When the Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester was casting about for a place to stage its June fundraiser, it didn”™t turn to a restaurant or a hotel or any of the usual suspects. Instead, the club hopped in the front seat with Lexus of Mount Kisco for what promises to be a unique gala, featuring cocktails in the showroom, dinner in the immaculate garage and no worries about valet parking. (Just queue up at the customer drop-off.)
When the Food Bank for Westchester was looking for additional funds and volunteers to package the food it redistributes, it didn”™t just ask for them. Instead, the organization created “The Give Back Olympics,” a May event in which five major companies will vie for the (soon-to-be) coveted Golden Scoop Award.
And when Guiding Eyes for the Blind in Yorktown Heights wanted 450 volunteers to raise puppies who”™ll ultimately become guide dogs, it piloted a program with PepsiCo called Pepsi Puppy Partners. There pairs of productive Pepsi workers prep peppy pups for a period at Pepsi”™s Purchase headquarters. (Say that three times fast.)
Give and take
Indeed, partnerships between nonprofits and for-profits are putting a new spin on hospitality, adding a dash of adventure, imagination and fun to the traditional check-writing bonhomie.
Or as Lisa Deutsch, vice president for marketing and development at Guiding Eyes, puts it: “It”™s about more than money.”
It”™s much more about reciprocity, with the for-profits getting as much as they give.
“What we get from the nonprofits is expertise,” says Lynda Costa, a PepsiCo manager and president of Westchester EnAble, an employee-resource group under the company”™s Diversity and Inclusion program. Guiding Eyes has given Pepsi tips on how to recruit among the visually- and hearing-impaired as well as demonstrations of software and hardware from its Assistive Technology Center, including screen readers, which audibly read what”™s on a monitor. The Assistive Technology Center ”“ the largest of its kind in the county ”“ can help companies like Pepsi keep valued employees who might be struggling with sight issues.
Pepsi in turn gave Guiding Eyes a $25,000 grant to create a handbook on assistive technologies in the workplace that will be available on guidingeyes.org at the end of the summer.
”˜Wow, I needed that”™
But not all of the pluses of the nonprofits/for-profits partnerships are quantitative. Some are qualitative, too.
“(The Pepsi relationship) taught us to think more globally about what we do and how we do it,” Deutsch said. “We never thought of ourselves as experts in assistive technology.”
Working with Pepsi has broadened Guiding Eyes”™ vision of the nonprofit world, too.
“Nonprofits need to think about the culture of the businesses they work with to help them and not to always have their hand out,” she said.
One of the ways nonprofits aid companies is by offering an affective experience. In Pepsi Puppy Partners ”“ or P3, a play on G2, Pepsi”™s low-cal Gatorade ”“ the Pepsi employees who train the dogs for a week bring them to the office during the day, thereby lowering the collective blood pressure at Pepsi”™s headquarters.
“When people see the puppies, they say, ”˜Wow, I needed that”™,” PepsiCo”™s Costa said. “It creates a more comfortable environment.”
And one that”™s relatively more fun. With their “Give Back Olympics” and Golden Scoop Award, executives at the Food Bank for Westchester are not only putting goods in the box: They”™re thinking outside it. For a $5,000 entry fee, teams from Kraft Foods Inc., PepsiCo Inc., MediaVest, the Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. and Webster Bank will test their packing muscles May 21 at the Food Bank”™s Millwood warehouse.
“We”™re dealing with a serious issue,” Katy Coppinger, the Food Bank”™s senior director of development, said of hunger. “But we try to have the appropriate levity.”
Doing good, feeling good
“It”™s kind of fun,” Christina Rohatynskyj, the Food Bank”™s executive director, said of their Olympics. “I haven”™t seen it done before.”
It”™s also uplifting, she said: “When for-profits partner with nonprofits in a cause, it boosts morale.”
Chris Scatterday, general sales manager of Lexus of Mount Kisco, knows all about that. The dealership”™s sister business, Lexus of Greenwich, has always been active in that community, including with Greenwich Hospital. And Scatterday”™s father, Sam, owner of both Lexus dealerships, has been involved with the Boys & Girls Club of Ridgefield, Conn., where the younger Scatterday also makes his home.
So when Lexus customer Tom O”™Brien, president of the board of the Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester in Mount Kisco, asked about holding the club”™s fundraiser at the Lexus dealership there, he got an unexpected answer ”“ an enthusiastic yes.
The theme of the June 5 gala is sustainability ”“ of youth and the environment ”“ which will enable Lexus to show off its environmentally friendly building and hybrid cars amid the green and white decorations and plant centerpieces.
With this event, the Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester hopes to raise $400,000 to $700,000 for various programs, which serve children 18 months to 18 years, said Executive Director Brian Skanes.
The real gain is, however, priceless.
“People (at Lexus) say, ”˜The organization I”™m with is doing its best for the community,”™ and that feels good,” Scatterday said.
That being said, he added with a laugh, “No, we”™re not going into the catering business.”
