In June 2019, TeamCare—Carnegie Dartlet’s new corporate social responsibility group and all-around feel-good, full-of-positivity team—launched its first-ever company-wide Volunteer Day. With over 80 employees in our central office in Westford, Massachusetts, along with remote employees living and working all across the United States, getting this event organized was no easy feat. From choosing charitable organizations to coordinating remote volunteer opportunities to pulling together all the logistics of the day, TeamCare spent a hectic spring working together to make Volunteer Day happen. And make it happen we did! On (and around) June 11, Carnegie Dartlet celebrated its first-ever all-company Volunteer Day—and we think it was a resounding success.
Where did we volunteer?
With the Carnegie Dartlet team spread out across the country, we knew it wouldn’t be possible to get everyone together under one roof for an afternoon of volunteer work. So in order to get everyone involved and invested, we took a divide-and-conquer approach.
At the Westford office, we wanted to make the biggest impact possible with our 80+ in-house team members. So we focused on a single organization: Cradles to Crayons. This charity provides school supplies, clothing, toys, and other essentials to children in need by partnering with local social workers and service partners to identify beneficiaries. Since Carnegie Dartlet’s mission is focused on helping students find the right schools through authentic marketing communications, we thought dedicating our volunteer time to an organization that supports children and ensures they are ready for life and school felt like a good fit.
For our remote staff, the challenge was to help connect people who live near each other and empower them to find local organizations to volunteer with. With support from our remote TeamCare members, we were able to bring together several groups of people around the country—even groups of people who don’t work together in their regular day-to-day (team bonding, anyone?). Our team in Bend, Oregon, spent several hours preparing meals for the homeless at the Bethlehem Inn. Over in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a team got together to volunteer at the Blandford Nature Center. Over in the Tri-Cities area, a team volunteered at 2nd Harvest to pack meals for kids and families in need. From Tennessee to Oregon, Iowa to New Jersey, our staff were out and about, giving back to their communities and forging the human connections so vital to the Carnegie Dartlet spirit.
Why did we volunteer?
As a company, we believe in giving back to our communities, serving others, and fostering human connections with local organizations as well as with our clients. On top of that, we believe that volunteering brings us together as a company in new and engaging ways. Our team is able to work with people who perhaps don’t normally overlap in their day-to-day schedules. We get to feel more engaged with our coworkers, with the company, and with our work as a whole. When our team members are more engaged—and having fun at work—we provide better services to our clients.
Our impact
Through our volunteer work, we were able to impact the lives of hundreds of children, families, and communities all over the country. At Cradles to Crayons, we packed and organized enough donations to provide clothing and school supplies to over 300 children in the Boston area. Our remote staff made a splash wherever they volunteered, with teams packing over 900 meals for children in need in the Tri-Cities area, clearing 1.5 miles of trail near Portland, and providing 60 bag lunches for the homeless in Bend.
Our volunteer work had an impact in the office as well. We reached out to our team to see how they felt about their time volunteering through Carnegie Dartlet and got some pretty incredible feedback:
“The event was well organized, and it felt like our efforts really mattered. Being able to help so many children was very rewarding.”
“I enjoyed working with team members I don’t usually work with to get a job done for a really great cause.”
“I’m happy to work for a company that cares about helping others in the local community!”
“Carnegie Dartlet is more than just an office, embodying the tight-knit family feel.”
“I love that Carnegie Dartlet invests in both its people and their communities in this way. I’m proud to be a part of a company that listens to its employees’ ideas and supports those ideas with real action. TeamCare is just one of several examples of this that I’ve seen and benefitted from this year.”
At the end of the day, volunteering is bigger than the numbers and greater than the impact of a single day. When we come together to volunteer, we grow stronger as a company, our team is more invested in our mission, and we are able to better innovate and invigorate our marketing strategies to create the human connections we’re known for.
Volunteer Day is just the beginning. Stay tuned to see what other initiatives and surprises TeamCare has up our sleeves!
Check out our Volunteer Day video below, featuring our team’s own photos and videos from our afternoon at Cradles to Crayons.