AbbVie Demonstrates What’s Possible When Employee Volunteers Band Together to Give Back
Service and volunteerism have the power to impact and change lives. And when a corporation engages thousands of employees who are ready to give back to their local communities, innovation and advancement take place on a global scale.
This summer, Points of Light partnered with AbbVie for its third annual Week of Possibilities, a program that engaged more than 5,500 employee volunteers in nearly 25,000 combined hours to help underserved populations. As the global activation partner, Points of Light affiliates in the United States, Europe, South America, Canada, Mexico and Asia provided employee volunteers with meaningful service opportunities that addressed challenges in the communities where they live and work. The Week of Possibilities builds on AbbVie’s extraordinary year-round commitment to corporate social responsibility, which earned them recognition as a 2016 Civic 50 company.
“We are proud to be partnering with the AbbVie Foundation on this global service campaign,” said Delores Morton, president of programs for Points of Light. “Volunteers have the power to change the world, and Week of Possibilities demonstrates how nonprofits and the private sector can work together to empower that change.”
This year’s program included hands-on service projects in more than 50 countries, with a particular focus on improving educational opportunities and facilities by transforming schools and other learning spaces. Volunteers refurbished libraries, renovated buildings, landscaped and gardened, collected books for schoolchildren, assembled furniture, painted walls, repaired homes and much more.
“Week of Possibilities unites AbbVie employees around the world in an effort to give back to our local communities, with a special focus on building strong education systems,” said Tracie Haas, vice president of corporate responsibility, brand and communications for AbbVie. “We’re delighted and privileged to partner with leading national and international organizations to help local nonprofit partners tackle our communities’ toughest challenges.”
Examples of Global Impact:
AbbVie employee volunteers teamed up with Points of Light affiliates, dedicating their time, energy and skills to make a difference in communities around the world.
In Lake County, Illinois, where AbbVie is based, youth and veterans were the main focus as volunteers transformed schools and renovated three properties to provide housing to families of military veterans, in conjunction with North Chicago Community Partners.
In North Chicago, teams partnered with Kohl Children’s Museum to bring the museum experience to kids who may not ordinarily have access, and provided a day-long Science Adventure program to more than 150 students.
In Menlo Park and San Jose, California, and Worcester, Massachusetts, AbbVie volunteers refurbished three under-resourced school libraries by improving the layout and providing new furniture, technology and library books.
In London, AbbVie volunteers worked at the Northside Community Center and painted more than 30 rooms from top to bottom, redid the computer lab with new carpet, 10 new computers and two new printers, and added new kitchen appliances. The impact was so great that the Center’s board chair reported that it is unlikely they could have stayed open much longer without the contribution made by AbbVie volunteers.
Nearly 50 volunteers in Tokyo spent more than 200 hours delivering the SEEK Program (Science Engineering Exploration Knowledge) to underprivileged children living in group homes. The SEEK curriculum is designed to spark interest in STEM topics.
In Singapore, volunteers participated in educational activities at Care Corner Student Care Centre.
In Montreal, 20 AbbVie employees participated with the Boys and Girls Club/Dawson Community Center, completing projects that had no staff support. From the moment they arrived, employees gardened, cleaned, painted and prepared for summer day camps.
In Guatemala at Escuela Vicente Rivas, more than 50 AbbVie volunteers worked on classrooms, while another 20 implemented interactive methodology and participated in STEM curriculum.
For five days, AbbVie volunteers and HandsOn CDMX worked with at-risk girls in Mexico at the Casa Hogar de la Santísima Trinidad, participating in painting and gardening projects.
Teams in Paris sang in nursing homes for National French Music Day, and in Thiais, AbbVie volunteers planted gardens and fixed homes for women.
The Purpose App: Reinventing How People are Invited to Serve and Changing How They Apply Their Passion
If you watch Shark Tank, you can picture the set up – an “X” prize competition for social good: bright lights, big stage, tough judges and even tougher questions. Enter our Points of Light team, pitching our idea for bringing more precision to the world of purpose-driven change. Right now, people interested in volunteering go to Points of Light’s allforgood.org – America’s biggest volunteer project database with over 100,000 opportunities – and they enter their interest and zip code to get results. During the competition’s demonstration and rapid-fire Q&A that followed, the Points of Light team effectively made the case for a sea-change in how people discover ways to make a difference – a transformation “from search to social.”
Imagine if you didn’t have to go searching for ways to volunteer your time — what if those opportunities to do good found you? Information finds us all the time in retail and nudges us to buy things based on our digital profile. Try Googling a product you want to buy and then see what ads pop up in your Facebook feed. Think of how clothing websites suggest outfits to customers or how Amazon’s “featured recommendations” are personalized to your tastes based on your purchase history.
Instead of volunteers searching for a way to give their time and talent, we want those opportunities to find the exact right volunteers based on their unique interests and skills. It’s time for all of that daily nudging to be directed at bringing opportunities to do good right to us.
This is our vision for reinventing how people are invited to serve and dramatically expanding who is asked and how they apply their passion to purpose. Our journey to bring this vision to life started in December when HPE launched the Living Progress Challenge. Their goal was to tap into the idea economy and crowd source pitches for mobile apps and web services that that could advance human rights, environmental causes, financial inclusion and health care in emerging economies. They issued the challenge to the social sector with this question: “What software applications and digital services would you create to improve people’s lives?” We answered along with nearly 400 others from the global community, including worthy competitors like Stanford, Red Cross, Harvard Medical School, and the UN World Food Programme.
When the Living Progress Challenge winners were announced in New York recently, the keynote speaker at the event was the founder and CEO of AngelHack, Sabeen Ali. I love his take on what this means: “Today we’ve learned what can happen when revolutionaries partner with innovation giants – we can make the impossible, possible.”
At Points of Light, we engage four million volunteers every year. As one of the four winning ideas of the Living Progress Challenge, we look forward to partnering with HPE to realize the potential of cutting edge technology to reach even more people and better connect them with their purpose.
What’s Their Secret? Lessons from the Most Community Minded Companies in America
Chances are that when you receive a package from UPS you don’t give a second thought to the complex logistics underway to deliver nearly 20 million packages a day. That’s because world class logistics is their expertise and core to their business strategy. But also core to UPS’ business strategy is a dedication to using that expertise to solve some of our world’s most pressing challenges.
When UPS employees learned that the inability to deliver life-saving medications results in millions of preventable deaths each year, they decided to act. This year, UPS will transform the delivery of humanitarian aid and life-saving vaccines by using drones. Through a new partnership with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and Zipline, a robotics company, UPS employees will use drones to deliver vaccines to remote clinics throughout Rwanda. This cutting-edge partnership is a win-win for the people of Rwanda, for innovation at UPS, and for the talented employees who can do what they are really good at and save lives.
This is just one example of the many, many ways in which the companies on this year’s
are identifying the needs in their communities that are strategically connected to their business, and then aligning their community involvement and their employees’ skills towards those issues. These companies set the standard for good corporate citizenship across the country and demonstrate that service to others has become a fundamental part of successful businesses spanning every sector of the American economy.
Founded in partnership with Bloomberg and the National Conference on Citizenship in 2012, this annual survey and resulting top 50 list honors a culture of social responsibility in business. The survey considers four aspects of each company: its
investments
in the community (measured largely in volunteer hours, pro-bono donated talents, in-kind donations, money contributed to charity and leadership); the degree to which the company
integrates
its community service programs with key business functions; the ways in which community engagement is
institutionalized
as part of the business itself (for example, included the company’s mission statement); and how it measures the social and business
impact
of the company’s community involvement.
Civic 50 companies have gone beyond simply opening their checkbooks and are employing an “all-of-the-above” approach to community engagement — integrating input from employees, customers, and their local communities into everything from their employee handbooks to their workplace culture to their product design. As a result, Civic 50 companies are putting themselves at the center of change to create more enduring and sustainable business models.
Here’s a snapshot of how the Civic 50 are doing it:
90% have a formal, structured effort to solicit community feedback.
78% included community engagement on department scorecards. This was an increase from 70% in 2014.
56% included community engagement as a formal written component of employees’ performance reviews. This is an increase from 50% the previous year.
62% said they took a leadership position on four or more national public education or policy advocacy efforts.
Half use community engagement to support skill-development for employees, an increase from 46% in 2014.
Nearly one-quarter of employee volunteer hours are skill-based. This represents an increase from 20% the previous year.
The top five business functions that their community engagement programs support are: diversity and inclusion, recruiting, stakeholder relations, marketing/PR, and employee engagement.
This year’s Civic 50 winners demonstrate that they are doing the hard work of building more community-minded businesses, and that the business sector plays a critical role as a catalyst for civic engagement. This is big news. Increasingly, American businesses are partnering with government, nonprofits and individuals to solve the biggest challenges facing our communities. Both socially-minded employees and consumers are driving businesses to place social-oriented values at the center of their operations. This ingrained ethic of service helps socially responsible businesses recruit better employees, build customer loyalty, find bottom-line rewards, and become better corporate citizens.
Check out
to get an inside look at the secret sauce that helped these companies make the list.
Agents of Purpose, from Detroit and Around the World, Headline Conference Sessions
“Consumers want the companies, the brands they are loyal to, to be agents of purpose,” said Points of Light CEO, Tracy Hoover, as she opened the Business Track at the 2016 Conference on Volunteering and Service. Celebrating corporate changemakers who are inspiring the next generation of purpose-driven organizations, the session “What’s New? Leading with Spirit and Innovation” featured an impressive group of speakers who both inspired and challenged attendees to think about the role they play in collaborating with community and civic leaders.
In a TED-talk style format, speakers shared lessons of success grounded in the theme of “My Detroit, Our World.” Detroit’s youngest entrepreneur, 13-year-old Asia Newson (aka Super Business Girl), shared her winning strategy: teamwork. “You can’t do it all by yourself. You can try, but you need a team. And you need support from the community. It makes you stronger.” Attendees heard stories of triumph and change from citizen leaders, including, Damien Rocchi, CEO and cofounder of Grand Circus Detroit; Dan Carmody, president of Detroit Eastern Market Corporation; and Dennis Archer Jr., CEO of Ignition Media Group and president of ACS. Mark Davidoff, Michigan managing partner of Deloitte, moderated a discussion focused on making financial literacy a priority for the future of Detroit with panelists Sandy K. Baruah, president and CEO of Detroit Regional Chamber, and Kathleen Hatke Aro, president of the Accounting Aid Society.
“Innovation is the only path to sustainable growth,” said Jennifer Silberman, vice president of corporate social responsibility for Target, sponsor of the Business Track. She underscored the importance of leveraging the creativity and innovation of intrapreneurs—those who work within a company to accelerate change—saying “at the end of the day, agility isn’t just for startups anymore.”
Looking towards Detroit as a “Comeback City,” Professor Michael Gordon of the University of Michigan’s Center for Social Impact moderated a conversation about corporate and community leaders uniting in service to revitalize the city. Naomi Camper, head of the Office of Nonprofit Engagement at JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Heidi Magyar, director of community outreach programs for General Motors and president of General Motors Foundation, joined Malik Yakini, executive director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, to discuss the importance of investing in citizen leaders who are addressing community needs, and how to make decisions about how and where those investments are made. “There is no room for competition when it comes to doing good,” Magyar said.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan explained that business, coupled with the power of employees as volunteers and leaders in the community, is an essential partner in the growth of Detroit and an economic driver of jobs and capital investment.
The 2016 Civic 50 honorees were announced during the Business Track Luncheon & Awards Ceremony, celebrating the accomplishments of the 50 most community-minded companies in the nation. Sponsored by Target, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Deloitte, the luncheon explored insights and trends from the 2016 Civic 50 survey and honored the Civic 50 leaders that are providing a roadmap for how companies can use their time, skills, and other resources to improve the quality of life in the communities where they do business.
Leading advocates of military caregivers came together to discuss strategies for leveraging the power of volunteerism in support of our country’s “hidden heroes.” The forum, sponsored by the Bob Woodruff Foundation, included facilitated group discussions and a panel of experts from government and nonprofit organizations that are focused on the needs of military family caregivers who face many challenges and often struggle to find support. Joey Caswell, wife of a wounded veteran and a Dole Fellow-Michigan with the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, shared an emotional testimonial about the challenges she faced and
. “We want you to know, to love and appreciate, that behind every wounded vet is a caregiver who is helping to keep the vet alive,” said Caswell. “It is my goal that not one veteran or caregiver have to go through what we did.”
Larkin O’Hern, with the Bob Woodruff Foundation and a wounded veteran himself, added: “We want to take volunteering, which is good, to well executed volunteering, which can be life changing.”
The current challenges posed by the refugee crisis and the innovative solutions meeting them were in the spotlight at the Global Track’s “Harnessing the Power of Volunteering to Support Refugees.” Andre Cervi, co-founder of Atados and Abraco Cultural, laid out his organization’s work around hiring refugees to teach language and culture to local Brazilians. Joining him at this session, sponsored by Disney, were Celina de Sola, who grew Glasswing International from a three-person Salvadoran nonprofit into a network of 14 countries in Latin America; Lorrie Foster from IAVE (International Association for Volunteer Effort); and Lena Panagiotarea, general manager for Volunteer4Greece.
Volunteers building relationships—with causes, organizations and corporations, and each other—that is what forms the volunteer experience. At “Beyond the Volunteer Event,” sponsored by UPS, Maurice Hogan from Rock Ventures and Julia Sartor from The Greening of Detroit shared practical advice and insights on how they have successfully partnered to co-create volunteer events for employees. Sartor cites both customer service and providing a consistently positive experience as the most important factors in building volunteer connections—making sure that the experience is safe, directions are clear, and accommodations, such as bathrooms, are comfortable. A positive volunteer experience, said Maurice, is where “folks are honored and their time is honored.”
Announcing the 2016 Corporate Volunteer Council of the Year
At the 2016 Conference on Volunteering and Service today, Points of Light honored the Corporate Volunteer Council of Orange County as 2016 Corporate Volunteer Council of the Year for serving as a primary local resource for encouraging, educating and connecting businesses that support employee volunteerism.
Corporate Volunteer Councils are local networks that businesses join to share best practices and address community needs through workplace volunteering. The Corporate Volunteer Council of the Year Award recognizes councils that have a clear purpose, activities that relate to that purpose and measurements for success. All winning entries are reviewed and selected by an awards committee comprised of national Corporate Volunteer Council leaders convened by Points of Light.
The Corporate Volunteer Council of Orange County was presented the Corporate Volunteer Council of the Year award by Points of Light Board Member Jeff Hoffman during the conference’s Business Track Luncheon. Dan McQuaid, president and CEO of OneOC—the HandsOn Network affiliate that manages the council—accepted the award on the organization’s behalf.
Since its founding in 2012, the Corporate Volunteer Council of Orange County has grown both in numbers and in impact. Its corporate members have opportunities to increase their skills and find new ways to engage their employees in order to better meet the needs of their community. In fact, the CVCOC has made nonprofit outreach a priority to further strengthen corporate and nonprofit partnerships in Orange County. Not only do they invite smaller nonprofits to present their missions and employee volunteer opportunities during their bi-monthly member meetings, they host annual mixers with their counterparts in nonprofit volunteer management as well as nonprofit fairs. By connecting CVCOC members to the Orange County, California, nonprofit community, they are continually learning about the critical issues facing the community and the agencies that offer employee volunteer opportunities that can make a difference.
“As a member of the CVCOC, it’s an honor to have our network of volunteer-focused organizations recognized as the 2016 Corporate Volunteer Council of the Year,” said Diane Killeen, manager of Disneyland Resort Corporate Citizenship. “Every time the CVCOC comes together, we find creative, hands-on ways to positively impact Orange County communities, and we look forward to connecting with more communities in need.”
Led by an active steering committee that reflects its corporate members, the council offers its members robust year-round programming that includes special convenings with recognized corporate social responsibility experts along with regular meetings that allow for best practice sharing to support members’ daily work. Each year, member companies also commit to recruiting their employee volunteers to serve during a transformational community project, which contributes to community pride and ownership while generating great media exposure for CVCOC and member companies alike.
“Our CVCOC is thrilled to win CVC of the Year from Points of Light. What an amazing honor! From our bi-monthly meetings to our networking events to our learning conversations to our annual Corporate Combined Project, we strive to be connectors and resources for each other and our broader community,” shared Sarah Middleton, executive director of The PIMCO Foundation. “I love hearing best practices and innovative ideas from other CVCOC members. I also appreciate the collaborative effort our CVCOC pursues to create shared value and real impact for those in need in Orange County.”
program is using volunteerism as a pathway to college and career readiness. And there aren’t many better opportunities for program participants – Service Scholars – to gain firsthand experience and exposure to the value of service than Citi’s
year for an event that’s now totaled close to three million hours of volunteer service. In 2016, over 85,000 volunteers gave 425,000+ hours at 1,400+ events in 91 countries and 500+ cities to enable growth and progress.
As a grantee of the Citi Foundation’s
initiative, ServiceWorks host sites partner with Citi employees across the United States to perform acts of service several times a year, culminating with Global Community Day. This gives young people in the program a chance to make a positive impact in their hometown while playing a role in an event that’s happening in thousands of local communities around the world. But it’s so much more than that.
While working alongside Citi Volunteers on these projects, Scholars are organically building on some of the core principals of the program. They’re getting to practice skills like communication, teamwork and leadership. By connecting with Citi professionals, they’re not just expanding their networks – they’re expanding their minds in terms of what they believe is possible for their future. Global Community Day is an exceptional chance for them to be part of something bigger than themselves.
Some of the day’s highlights included:
In Boston, English- and Spanish-speaking Scholars were matched with Citi Volunteers for personal success coaching. Maria Grande, an
, said it was a useful and unique experience for them: “The Scholars were really interested in what they were learning. Nobody had ever sat them down before and shown them how to write a resume or set S.M.A.R.T. goals.”
in New York enjoyed a day of cultural learning at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Teaming with Citi Volunteers for various activities, Scholars quickly established a rapport with Citi’s employees that led to meaningful lunchtime conversations about possible career paths. Despite living in New York for most of their lives, for several of the Scholars, it was their first opportunity to visit The Met.
Global Community Day had extra meaning in Chicago. Graduates of the ServiceWorks program at
returned there to do beautification work on the space where they received their ServiceWorks training – and often return to for after-school time. Leading such hard work alongside the Citi Volunteers provided a chance to polish the relationship-building skills learned in the program.
But to Karina Cabrales, one of the two VISTA Members there, doing it early on a hot, Saturday morning – when it wasn’t required – spoke to the essence of ServiceWorks: “They’ve realized the value of community service. It was really important for them to come back and give to this space they consider their own.
Finally, back in New York, Scholars from the
got to build bikes for needy children with Citi’s CEO, Mike Corbat.
To see more images from this day of global inspiration and local impact, search the hashtag #CitiVolunteers on
Corporate Service Council Asia Meeting: A New Era of Corporate Engagement
More than 60 leaders in corporate social responsibility, employee engagement, and volunteerism convened in Hong Kong on May 25, 2016, for the Points of Light
Asia Meeting. Excitement in the air was palpable, as attendees explored opportunities for accelerating the impact of corporate citizenship in Asia.
“We are at the cusp of a boom in corporate social responsibility,” said Neil Bush, Points of Light Chairman. “The enthusiasm in this room, all centered on the topic of corporate service in Asia, is contagious. In the next 20 years, we are going to witness a complete restructuring of the CSR industry, and the leaders and organizations gathered in this room will be at the helm.”
Participants echoed the importance and strong need to lead purpose-driven organizations. “When you align life values with work, work is more fun,” said Joanne Oswin, COO of
, reiterated the changing trends across Asia and strong enthusiasm of all attendees. “At GE, the culture of service goes from the top to the bottom,” he said. “It has changed me, and changed how I lead.”
Guest speakers shared best practices from their service-leading brands, and representatives from our host partner
attended the meeting, along with Points of Light affiliates from China, India, Japan, Korea, Philippines and Singapore.
Looking for more ways to engage with Points of Light?
Employee Volunteers Demonstrate Fidelity’s Commitment to Education and Service
Corporations that embrace social responsibility make a lasting impact on the communities where they live and work, and also do better financially while maintaining higher employee satisfaction rates. Members of the Points of Light Corporate Service Council demonstrate a commitment to mobilizing, equipping and inspiring high-impact volunteering through successful employee engagement programs. Fidelity Investments is one shining example of this dedication to service.
Demonstrating a long-term commitment to education, employee volunteers and their families invest in local schools through Fidelity’s School Transformation Days, which take place throughout the year. Volunteers clean classrooms, plant gardens, build or fix odds and ends around the schools, and paint murals to create a friendly and clean environment for students. Fidelity volunteers also engage in STEM projects with students, promoting skills for future career success.
Building on its efforts throughout the year, the company, through it’s Fidelity Cares program, recently celebrated its annual Fidelity Cares Day, with more than 6,000 employee volunteers sharing their time and talent with 27 schools and 81 projects across the United States, Canada and India. The day’s projects reached nearly 18,000 students and more than 2,600 teachers. Employees found volunteer opportunities that matched individual passions to connect with colleagues and develop leadership skills in their communities while benefiting local education and financial initiatives. In partnership with nonprofit organizations and regional school systems, Fidelity focused on creating opportunities for employees to leverage their insights and experience to help provide students in need with an educational foundation to feel more confident, make smart decisions, and achieve success in personal and financial goals.
In North Carolina, more than 120 Fidelity volunteers joined Stop Hunger Now to pack 20,000 meals for distribution to local families in need.
In Texas, volunteers energized students by creating hands-on chemistry demonstrations in line with Fidelity STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) educational goals.
450 volunteers served the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Cincinnati, the Ronald McDonald House, Holmes Middle School, and Crayons to Computers where these volunteers assembled math kits for middle school students, which included a handwritten note of encouragement to boost confidence and show students that Fidelity cares about their success.
75 volunteers worked at the Boys and Girls Club Camp Foster in Manchester, New Hampshire, helping to refurbish buildings.
This is just a small glimpse into the meaningful changes made in local communities on Fidelity Cares Day. Check the hashtag #FidelityCaresDay on Twitter to see more Fidelity volunteers in action.
Is Your Company the Most Community Minded in America? Get Recognized by The Civic 50!
is searching for corporate trailblazers that are improving communities and driving social impact. Is your company engaged in the communities where you do business? Are your purpose-driven employees volunteering? Are your brand values reflecting social commitment? Is your philanthropy aligned with your corporate culture?
The Civic 50
recognizes these and other best practices each year and it all begins with a short survey.Interested companies can get started today at
companies are determined through a quantitative survey that benchmarks strategic philanthropy, employee engagement, business integration of community programs and measurement of impact.
Why Invest Your Time in The Civic 50?
Gain Recognition for Your Corporate Commitment to Community
The Civic 50
is the only award that recognizes corporate community-mindedness. Earning a spot on
The Civic 50
is a meaningful way to be recognized for what you do best and join the ranks of
and promoted through the webinars, press and social media throughout the year. Winners also earn opportunities to serve as speakers during global webinars, meetings, workshops and more.
Receive a Benchmark Scorecard When You Complete the Free Survey
The Civic 50
offers much more than a recognition platform. Every company that completes the survey, powered by
, will receive a benchmark report for this year’s participants and the opportunity for a deeper review of your results. Our valuable benchmarking resource has been described as a roadmap for maximizing community engagement programs and initiatives for social impact and business value. Completing
The Civic 50
survey is a simple way to help you translate good intentions into sound business practices for years to come.
How to Get Started
Participation in The Civic 50 survey is free and open to companies with revenue of $1 billion or more. Applications will be accepted through March 1. You can learn more about The Civic 50 and find the survey at www.Civic50.org.
Find resources and links to best practices here. Send your questions to [email protected].
Share your best practices on The Civic 50’s LinkedIn and Twitter pages.
What Past Winners Say
Adobe
– “Being on
The Civic 50
validates the importance of being involved in our local communities, a core value that is embraced by Adobe employees around the world. The impact that our time, talent and donations make where we live and work is felt by the company in many ways” – Michelle Crozier Yates, director, corporate responsibility, Adobe, and executive director,
list. We are proud of our community involvement. Our corporate citizenship program reflects our strategy to operate and grow our business while serving our customers and communities, mobilizes employees to create positive change and builds bonds with our customers.” – Scott Prochazka, president and CEO,
– “ConAgra Foods is thrilled and honored to be recognized by
The Civic 50
as one of most community-minded companies in the country. Supporting the communities in which we live and work is one of the key planks of our citizenship platform and this recognition is an important measure of how we are delivering on our ongoing commitment to being a good corporate citizen.” – Chris Kircher, vice president, corporate affairs, and president,
Kerry Sullivan, center, president of Bank of America’s Charitable Foundation, participates in a CEO panel during the Conference on Volunteering and Service Business Track.
Having a mantra – a group of words that hold special meaning for you – can both ground you and make you feel powerful.
In the days following Points of Light’s Conference on Volunteering and Service in Houston, it was terrific to hear from so many business leaders that attending the conference brought a renewed sense of power and inspiration that helped them embrace the challenge of being a change maker at their companies.
So, we at the Points of Light Corporate Institute went looking for five mantras from the conference’s Business Track to remind attendees of those moments of inspiration – at least until we all meet again for next year’s conference on June 27-29 in Detroit.
Enjoy!
“Volunteering is part of America’s infrastructure of opportunity,” – Joaquin Castro, U.S. Congressman (Texas), Opening Plenary
“Don’t be discouraged by life’s little stings. Get back up and spread your wings,” Mikaila Ulmer, 11-year-old CEO, Bee Sweet Lemonade, Business Track Opening, CEO Session
“You need to have patience for change and also the urgency to act,” – Emily Saunoi-Sandgren, manager, corporate social responsibility, Target, followed by, “But don’t let perfection get in your way,” from Anna Cunningham, manager, community investments, Starbucks, Workshop:From Cause Marketing to Purpose Driven Brands
“How can we use data not only to decide what kind of movie we want to watch, but also what kind of world we want to live in?” – Miriam Young, communications specialist, DataKind, Workshop:Using Big Data to Advance Social Missions
“The new 17 Sustainable Development Goals around poverty, hunger, education and gender equality are key to the success of future generations and the health of our planet,” – Sue Stephenson, vice president, Community Footprints, The Ritz Carlton Hotel Company, Workshop: IMPACT 2030: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals through Employee Volunteerism
As you reflect on these mantras and get inspired to take the next step, we invite you to explore all the presentations, articles, highlights and resources from the 2015 Business Track on our resources website.
