Last week, in the first installment of our SuiteImpact Holiday blog, we told you about the incredible spirit of giving back in our Manila office, and their long-term commitment to the Philippine Christian Foundation. Today, I wanted to share a few more stories of the unique ways that our spirited NetSuite employees have decided to give back this year.
In NetSuite’s Brno, Czech Republic office, employees were able to get some of their Christmas shopping done while supporting an amazing local organization. The office hosted a fair for the V Ruzovem Sadu organization, a therapeutic workshop for people with disabilities. V Ruzovem Sadu (opens in new tab) provides them with the opportunity to work as craftsmen and earn money by selling their wares.
The team from Brno had the opportunity to listen to a presentation about how the workshop runs, and then invited the crafts people to set-up a holiday fair with the toys and decorations they had created. Employees relished the opportunity to meet these talented individuals and purchase the items they’d created – in fact, the staff broke a record for the organization, purchasing over CZK 36,000 in goods!
The purchase also helps with the overhead of the organization, providing salaries for the assistants and running the workshop programs. Of the 120 employees in Brno, nearly all of them participated in the event!
NetSuite also has two Australia offices, one in Melbourne and one in Sydney, whose employees overwhelmingly voted to support the Barnardos Children’s charity as their SuiteImpact Team holiday event for the second year in a row. This charity is very dear to the hearts of many Australians, and for over 120 years, they have been at the forefront of child welfare services, striving to find permanent solutions for the needy children across Australia.
Employees selected gifts for the children at Barnardos and brought them into the office to put under the tree until the drop-off. The lion’s share of gifts went to the older/adolescent children who are often forgotten during the holidays. The drive was incredibly successful, with nearly all of our employees getting into the holiday spirit. After the drop-off, the office received a note from the charity thanking them for the gifts and sharing that this year they were in especially desperate need, and the donation went a long way. Hearing this need, the employees decided to get competitive between the teams in the office, and aimed to double the number of gifts already raised. From the picture below, you can see that the competition was a success -- our hats are off to NetSuite Australia for having not one, but TWO charity drives for Barnardos this year.
The team at NetSuite’s newest office, in New York City, is just getting back to business after Hurricane Sandy’s devastation impacted many of their towns. Realizing how much help is still needed by those impacted by the storms, the team decided to make their holiday activity about giving back to those still needing help. Five of our team members traveled down to Manasquan, NJ, which was particularly hard hit by Sandy to help out with sand removal and clean-up of a home. As we can see from the photos, it’s overwhelming to see the power of the storm, and the wreckage it left behind. Joe, Chris, Pratap, Chris and Jeff brought their work gloves, shovels, brute strength and humor to the job, and were able to make a difference for one family this holiday season.
Looking at the photos from all three of these SuiteImpact Team events reminds us how many different ways there are to give back during the holiday season. Whether it’s by supporting an organization like V Ruzovem Sadu, buying gifts for children in need, or helping those impacted by natural disasters, there a thousands of ways to help those less fortunate than we are, and the holiday season is a great time to reach out to your local community and see how you can help.
If you’re looking for a volunteer opportunity near you, reach out to your local community or check online, where there are dozens of great resources online, including our partners at Volunteermatch (opens in new tab).
We’ll be sharing additional stories from some of our other NetSuite offices later this week, so stay tuned.
Don’t forget, you can always keep in touch with us on twitter @NetSuiteOrg (opens in new tab)!