Volunteers put together Sweet Cases for kids
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Fingerpaint creates art for clients every day.
On Friday afternoon, however, the marketing agency — which has its headquarters in Saratoga Springs — created something to help children in foster care.
For the company’s philanthropy day, Fingerpaint teamed up with Together We Rise to provide Sweet Cases for foster children for Northern Rivers Family of Services, as well as other service providers in Scottsdale, Ariz., Columbus, Ohio and Philadelphia
“This is the first year we’ve done this,” said Fin-
gerpaint founder Ed Mitzen. “In the past we used to have summer picnics every year, which a lot of companies do, and we thought based on our focus on philanthropy we would forgo the picnics and instead use that time to help to give back in some way.”
Nine years ago the company started, and giving back and community relations has always been a big part of Fingerpaint’s culture, officials said.
About five years ago the company hired Bo Goliber to drive all corporate giving and community relations work: deciding what charities to donate money and time to, and placing interested parties to work on various non-profit boards.
About 25 percent of Fingerpaint employees serve on non-profit boards, while about 60 percent volunteer outside of work.
“It’s sort of a big part of who we are and what we want to be as a company, as one that helps to give back in the communities. Not as a sense of obligation, but because it makes us feel good,” said Mitzen. “We feel very blessed that we have good jobs. We live in a beautiful part of the country. It feels really special to be able to help other people.”
Mitzen surveys employees to find out their passions. The four main areas employees want to donate time and money revolve around children, animals and health and human services.
“It’s not that we don’t want to help the auto museum and things like that,” said Mitzen. “But we’ve kind of prioritized our focus in those kind of core areas.”
Together We Rise is a national program that partners companies with local service agencies. Goliber was tasked with finding a national organization so that all four areas where Fingerpaint’s located could participate in the same activity.
“When we learned from Together We Rise that nearly 1,200 kids enter the American foster care system every day, and most travel with nothing but a trash bag to carry their belongings, we were shocked,” said Goliber. “We knew we wanted to do a philanthropy day, and this cause really resonated with our staff.”
Fingerpaint raised $10,000 in 45 days to purchase the Sweet Cases and bikes.
On Friday afternoon in four areas of the country, hundreds of Sweet Cases were created so that children could have a bag, a teddy bear, a coloring book with crayons and a warm blanket.
Northern Rivers Family of Services received some of the Sweet Cases and a few bikes, too.
“I think it’s fantastic that companies like Fingerpaint say, ‘Hey, what can we do for our communities?’ Because these families are the families in your communities,” said Bill Marszalek of Northern Rivers Family of Services. “If you don’t know they are there, they are there and we as service providers for these families need support and help for them; so what we’re seeing is a good philanthropy from a lot of these companies.”
The bags serve as a practical gift for children.
“Bags are big things for kids,” said Marszalek. “It gives them something they could put their things in, and it helps us offset what we have to pay for because we are a non-profit agency and we’ve got to make up for these kids the best way that we can.”
Employees at Fingerpaint used their creativity on Friday afternoon to decorate the bags.
“We’re a creative company, so it’s nice a tie in ...” said Mitzen. “This is just right in our sweet spot.”