Workers drive corporate charity programs
By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent, 8/7/05
Employee-driven corporate giving campaigns are on the rise, energizing a process once directed by senior management alone.
Based on their own interests in charitable causes, ranging from food banks to cancer research, employees are increasingly sending word through the chain of command that these are causes that employers should also support.
And companies are responding by not only matching employee donations, but also by encouraging staff members to volunteer some of their free time to organizations needing assistance.
"We don't just write checks; we get involved," said Rob Manning, chief executive of MFS Investment Management of Boston, echoing sentiments of senior executives at other local companies. "We have an army of people looking for campaigns to support," he added.
Many of the 2,300 MFS employees in Boston are engaged in activities from literacy programs in the Boston Public Schools to the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge, an annual summer cycling event benefiting cancer research. This year's event, covering a 200-mile route from Sturbridge to Provincetown, was held last weekend.
MFS has been a sponsor of the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge for seven years, and through last year, has raised $3.4 million, said John Reilly, company spokesman and captain of this year's 55-member MFS cycling team.
Other major employers involving everyone from the bottom up in charitable giving are CVS Corp., the Woonsocket, R.I.-based pharmacy chain; Genzyme Corp., and Citizens Bank.
CVS has taken on the cause of ALS, commonly called Lou Gehrig's Disease, in a big way ever since a regional manager in Philadelphia was diagnosed with the disease in 2000. Two years later, the wife of a senior executive, Jon Roberts, was also diagnosed with the disease.
"That's when I became personally involved," said Roberts, senior vice president of store operations. He spearheaded the company's first ALS fund-raising drive in 2002. Since then, more than $6 million has been donated to the ALS Therapy Alliance led by Dr. Robert Brown of Massachusetts General Hospital.
On behalf of CVS, Roberts presented a $2 million check to the alliance before a Red Sox game on July 15.
"We've gotten a lot of good feedback from employees and customers about this program," said Roberts, whose wife, Theresa, died in 2003. "Now I want to get all of our stores even more involved," he added, noting that at various times of the year customers are given the opportunity to make $1 donations to ALS causes.
CVS operates 5,400 stores and has 140,000 full- and part-time employees.
Other CVS philanthropic programs include Volunteer Challenge Grants. Last year $1,000 was donated to the Quincy Crisis Center, based on the volunteer work that Jennifer Capozzi, a pharmacy technician in Wollaston, had done for the center.
"I enjoy giving of my time," said Capozzi, who often buys groceries and delivers them to needy families.
Genzyme, the Cambridge biotechnology company, has a grant program for causes - from food banks to walkathons - to which teams of employees contribute their time, said Elliott D. Hillback, senior vice president for corporate affairs.
Last year, he said, company grants and employee donations in the United States totaled slightly under $200,000. Genzyme has about 5,300 employees nationwide.
The company, Hillback said, has been especially active on two fronts: working with Project HOPE in Southeast Asia and providing funds to aid the tsunami relief effort.
In working with Project HOPE, Genzyme has committed $1 million over three years, he said. These funds will be used for hospital renovations and nurses' training in Thailand and Indonesia.
For tsunami relief, "we've matched, dollar for dollar, employee donations, contributing about $90,000," Hillback said.
Closer to home, Amy Dasch, a principal information analyst, contributes her time to a number of causes, including WGBH pledge nights and walkathons for the American Heart Association and juvenile diabetes.
"The volunteer work I do makes me appreciative of Genzyme as a community - people who readily give of themselves and their talents," Dasch said.
Citizens Bank looks to its 3,800 employees in Massachusetts for advice "on more ways that we can be involved" in charitable giving, said Blake Jordan, senior vice president and director of corporate giving for Citizens Financial Group.
"And we do hear often from employees in our 265 branch offices, who give us suggestions" concerning causes to back, he said.
Last year, he said, the bank donated $5 million to 1,000 organizations in Massachusetts involved in various endeavors from community healthcare to youth services.
Jordan estimates employees give money to or do volunteer work for 70 percent of these organizations. "We encourage people to get involved in the communities where they live and work."
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