Increasing how much your organization gives back to the community, through financial donations or volunteer work, can sometimes seem challenging. But businesses in Milwaukee and Madison are finding new ways to provide more financial and volunteer support for critical local nonprofit organizations. Here are three of their smart strategies:
Taking employees’ interests (and schedules) to heart
Milwaukee-based financial services firm Baird has found a recipe for success by soliciting employee feedback and providing as much flexibility as possible when it comes to volunteer opportunities.
Each May, the organization hosts Baird Gives Back, a week dedicated to community service hosted at Baird locations nationwide. This year, more than 2,500 Baird employees volunteered to provide more than 7,700 hours of community service. That’s a sharp increase compared to the 1,800 employees who volunteered 5,866 hours of their time in 2022. The company reached its goal of having half of its 5,100 total employees participate.
Reaching out to the company’s associate resource groups (ARGs) has been critical for finding community service volunteer opportunities that employees are actually excited about, said Rachel Berkowitz, senior marketing and public relations specialist at Baird and chair of Baird Gives Back. Baird’s ARGs include a veterans’ group, a women’s group, an LGBTQ+ group and a cultural diversity group, among others.
Providing a variety of volunteer opportunities not only caters to the varying interests of employees but helps provide more options for workers who can’t leave their offices as often, Berkowitz said. For example, she added, earlier this year a group of employees recorded themselves, in spare office rooms, reading books for kids in hospitals.
Even if an organization isn’t included on Baird’s formal list of volunteer opportunities, employees can get credit for participating in any nonprofit event. Baird also expanded its annual week of giving into the weekend after learning that employees wanted this option.
“We have post-week activities, too, which are great for families and friends. They’re really a great opportunity depending on your schedule,” said Ellie O’Neil, communications specialist, assistant vice president at Baird and incoming vice chair of Baird Gives Back.
Creating new opportunities for networking
One unexpected benefit of Baird Gives Back is meeting co-workers who she otherwise might never have met, said Berkowitz. She believes these volunteer opportunities also serve as team-building activities that foster future collaboration.
“Our CEO is out there doing the exact same opportunities as us during the week,” said Berkowitz. “I think when you see that type of commitment from the top down, we see associates saying they have no excuse not to be there.”
That tracks with what another local company has discovered as it has sought to increase the number of its employees volunteering for Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity.
Angela Sella, lead information governance analyst at Milwaukee-based mortgage insurance provider MGIC, got involved with Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity in 2003, when she went out on her first build.
One of the ways Sella has helped to increase the number of MGIC workers involved in Habitat builds is by using her skill for analysis. She found that when an executive sponsored or volunteered on a build, more rank-and-file workers signed up to participate. She used the data to encourage more executives to sponsor builds.
“Coworkers love to get a chance to work with executives outside of the office – to meet with them and talk with them,” Sella said.
Shaking up the typical golf fundraiser
In 2008, leadership at Madison-based First Business Bank was trying to settle on the best event to raise money for area nonprofits. A golf outing seemed to make sense, but the firm didn’t just want to do the traditional six-hour charity scramble that so many people have grown accustomed to.
“As bankers and service providers, you could go to a golf outing every day in the summer,” said Jim Hartlieb, president and chief executive officer at First Business Bank.
Instead, the bank’s leadership wanted to create a new and competitive way to encourage participation. So, unlike most costly and time-consuming golf outings, the First Business Bank Charity Golf Invitational that they developed uses golfer handicaps to level the playing field.
Each team of two golfers pays a $1,500 entry fee to take part in the invitation-only event. All of the entry fees are put into one pool. The teams choose a nonprofit organization that they are playing for, and the pool is split and awarded to the nonprofits of the top five teams.
First Business Bank covers all costs related to the event, so every dollar donated goes directly to the nonprofits selected by the winners of the event.
The Madison event grew from 15 teams in the first year to now hosting nearly 30 teams every year.
“Any one of these teams could write a check to their nonprofit of choice and it would have a similar impact,” said Hartlieb. “I think they like that our team does a good job of publicizing the winners and nonprofits, so their nonprofit gets a lot of exposure from it.”
He believes the key to hosting a successful nonprofit event is making sure it’s fun, unique and efficient, since time is a valuable asset for most people. Importantly, too, the Charity Golf Invitational provides a welcome opportunity for participants to network with other likeminded individuals, Hartlieb said.
Due to the success of its Madison event, First Business Bank began hosting another annual Charity Golf Invitational in Milwaukee in 2014. Both events now draw nearly 30 teams every year.
The First Business Bank Charity Golf Invitational has grown not only geographically, but also in the number of nonprofits that benefit from its success. In the event’s early years, the pot was doled out to one nonprofit in a winner-take-all format. Now, though, the event is large enough to provide significant donations to the preferred charities of the top five teams. From the Milwaukee event this year, $45,000 was awarded to five area nonprofits.
And the event has been so successful that First Business Bank is also considering expanding it even further out to its Kansas City office.
