There’s more to the holidays than presents, eggnog and parties. For many companies in Boston’s tech community, this time of year represents a time to reflect, be grateful and give back to the community. Here, we’ve rounded up three local startups that are paying it forward this season.
How does your company give back to the community?
Giving back to the community is a huge part of the Paint Nite platform; local small business owners run Paint Nite business in their communities, we partner with local venues to host our events, and we hire local talent to host and run our events — each of these components are deep rooted in building that all-important community connection to keep the local ecosystem running.
Additionally, we host fundraising events. This year alone, we’ve partnered with hundreds of charitable organizations nationwide to host a total of 2,800 fundraisers. To date, Paint Nite has helped charitable organizations raise just over $2,500,000 dollars.
Over the years, we’ve teamed up with groups like Dress for Success, helping women thrive in the workplace, and Cradles to Crayons, helping local kids and families in need, providing our time, and both monetary and in-kind donations.
Why is it important to your company culture to do so?
Giving back to the community is one of the core components of our business model at Paint Nite. It’s part of who we are.
Are there any specific nonprofits or charities your organization works with? Why are these causes specifically important to your company?
We’ve partnered with both large and small organizations and are open to working with any non-profit!
Some organizations of note — The American Cancer Society and Relay for Life account for about 10% of our fundraising events this year and about $60,000 of the funds raised, which is awesome.
Other organizations including the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society, Habitat for Humanity, and the American Heart & Stroke Association have also benefited from Paint Nite fundraising events.
Are you doing anything special for the holiday season to give back?
At HQ, about 35 of us we volunteered at Cradles to Crayons this past week, where we helped more than 160 local kids by putting together outfits and packing them up for boys and girls ranging from toddlers to elementary school kids. Even though the holidays are a busy time for all, it’s so important to take a moment to give back, and I’m so proud of my Paint Nite family for making it a priority.
How does your company give back to the community?
Giving back is an important part of clypd’s culture. We do so in a number of ways. We are a TUGG annual partner (Technology Underwriting the Greater Good), which means we participate in a number of TUGG’s events, including their annual event Tech Gives Back. This past year, we worked with the Mystic River Watershed Association to help rid a local park of invasive plant species. We had tons of fun getting our hands dirty, basking in the sunshine, and helping out the local community. Other organizations we’ve helped at TUGG’s Tech Gives Back event include Cradles to Crayons and Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology. We have also partnered with TUGG to co-host the Tech Somerville Pub Crawl — all proceeds went to Youth Cities and WeThrive.
We are lucky to have a wonderful office space in Davis Square and we love to share it with the community. We often host events at clypd, whether it’s a more casual meetup space for the general tech community or more formal events. In the past, we’ve hosted events at clypd with organizations like Youth Cities, TedX Somerville, MassBike, and more.
Why is it important to your company culture to do so?
There are a number of reasons why we believe it’s important to give back to the community. We count our lucky stars everyday that we have a thriving business, an office to come to every day, and that we can go home and be with our loved ones. We also recognize that not everyone has these opportunities and we feel that it is part of our civic obligation to give back to those who might not be so lucky.
We also love to give back because it brings our employees closer together. We work better together when we see each other not just as colleagues, but as friends. Volunteering and spending time outside of our “normal” job gives us an opportunity to learn more about each other, helping us work better together in the workplace.
Are there any specific nonprofits or charities your organization works with? Why are these causes specifically important to your company?
We work closely with TUGG throughout the year. TUGG has helped dozens of portfolio nonprofits throughout the years, all of them serving local children and youth who need it the most. We especially gravitate towards nonprofits that serve youth and children while also incorporating STEM or entrepreneurship into its mission.
We have a big community of cyclists in the clypd office — we believe that cycling is good for businesses and a great way for individuals to maintain a healthy lifestyle. But clypd employees have also had some close calls on the road, so we also work closely with MassBike, a local non-profit organization that works to improve bicycling across the state.
Are you doing anything special for the holiday season to give back?
We think it’s important to give back year round and don’t generally focus on the holiday season in particular.
Lovepop consistently gives back to the community. We have a couple of ongoing, everyday partnerships and we are often able to support charitable organizations when we launch new cards. In September and October, our cards supported cancer causes. Right now, sales of our new Mayflower card are going to support the renovation of the ship.
Why is it important to your company culture to do so?
At Lovepop we are passionate about taking a moment to tell others that you care about them. We are creating beautiful memorable cards so that you can do just that for all of your loved ones so it makes sense that we also use our cards and our passion about spreading good will to support charities as well.
Are there any specific nonprofits or charities your organization works with? Why are these causes specifically important to your company?
We have a long-term partnership with The Possible Project as part of our firm commitment to support students and STEM, engineering, etc. And of course in sustainability because we know that we use a lot of paper. Lovepop is passionate about using sustainable papers and paper harvesting methods. We are committed to ensuring that we plant more trees than we consume so we partner with the Arbor Day Foundation and plant trees locally.
Another partner we care greatly about is Santa's Magic who remember our Armed Forces, veterans and their families all year long. And just on Saturday, we donated 500 Christmas cards and held an event with Santa's Magic in Faneuil Hall where we had the public sign cards that will be sent to deployed troops overseas as part of a care package.
Photos via companies and Shutterstock
Know a company giving back in big ways this season? Let us know or tweet us @BuiltInBOS
