Benevity’s 2020 Corporate Goodness Awards, also known as “The Goodies”, celebrate the bold, innovative, inclusive and creative ways that our clients are making a difference in the world — and how they inspire other people through purpose.
Some of last year’s Goodies Award winners, including Micron Technology, TC Energy, Accenture Canada, PlayStation and Illumina, passed the torch to the 2020 winners at our annual Goodness Matters conference in Palm Springs. And with more nominations than ever before, there was an impressive array of entrants across industries and geographies — all demonstrating the impact that companies, their employees, customers and communities can have when they work to harness the power of Goodness through their corporate purpose programs:
Levi Strauss & Co. / The Bestie Award
Chosen as the winner for best-in-class approach and overall impact, Levi Strauss & Co. bakes purpose into everything the company does—starting from when new employees come on board to ongoing initiatives aimed at engaging people, customers and communities in social good.
The company brings its values to life using a “profits through principles” model that guides everything from sustainable and fair business practices to commitments to re-invest a portion of profits back into local communities and organizations.
The Benevity platform helped Levi’s scale its programs to include all 10,000 employees across the world. In just one year, the company’s global ambassadors created more than 120 volunteer opportunities, resulting in 4,000 volunteer shifts in 53 cities.
Levi’s is engaging customers through the platform too, enabling shoppers to round-up their online purchases to support various causes throughout the year.
When it comes to giving as a percentage of earnings, Levi Strauss & Co. ranks at the top of U.S. companies and CEO Chip Bergh often says the company is committed to “never choosing easy over right.”
Adobe / The People Power Award
Adobe was recognized for empowering its 21,000 global employees to create change and work together to help address some of the world’s most pressing issues.
The company sets the stage for people-powered Goodness by granting each new person they hire $100 to give to a cause of their choice, and facilitates employee-led Action Teams across its many global locations to keep people engaged.
In one year alone, Adobe employees gave an estimated $1.13 million worth of their time and talent, through skills-based volunteering and non-profit board service. To amplify its people’s impact, Adobe also offers donation matching and volunteer grants, which resulted in $9.2 million in matching grants globally, and gives employees a voice in causes that receive grant funding in local communities.
In 2019, People Magazine ranked Adobe number three in its “50 Companies that Care” list.
Albertsons Companies/Albertsons Companies Foundation / The Community Hero Award
Recognized for its best-in-class approach to community investment, Albertsons awards grants on a cost-per-outcome basis, enabling the many community organizations that the company supports to focus on impact instead of overhead.
Last year alone, Albertsons raised $43 million to support cancer treatment and research, disaster relief, education, programs for people with disabilities and hunger relief. Through its Hunger Is initiative, and a little help from Versaic by Benevity’s grantmaking software, the company has efficiently mapped and matched a network of 250 nonprofits to each of its 2,300 stores across 34 states.
The outcome amounts to 70 million breakfasts to kids in need all across America.
Splunk / The Moonshot Award
Splunk was recognized for the boldness and creativity of its approach to corporate purpose, which leverages data in innovative ways to engage multiple communities—including employees, customers, partners and alumni networks—in giving and volunteering all over the world.
By tapping into the Benevity platform and its data stores to focus its CSR strategy, Splunk is constantly identifying gaps in areas that can be optimized to drive greater participation and impact. The Splunk for Good team also produces top-notch creative to engage its 5,000+ employees across 23 countries through guerilla marketing campaigns that include lobby banners, personalized desk drops, digital office screens, international road shows, presentations, “think-tank” feedback sessions, email nudges from executives and team leaders and even reminders in calendars.
And Splunk localizes whenever possible to make sure everyone in every location feels truly included.
Intel / The BeCause Award
Awarded to Intel, The BeCause Award recognizes a company that finds unique, successful ways to help community causes and advance their social missions.
With 110,000 highly skilled employees in 43 countries, Intel is providing non-profits with specialized skills they otherwise couldn’t afford. In 2018 alone, Intel’s legal team donated more than 4,000 hours of time and talent, estimated at a value of more than $800,000—a huge win for nonprofits that are challenged with lean budgets to keep overhead costs down.
Since 2015, Benevity’s international onboarding process has made it possible for Intel to fund 56% more global nonprofits. Intel’s “Do Wonderful” volunteer campaign empowered 70,000+ global employees to donate more than 1.5 million hours across 40+ countries, benefitting nearly 5,000 nonprofits and generating in excess of $10M USD in Intel Foundation-matched donations.
TELUS / The Buzz Award
TELUS was recognized for catalyzing purpose through communications and storytelling through its #MostGivingCompany campaign, which reached six million people on social media and secured nearly 60 earned media stories to generate excitement for the company’s Days of Giving event.
Focusing on its 60,000 employees and retirees—and a strong We Give Where We Live philosophy—TELUS highlighted personal, buzzworthy stories and the contributions of individual team members company-wide to boost participation in a host of giving and volunteering-related activities.
Arm / The NewB Award
Awarded annually to a newly launched Benevity client, this year’s NewB Award went to Arm, for its transformative approach to community engagement. When Arm launched its Giving Hub with Benevity in 2018, the company went big, adopting nearly every best practice right out of the gates: giving, matching, volunteering, grants, rewards, incentives, and even FlexPot dollars, which is a pot of personal funds employees can spend on anything from language courses to flying lessons, to doing good.
Since going live on the Benevity platform, “Team Arm Champions,” part of the company’s Community & Inclusion team, have created more than 200 giving opportunities that led to more than a half million pounds in charitable donations and 13,000 volunteer hours.
Tricia Stevens from Lush / The BUFFY Award
Celebrating individuals who exemplify what is known as the “Benevity Unicorn Factor,” this award is for a rare breed whose passion, innovation and imagination make them leaders in the corporate purpose space.
Twelve years ago, Tricia Stevens launched a corporate purpose program from scratch at a brand-new company. Today, that company is a global brand best known for its activism—largely because of Tricia’s relentless vision. She’s turned her once scrappy community investment program into an incredible force for good, with a team of 16 people and 270 employee ambassadors running hundreds of events and global ethical campaigns.
And with help from Versaic by Benevity, her company has granted more than $36 million to 2,800 grassroots organizations in 83 countries. What makes her a true unicorn is that her fight never ends. Her team says that while they’re celebrating a win, she’s saying “Okay, here’s what’s next.”
These real-world stories are just a taste of how our clients are creating positive impact within their companies, communities and around the world… and are the reason we all do what we do.
Looking for a little more inspiration? Check out the 2019 Goodies Award winners!