GIVING FIRMS A CARING TOUCH
Benevity assists companies that are helping improve lives of others
A Calgary- based company has quietly become one of the city’s largest tech employers and a leader in its field of bringing much- needed change and modernization to the giving and volunteering landscape.
Benevity president and chief executive Bryan de Lottinville has a vision that giving back to the cause of one’s choice will soon be as easy as leaving a tip at a restaurant; an everyday part of doing business with companies that care. Benevity is already assisting some of North America’s best- known brands that are helping to improve the lives of others.
De Lottinville was a successful finance lawyer in Ontario. It was while representing Smed International that owner Mogens Smed told him, “You’re too normal to be a lawyer, come work for me.”
He made the move to Calgary to work at the office furniture manufacturing facility where de Lottinville said his education in customer experience really began.
His first foray into his own entrepreneurial, web- based technology business was with iStock Photo, a successful venture that was eventually sold to Getty Images.
He did well financially but wondered what his professional legacy would be. Like many, he had donated to different charities but realized that after ticking a box he was not involved any deeper and he spent time investigating the world of charitable giving.
Startled by the fact less than five per cent of donations in a $ 350- billion industry were from corporations and less than seven per cent were processed online, de Lottinville set out to improve those numbers.
Benevity created a different approach and companies have begun to understand that their employees want and expect more meaningful ways to be actively involved in giving back to others.
Benevity staff help clients by better engaging customers, employees and partners in strategic, focused, choice- driven philanthropy.
It uses proprietary software to ensure a simple, secure and easy giving that makes user- driven philanthropy part of everyday life.
Through newer technology, de Lottinville has made workplace donations and volunteering easy and impactful.
It allows employees to track donations and volunteer hours for corporate matching programs and is a proven tool to promote employee and customer engagement.
It’s also a big boon for charities faced with huge costs in manually processing donations.
The number of corporations buying into the program is encouraging. Brand names like Nike, which chose Benevity to power its WE Giving Program, Google, Apple, United Health Group, Coca- Cola, Prudential and a host of other majors that Do Well while Doing Good.
This year, through Benevity, about half a billion dollars will be distributed to 75,000 charities around the world. Last year, the company hired 55 people and is looking to hire another 80 in Calgary before year- end, adding to the 105 in sales offices in Toronto, Portland, Seattle and Chicago.
Growth means space needs change and thanks to the team of Peter and Justin Mayerchak of Colliers International, Benevity will be moving into 22,000 square feet in the Pilkington Building on 11th Avenue S. E.
NEWS AND NOTES
What kind of a super salesman would it take to persuade 240 people to pay for a breakfast on the Peace Bridge at 5 a. m. — rain or shine. It would have to be a George Brookman, aided and abetted by co- chair Brett Wilson, in organizing an early morning celebration honouring the 70th anniversary of the Liberation of Holland.
Taking place June 20, it has attracted Lt. Gen. Mart de Kruif, commander of the Netherlands Army, as guest speaker. All proceeds will go to the Calgary Military Family Resource Centre to assist personnel suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.
Shauna MacDonald and her team at Brookline Public Relations are busy working outside city limits with the awarding as PR agency of record for the Edmonton Arena District. Canada’s largest mixed- use sports and entertainment development that will help transform and revitalize downtown Edmonton, it is led by a joint venture between the Katz Group and WAM Development Group. Brookline also signed another big out- of- town account — Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey.