May was racing season in Indianapolis, and the Community Service committee challenged employees in all offices to join in a race to 30% participation in the payroll deduction program. With the aid of a colorful flyer designed by Jordan Lynam (Road) and a video produced by Katie VanSickle (Marketing Communications) featuring many American Structurepoint employees, vendors, and community service recipients, the Community Service Team hosted after-work socials and lunch-and-learns to show employees how their contributions get doubled by the company and leveraged to create real impact in the communities where we live, work, and play.

The goal was not only to increase the amount of employee donations, but to shift participation from annual giving at Christmas time to the year-round payroll deduction program, providing a predictable monthly budget to fund more employee-suggested programs throughout the year. Our goal was to increase participation in payroll deduction to 30% of the company (47 new participants). We finished the month with 48 new participants, plus increases in giving by 7 employees who were already participating, as well as 2 employees who made significant one-time donations in addition to their monthly pledge. The Columbus office was instrumental in achieving our goal: as an office they achieved 51% participation!

All participants in payroll deduction had the opportunity to win one of two gift cards donated to the program. Scott Crites (Road) won the drawing at the lunch and learn, and Jeff McCann (Environmental) won the drawing at the Victory Lap Party. If you didn’t take part in the pledge drive, it’s never too late (or too early!) to start. See Michele Collins or Ben Braun for payroll deduction forms to get signed up. Many thanks to the CI Group for helping set up and take down at the party, and to everyone else who who assisted in making this pledge drive so successful!