When thousands of CVS Caremark employees across the country participate this spring in Easter Seals’ annual walk event to raise money for children with disabilities, the turnout will be the result of an extensive organizing effort at the Woonsocket-based pharmacy chain to involve its employees in its signature philanthropic cause.
Companies that want to be active contributors in their communities understand their employees face numerous demands on their time, and put the force of their organizing ability behind philanthropic and volunteer efforts that allow employees to participate.
“It’s about making it easy for people to do it,” said Jennifer Veilleux, director of community relations for CVS Caremark. “You know, we all work hard. But our employees and colleagues are very committed to issues and causes and volunteering.”
CVS Caremark became the largest national sponsor of Easter Seals’ annual Walk With Me event in 2006, when it created CVS All Kids Can, a five-year, $25 million commitment by the company to support children with disabilities.
To promote its signature philanthropic effort within the company, CVS Caremark asks each of its service districts to designate a walk captain responsible for organizing local walking teams. Easter Seals affiliates visit each service district to promote the annual walks, and each team is designated an Easter Seals ambassador – a child with a disability who employees meet and walk in honor of, Veilleux said.
Partly as a result of such planning, more than 4,500 CVS Caremark employees participated in Walk With Me events last June, raising about $750,000 for Easter Seals. Locally, 240 CVS Caremark employees walked for Easter Seals in Providence, raising $46,000.
Veilleux said she expects more CVS Caremark employees and their friends and family to participate this year – and raise more money – as a result of the positive experience they had in the first couple of years that the company has sponsored the Easter Seals fundraising event.
Companies that gain a reputation for philanthropic efforts and community involvement invariably have a mandate from the highest levels of the organization.
“It really comes from the top down,” said Derek F. Lombard, vice president and director of talent development for Advanced Financial Services Inc., a residential mortgage lender in Newport.
As part of a formal commitment by the owner of AFS to donate 10 percent of the company’s annual revenue to charitable causes, the company closes one workday each year to enable its 260 employees to go out into the local community and donate time and money towards a project, Lombard said.
This year, AFS employees donated over 2,000 backpacks filled with school supplies to local schools, churches, food pantries and other charities. Last year, AFS contributed more than 1,500 labor hours and over $7,000 in materials to renovate portions of five Fall River parks and playgrounds.
Beyond organizing volunteer efforts that support signature causes, many companies have programs that support the volunteer efforts individual employees make on their own time.
For example, AFS allows employees to take days off to volunteer in their community without having to use personal or sick days, and donates in-kind cash contributions to the selected charity of about $20 for each hour the employee volunteers, Lombard said.
At CVS Caremark, employees who volunteer 25 hours per year for a nonprofit organization can apply to receive challenge grants paid by the company to the charity in the amount of $500 for individuals or $2,500 for teams of three or more employees.
CVS Caremark awarded 19 challenge grants in Rhode Island in 2007, and awards about $300,000 in challenge grants annually across the company, Veilleux said.
Last year, CVS Caremark also launched a database of volunteer opportunities in every community where the company does business, she said. In addition to volunteer efforts occurring throughout the year to support Easter Seals, local nonprofit organizations are encouraged to list their own volunteer opportunities.
“We want to make it easy for employees to find volunteer opportunities in their communities,” Veilleux said. “So they can register as a user, put in a zip code, and they can find volunteer efforts right around where they work and live.”
Such community involvement pays off for companies that make the effort in ways that can be very valuable, if hard to quantify with a dollar amount. At CVS Caremark, the annual Walk With Me event and other volunteer efforts are used throughout the company as team building exercises for interns and newly hired associates, Veilleux said.
Lombard said AFS’s reputation as a strong supporter of its community makes it easier for the company to recruit and retain top talent.
“Applicants mention they want to work for a company with a reputation for giving back to the community,” he said. “It makes people feel good about going to work every day.” •
