaking down the employees into regions or business units. Make sure that the groups are no larger than 10,000 people. From our research at JK, we found that the more personal and targeted the communication, the better the response rate.

In addition to communicating at launch, develop an ongoing communications strategy that will continuously inform and remind employees of the giving program.

  Show the Impact, Make the Case

The impact of giving is one of the most difficult things to measure. For instance, how do you measure the impact of planting flowers in front of a school? Or, what will a $25 donation mean for a soup kitchen?

Despite the challenge, demonstrating impact to prospective donors helps make the case for contributing. The more donors understand about the value of their efforts, the more likely they are to participate.

JK Group has a wide array of reporting techniques that help clients show impact and share benefits. Here is an example of how any company can demonstrate impact. If a company with 80,000 employees could increase participation by just one percent that translates to an extra 800 donations. And if each donation was just $25, that translates to an extra $20,000 to the nonprofits that need it.

Communicating effectively, demonstrating new tools, and showing the impact of giving programs help encourage employee participation. Even in tough economic times it is possible, with help from an expert and experienced consultant, to get more employees involved in philanthropic giving programs. Even a one percent increase in participation can translate to thousands of dollars for worthy non-profits. So, with a little enthusiasm, encouragement and enlightenment, imagine the impact your employees can make on the community and the world.

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[1] This calculation came from JK group’s 312 clients,

 and is an average based on each client’s participation rate.

JK Gives $12,000 to Trenton Area Soup Kitchen through Internal Fundraiser

JK Group's Brad Galle, CEO, and Susan Pollara, Volunteer Product Specialist, stand with Dennis Micai, Executive Director of TASK

 

It’s one thing to “talk the talk.”  It’s another thing for JK Group’s 200 employees to “walk the walk” by raising $12,000 in one month for the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK).  During the month of November JK Group decided to host an internal fundraiser to support a local Food Pantry. With twenty years of experience running fundraising programs for over 300 Fortune 1000 companies, JK Group employees knew how to maximize this effort.

“JK Group has the fortunate advantage of learning from some of the world’s greatest employee engagement programs.  We chose TASK through a highly democratic process and that collective choice resulted in 100 Percent participation” said JK Group’s CEO Brad Galle.

 

 

What are some ways to increase participation for a fundraiser?

• Make it fun and diversify activities– JK Group employees created games, contests, and raffles to encourage people to participate.  Since each week had a different theme with multiple activities, there was something for everyone to enjoy.
• Get upper management involved – The executives were very involved in the fundraising activities. Upper management agreed to be pied in the face, and $1,400 was raised in a bidding war to decide who would wear a giant inflatable ballerina costume. (CEO Brad Galle “won” that prize)
• Make giving accessible for everyone – For this fundraiser, jokingly dubbed “Fun with Singles,” it only cost one dollar to participate in any event, which made it possible for employees at every level to give and participate.
• Set goals – When the announcement was made about the November fundraiser, the goal was to raise $2,500.
• Provide incentives to reach your goals – JK employees were told that if they raised over $2,500 that the JK Group would provide a double match, meaning the company would donate 2:1 if the employees raised over $2,500.

JK Group’s Days of Learning

JK brought our clients together for three Days of Learning Events so far; one in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. Next on the list is Houston and we are looking forward to it. The purpose of the Day of Learning is to gather our clients together to talk about trends and best practices in the CSR industry. We had a great turn out so far this year.  These gatherings helped us learn a lot and  we walked away with some great ideas about how JK can evolve its services.

JK is in a unique position to help our clients by connecting them to peers.  We are all working for the same goal so JK belives that we should share and learn from the collective experience. Our clients are experts in the industry.  It is thier knowlege, ideas, and sucesses that help JK understand what it takes to truely make a difference through CSR.  

Our goal is to ensure that our clients have the knowledge and tools they need to make a difference. We are happy that we have the chance to meet face to face and talk about industry challenges and marvel at innovations.

Thank You everyone for comming and participating in these learning events!

JK group paints for Enable NJ

JK group Paints for Enable NJ!

JK group continues its commitment to the community by participating in a project to help beautify the Enable NJ facility.  Enable’s mission is to support individuals with disabilities to live full and independent lives by providing services, supports programs and living arrangements that promote consumer choice and full inclusion into community life.

On Saturday October 15^th, a group of JKers, including CEO Brad Galle, helped paint the Kitchen and did some yard work for the facility. Plus, JK designer Subhash Limaye donated paintings to help enhance the space. Good job volunteers!

JK Group Builds Houses and Friendships

This week, a small group of JK employees proved that with a few pieces of wood, a bucket of nails, and team work; they could make a difference in someone’s life.  On September 21^st the team set out to Trenton New Jersey’s Habitat for Humanity to help build a house for someone in need.

Scott McCosh, a programmer here at JK, had wonderful things to say about the experience. “I have some experience working on a house because I do a lot of repairs and updates to my own home, but you really don’t need to have experience to participate in this,” He said. “Habitat for Humanity is so organized; all you really need to do is show up.”

 

Scott explained that Habitat for Humanity does all of the planning, supplies safety tools, and any needed equipment. They also have a training session before you begin the project that outlines exactly what to do. There is no need to be intimidated by one of these projects.

Habitat for Humanity’s mission is, “To bring people together to build homes, communities and hope.” Habitat has an application process for those who need homes. The receiver of the home must also work on the home alongside the volunteers. Additionally, the home owner is given a no interest loan from Habitat for Humanity. The goal is not to give a house away, but to teach people how to finance a home, make payments, and to repair their home with some of the skills they learned while building it.

“I hope to be able to participate in this project again,” said Mr. McCosh. “It was great to meet co-workers who I don’t normally interact with on a daily basis, and it really helped build team work. We ate lunch together and had to rely on each other in order to get the project done.”

JK’s Volunteer Action Commitee Hosts Kick-Off

On Friday Aug 5, JK Group’s Volunteer Action committee hosted a Volunteer Kick-off event that was both fun and inspiring. The event’s focus was to collect backpacks and school supplies for children in our community who are in need. The Volunteer Action Committee (VAC) prepared weeks in advance for this event and encouraged all JK employees to participate.

 

On Kick-off day, the VAC’s hard work and enthusiasm spread JK-wide. Employees took their lunch breaks out to the lawn to pack back-packs, give blood, and enjoy the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) Band. The VAC also made sure that the JK Group staff was well fed; we had a hot dog and snow cone vendors that added to the fun.

 

 Employees gave a lot of themselves that day. They lined up next tables filled with markers, crayons, pencils, and notebooks, waiting to fill a back pack for a child. Then, after the bag was packed, JK employees wrote personal notes of encouragement to tuck away inside the bag.

 

 The results of this event were two-fold. VAC was able to exceed their goals by collecting and packing 30 back packs for children in our area. Meanwhile, JK employees found camaraderie in a common goal.

 

San Francisco Business Times Names Top Corporate Givers

I am pleased to announce that several of JK’s clients have been recognized for their outstanding philanthropic efforts. The San Francisco Business Times recently named our clients as top corporate givers in the Bay area.At number one is Google. The technical company gave $27.6 million dollars to Bay Area causes in 2010. We are proud and honored to partner with Google in its philanthropic efforts.
I would also like to acknowledge that the San Francisco Business Times ranked AT&T, Wells Fargo, and Chevron as the second, third, and fourth, top givers respectively.
Here at JK we understand the hard work and many hours it takes to develop and execute a successful philanthropy program. We extend our deepest congratulations to these companies on this well-deserved honor.

SHRM Conference – Las Vegas

JK group recently had an exhibit at the annual SHRM conference in Las Vegas. I will admit that I had some doubts about whether this conference would be relevant to the CSR industry. The doubts disappeared immediately with the opening remarks. Sir Richard Branson opened the conference with his statement that business ‘should be [a] force for good.’ He went on to say “I don’t think it’s worth starting a company if you’re not going to make a real difference in the world.” His speech challenged attendees to help their communities.

My goal for the conference was to leave with an understanding of how corporate human resources groups intend to promote social responsibility within their organizations. Despite the understandable difficulty of trying to conduct a conversation with conference attendees outfitted in head to toe swag (my favorite conversation was with two guys from a Fortune 50 company wearing matching multicolor blinking strobe sunglasses), I learned quite a bit. I would summarize my observations as follows:

1. Like community affairs groups or corporate foundations, the primary focus for HR groups with respect to CSR is impact to the community. The HR managers that I spoke with are involved with at least one of their company’s community programs.

2. HR professionals are also focused on the power of community involvement to help build spirit and morale within their organizations. A recent Mercer report shows that nearly a third of the current workforce is ‘looking’. Employee engagement programs add to the employer/employee relationship and give value beyond the paycheck.

3. Volunteering is HUGE. While the entire spectrum of CSR and corporate philanthropy programs have been popular with Fortune 1000 corporations for some time, the program that seem to have the most appeal to middle market companies is volunteerism. The obvious conclusion would be that volunteerism’s appeal is that it does not cost nearly as much as other corporate philanthropic programs. The reality is that volunteer programs provide unique team benefits that are very different from fund raising.

4. Finally, I had many conversations with very small companies (even smaller than JK!) and did not meet a single company representative from any size company with no community activities.

I learned that no matter what the size or revenue of a company, all companies can benefit from CSR programs. Some of the larger companies have a departments dedicated to community relations. While smaller companies usually integrate CSR efforts into their Human Resources departments. No matter who is responsible, all agree that Corporate Social Responsibility continues to be an effective way to increase internal morale.

McKesson Recognized with Corporate Award of Excellence

At the National Conference on Volunteering and Service, one of our clients, McKesson, was recognized with the Corporate Engagement Award of Excellence. Carrie Varoquiers, President of the McKesson Foundation, accepted the award on behalf of her team and company. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the McKesson team on their hard work.

The Corporate Engagement Award was created by the Points of Light institute in 1993 to highlight companies that illustrate extraordinary efforts in workplace volunteering. The award is available to companies of all sizes and all industries so we are very proud of McKesson for raising the bar and winning this award. The intent of the Corporate Award of Excellence is to drive friendly competition among corporations, and encourage them create programs that align volunteerism with strategic vision and organizational goals.

McKesson’s program exemplifies how the vision and goals of a company can align with volunteerism. McKesson’s ICARE Shared Principles of Integrity, Customer-First, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence, that reflect McKesson’s business standards, also support McKesson’s volunteer mantra. The ICARE shared principles encourage employees to participate in corporate citizenship programs and to give back to their communities with high-quality volunteer projects.

JK is proud to be able to provide tools to help McKesson reach its volunteer goals. McKesson choose to use our Integrated Volunteer Management System (IVMS) tool, which allows employees to: submit and sign up for volunteer projects, record hours, and request volunteer grants. We are excited to partner with McKesson and to support such an impactful and outstanding volunteer program.

McKesson’s Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, John Hammergren had this to say about his companies volunteer efforts; “McKesson is deeply committed to good corporate citizenship. We focus on making a difference every day through our core business activities, philanthropic giving, volunteerism, and environmental sustainability initiatives. We continuously strive to improve the health and Vitality of the organizations we serve and the communities where we live and work.”

Congratulations again, McKesson, on earning this prestigious award!