Be the Change: Making a Difference Together
June 5, 2023
Every day we are given a choice, and at ChangeUp we choose to be a force for good, not only in the way we show up for each other and our clients, but how we care for the communities we live in.
Here’s a behind the scenes look at our shared commitment to making a difference:
Championing Local Causes
Our team’s passion for community led to the creation of CU Sharing, a company program that supports a local nonprofit each month in celebration of our employees’ birthdays. A few of the organizations we have partnered with include Ronald McDonald House, Habitat for Humanity, and the YMCA/YWCA. We believe birthday cake tastes that much sweeter when you’re commemorating your big day with an important cause.
Most recently, we volunteered with 4 Paws for Ability, an organization dedicated to training and placing service dogs. We washed windows, cleaned the family play area, unloaded pallets of food, then ended our day with a walk around the park with some of the service dogs. We also commemorate events like Earth Day; This year we partnered with Cincinnati Parks where we helped to mulch two large playgrounds.
The Gift of Time
ChangeUp provides all employees with 8 hours per quarter of Volunteer Time Off (VTO), allowing people to pick causes and organizations that they care about. VTO has been used to support everything from local theater restoration to university alumni initiatives.
Our company culture is shaped by our employees—and for many, doing good is engrained in their DNA. People like, Alexa Jewell Schaefer, our Director of Strategy based in Oregon, who for the past 11 years has been volunteering for Michelle’s Love, a Portland-based organization providing support to single parents undergoing cancer treatment. Today, Alexa is on their board and continues to help by fundraising, accompanying parents to their appointments and treatments, cleaning their homes, and delivering premade meals.
Josephine Ayoub, one of our Program Managers based in California, uses her VTO to make an impact at her son’s elementary school, managing fundraisers, chaperoning field trips, and even teaching Art Masters. Regardless of where our team decides to spend their VTO, we believe it’s important to provide them with the time to fully embody what it means to be the change.
Tis’ The Season
In addition to CU Sharing and VTO, there are traditions that ChangeUp employees look forward to every year. In December we all come together for our annual holiday party to celebrate our accomplishments both in and out of the office. But giving season is also a time that we collectively focus on causes we care about. Before we wrap up the year, we volunteer at The Foodbank in Dayton and participate in Hannah’s Treasure Chest Giving Angels program, providing holiday gifts for families living at or below the poverty line. It’s also a yearend tradition for ChangeUp to donate to Feeding America, a nationwide nonprofit whose mission is to end hunger.
We know change doesn’t happen overnight, but by working together we’ll make the biggest impact. We continue to challenge ourselves to do better so we can be part of creating the change we want to see in the world.
Interested in being part of the change? Check out our open positions here.
