Doing fulfilling and impactful work is what drives many of us to get out of bed every day, but it’s not just the work we do behind computer screens that counts. Many Colorado companies are finding ways to help employees make a difference outside the office by embracing opportunities to volunteer and support the local community.
We talked to three such companies to learn more about their charitable initiatives and why giving back is such an important piece of their cultures.
Conga’s document automation software helps businesses manage their data, documents, contracts and reporting and simplify everyday processes. Manager of HR Operations and Culture Joanne Biggar explained the lengths the company goes to in order to both foster a culture of gratitude and give back to local communities.
How did giving back become such an important part of your company culture?
Conga and our employees have had a strong foundation in philanthropy and volunteer work since our origin. Over the years we have maintained our passion for giving back and have supported this legacy.
What formal initiatives or programs help support this commitment?
Conga supplies each employee with three days of paid volunteer time off, which can be used to give back to organizations that are important to them and their family. In addition, we launched the Conga Cares Charitable Match program this year. Conga matches employees’ monetary donations to 501(c)(3) organizations at 150 percent. The company matches at 100 percent and our CEO Matt Schiltz personally matches employee donations at 50 percent.
Conga also holds an annual Global Volunteer month where offices worldwide donate their time volunteering in their respective communities. During this year’s Global Volunteer month, our teams across the globe donated a total of over 900 hours! This tradition was born in an effort to show our gratitude and support to our local communities.
We deeply believe that giving back to the community cultivates an inspiring and positive workplace.”
Aside from formal initiatives, how else do you support team members in giving back?
We hold many team-building off-sites that are focused around volunteering for an organization of the team's choice. A Precious Child is an organization that has been important to Conga for 12 years, so we’ve made it a focus to have teams volunteer for them on a quarterly basis. In conjunction with our individual teams’ efforts, we also advertise volunteer events on our CongaTV slides in the break room. We deeply believe that giving back to the community cultivates an inspiring and positive workplace.
Scaled Agile trains and certifies businesses in its Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) to help them improve their software development processes and business outcomes and keep employees engaged. Office Manager Annette Ball shared how philanthropy has been baked into the company culture.
How did giving back become such an important part of your company culture?
Philanthropy has always been a part of the Scaled Agile's company culture. Giving back to our community is built into our company vision and values.
Giving back to our community is built into our company vision and values.”
What formal initiatives or programs help support this commitment?
Scaled Agile is part of the Pledge 1% Colorado program. As we've grown as a company, these efforts have become more organized. We are committed to giving our time to local nonprofits and we pledge to contribute to them financially.
Aside from formal initiatives, how else do you support team members in giving back?
All Scaled Agile employees are given the equivalent of two volunteer time off days per year. Every individual gets a full day to volunteer, every team gets a half day, and annually we conduct a company-wide day of service — all of which are accompanied by a financial donation to the charity.
Leveraging a variety of hardware and software technologies, Four Winds Interactive brings dynamic visual communications to life in places like airports, corporate campuses, hospitals and stadiums. CEO David Levin and Senior HR Business Partner Kaitlyn Binversie gave us insight into the history of the company’s philanthropic efforts and how they’ve expanded over the years.
How did giving back become such an important part of your company culture?
“About five years ago, my co-founder Dave Weidner and I were hiking a 14er,” Levin said. “During the hike, we started talking about Dave’s lifelong passion to save endangered species and his unique idea to use technology to help solve the problem. The more we discussed, the more we felt FWI’s software could be a key part of the solution and how meaningful it would be to use our product to solve a world problem. Thus, FWI’s support for Wildlife Protection Services was born. From there, we began supporting a variety of other initiatives, transforming a single act of altruism into what is, today, part of our culture.”
We’ve created an environment that makes it easy for our employees to bring their passions to work and give back to our communities — together.”
What formal initiatives or programs help support this commitment?
“What was born out of a personal passion quickly spread throughout the company,” Binversie said. “We developed a corporate social responsibility committee that now supports a broad range of organizations through volunteering, annual fundraisers and more. For over four years, we’ve supported Children’s Hospital Colorado through quarterly blood drives, built and donated bikes for Wish for Wheels since 2016 and regularly provided meals at Ronald McDonald House over the last three years.
This year, in lieu of the regular happy hour after our annual company meeting, we organized three volunteer options to help us build relationships across departments while also giving back.
We also host a 'Yo Fund Me' event where we donate to 10-plus charities of our employees’ choosing, have several giving trees where we collect gifts for families in December, and participate in multiple other charities and events throughout the year. Over the years, we’ve created an environment that makes it easy for our employees to bring their passions to work and give back to our communities — together.”
Aside from formal initiatives, how else do you support team members in giving back?
“We just try to be flexible, meeting the needs of our people and empowering them to give back in a variety of ways. Beyond regularly scheduled events, we encourage everyone to give back to the organization of their choice using paid volunteer hours,” Binversie said.
