Aptela’s CULTURE CLUB….it’s not just fun & games

Posted by: Guest Author

Yes, we like to reward our employee's hard work with occasional fun and games, but the Aptela Culture Club also has a charitable soft spot as well. The past two winters we have adopted families through the local organization, Our Daily Bread - there is nothing better than watching kids open gifts they weren't expecting. We have also held food drives for a local food bank, Food for Others. And this month we held a back to school drive.

Involvement with charities doesn't have to be terribly time consuming or expensive.

Try to solicit ideas from employees about their charitable interests - as long as the charity doesn't cross religious or political lines, a budget friendly, low-time constraint plan should be attainable. For Aptela's back to school drive, a couple employees expressed interest in holding a drive, so we asked if they would like to help. From there, we just found the contact information for the elementary school near our office, asked them what items they would need for the year, and explained that we are a small company with limited budget, but we would do what we could.

Local charities are a great place to begin your company's charitable giving. Local presence allows for ease of gathering information, speeds communication and makes any needed deliveries quick and inexpensive. And let's be honest, spreading your company's name within the local community isn't a bad idea either. Your local government's website is a great place to find shelters, food banks or teen centers that need community support. Once you select a charity, it's a good idea to check them out on Charity Navigator.

So what did our local teachers need? It's not what you think!

We were expecting requests like art supplies, recorders (Hot Cross Buns anyone?), dodge balls, etc. Turns out they had three basic, yet very important needs:

1.  Masking tape (come to think of it, I DO remember my teachers using a lot of masking tape!)
2.  Hand sanitizer (no explanation needed)
3.  Money for the school's lunch fund (which is used to feed students who come to school hungry).

I'll be honest - at first, participation was a little slow. We kicked off the drive in our monthly staff meeting and set a two week timeframe for collections. By the end of the first week, we only had a few rolls of tape, a handful of hand sanitizer and $35 in cash. We didn't panic ... one thing the Culture Club has learned is that food speaks around the office. Enter BAKE SALE! Members of the Culture Club baked scones, toffee bars and brownies (oh, and our Director of Marketing had a late add of extra cupcakes from her daughter's birthday - we'll take ‘em!). These simple offerings were enough to rake in $325!

We are excited about the new relationship we've established with a local school in need. We aren't quite ready to set up a mentoring program, but until we are...we'll give them masking tape whenever they need it!