When we announced our core values back in February of this year, I emphasized to the team that these values weren’t just empty words. I want us to live those values every day—in the business we do, the way we work with one another, and the way we interact with our community.
Nine months in and so far I think we’ve succeeded. We come hungry every single day, we drive undeniable performance for our clients, and we absolutely always bounce back.
Even still, we know there is more for us to do. We’ve carried each other internally. But how can we work to help carry our community, too?
It was from this thought (plus inspiration from our incredible internal charity auction last year where we raised $17,000 in one night) that Volunteer Day was born.
On Thursday, Nov. 14, we’re shutting down our computers, leaving our desks, and fully committing ourselves to living our core values by partnering with five incredible organizations to volunteer as a company.
We’ll be:
- Building 800 clean birthing kits to send to medically underserved countries with MedShare
- Reading over 200 children’s stories and giving them 1:1 written feedback to help foster creativity with Story Pirates Changemakers
- Making homemade toys for shelter puppies and dogs with Best Friends Animal Society
- Writing thank you letters to veterans with Operation Gratitude
- Making sack lunches for those in need with New York City Rescue Mission
We chose these organizations based on feedback from our employee culture survey. Each organization will bring representatives and supplies to our office to help facilitate the volunteer opportunities.
It’s also important to note, I think, that Volunteer Day has taken the place and budget of our (seriously legendary) retreats. And this isn’t because we’re changing as a company; we still absolutely love to have fun. It’s because we’re leaning into who we really are and who we want to be as an organization.
As we continue to build our supportive, open community within Wunderkind, we will continue to do more to support the city and world around us.
