Our 2020 challenge to every company is simple: Adopt a nonprofit organization NOW. Words like care, commitment, love, and generosity come to mind when we think of the word adoption. When you adopt an animal, child, or nonprofit, it’s forever. Adoption doesn’t just mean you get together a couple times a year to feel good. Adoption means you are giving a commitment level that happens 365 days a year.
Give Beyond The Holidays
For many companies, it’s the same story every year. The holidays arrive, and companies conduct one or two fundraising events for charitable nonprofit organizations. How is your company contributing to solving social problems the other 11 months of the year? The need to give back to your community hasn’t stopped because the holidays are over.
It’s time for the executive leadership of companies to adopt a nonprofit organization to help make a difference year-round.
The Importance of Adoption
Adopting a nonprofit involves ingraining the organization into your company, culture, and business plans. Adoption is a deep and passionate commitment to helping a nonprofit every day of the year. It’s about making sure your company accepts, assists, and engages with both the events and mission of their adopted nonprofit.
You should take the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for adoption as seriously as any other company KPI’s. Our managing partner, Jack Corrao states, “When I look at our revenue and profitability goal, I think our nonprofit (Emilio Nares Foundation) goal the most important. The Emilio Nares Foundation’s (ENF) flagship program is to provide transportation for children with cancer to and from their hospital appointments. Funding rides for kids means we’ve hit our revenue numbers, we have happy customers coming back to us, and we have a healthy business culture. For me, it is the ultimate metric for Corrao Group.”
Nonprofit organizations need help. Many people working for nonprofit organizations don’t have a business or financial background. In today’s world, employees want to put in a fair amount of work, make a livable wage, and want to be associated with a company that makes a difference in their community. CEOs who adopt this model are more likely to attract people who are passionate about both their work and making a difference.
Our Beginnings – Saint Augustine High School
Our adoption started with Saint Augustine, a private intercity Catholic High School in San Diego. Saint Augustine reached out to our Managing Partner and their own Alumni, Jack Corrao, about his interest in being a part of the technology committee in 2001.
Because Saint Augustine shaped Jack Corrao’s core values, he wanted to do more.
Jack joined the Saint Augustine High School board of directors to provide consultative guidance for their future mission. Their first initiative – the rebuild of Saint Augustine High School into a new state of the art facility. New facilities included high-tech classrooms, a library, and a Gymnasium.
Health issues caused Jack to leave the board of directors in 2012. However, Saint Augustine remains a part of Corrao Group’s culture. The Corrao Group’s internship program provides high school seniors with early mentorship and guidance on the basics of business operations. Early professional guidance for students provides them with purpose and direction to help start their business careers. After students complete their internships, Corrao Group stays connected to them via advanced summer internships, LinkedIn, and summer visits. Many former interns become full-time Corrao Group employees after graduating from college.
The Emilio Nares Foundation
We decided to adopt and become a part of the ENF family in 2006. ENF helps families navigate through their child’s journey with cancer. Their flagship program, Ride with Emilio, provides free transportation for underprivileged children and their parents to and from the hospital for cancer-related appointments. Ride with Emilio currently serves children in San Diego, Orange County, and Los Angeles. Their goal is to bring Ride with Emilio nationwide.
Here’s how we helped grow and expand ENF since adopting their organization in 2006:
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- Corrao Group gladly welcomed ENF into our office when they needed additional workspace.
- We implemented their Salesforce Org to help manage their donations and events.
- A Corrao Group staff member has been on ENF’s board of directors to make sure we are physically a part of their organizational goals.
The most important part of our commitment and KPIs for ENF is Ride with Emilio. For every hour we bill our customers, we provide $5 to ENF which has resulted in over 3,396 rides for children to and from cancer treatment. It is a donation we happily send once a month to help them grow and expand as an organization.
“Using the Salesforce CRM tool has allowed us to increase our outreach and improve our donor relations. We are able to better manage our campaigns. Our Salesforce team, Corrao Group, has given us outstanding service, and they have become an integral part of our organization. Because of their excellent service, we have been able to grow and serve additional families whose children are battling cancer treatment.” – Richard Nares, Founder of ENF
Corporate Examples
Lebron James
Lebron James, an NBA player for the Los Angeles Lakers, recently opened a school in Akron, Ohio. Lebron’s “I Promise” school opened up in 2018 for 240 at-risk third and fourth graders. Kids who attend the school will receive:
Marc Benioff
Marc Benioff, Founder and CEO of Salesforce, recently set forth a challenge for every CEO: Adopt a public school. Benioff writes about a random visit to Presidio Middle School in his new book, Trailblazer. He didn’t have an appointment, but he walked into the principal’s office and asked to help out. Since his visit to Presidio Middle School, Salesforce has adopted 107 public schools. Additionally, Salesforce has given out $70 million dollars to local San Francisco and Oakland public schools. Salesforce also provides volunteerism, mentoring, and technology to the schools. Benioff recently explained the power every CEO has to make a difference in schools, “You’d be surprised at the power your company can have to improve your local public schools. And do you want to know who are in the schools? It’s the children of your employees.”
Domino’s
Domino’s selected St. Jude as its’ national philanthropic partner in 2004. Domino’s has raised more than $57 million for St. Jude through its participation in the St. Jude Thanks and Giving campaign since 2004. “St. Jude is leading the way the world understands, treats, and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Treatments invented at St. Jude has helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to more than 80 percent since it opened more than 50 years ago, and they won’t stop until no child dies from cancer” (St. Jude Mission Statement).
Richard Branson
Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, has been a big proponent of giving back instead of using the money for his personal use. Branson found Virgin Unite to “Unite people and entrepreneurial ideas to create opportunities for a better world. Since then, together with some great partners, we have inspired and incubated a number of wonderful collaborations – like The Elders, Ocean Unite, Carbon War Room, The B Team, and The Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship – which have spurred much needed change in the world.”
Adopt a Nonprofit
Our 2020 challenge to companies is to find a local nonprofit to adopt. Committing to a nonprofit is not just about writing a check for them every month. It’s about making sure your company embraces, participates, and supports all their events. You will have a successful adoption if you find a nonprofit that you are passionate about, and an organization that aligns with your company’s culture.
Where will your company priorities be in 2020? You are disconnected from our world if money is your only priority. We are in a new decade. It’s time to wake up and make a difference for people who need our help… TODAY!
What will you choose?
References
- https://finance.yahoo.com/news/marc-benioff-challenge-to-ceos-adopt-a-public-school-130056612.html
- https://enfhope.org/our-programs/#ride
- https://enfhope.org/
- https://www.qsrmagazine.com/news/dominos-raising-money-st-jude-childrens-research-hospital
- https://www.stjude.org/about-st-jude.html?sc_icid=us-mm-missionstatement#mission
- https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/04/us/lebron-james-opens-school-trnd/index.html
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WteiD8HOlY&feature=emb_logo
- https://enfhope.org
- https://www.virgin.com/unite/
