The last week of the NI Gives campaign coincides with a new non-profit for me

For some reason this NI Gives campaign happens to coincide with a number of non-profit projects for me. Last weekend was the Board Retreat for Green Doors, we’ve seen tremendous growth in both our board and services over the last year and it was a good opportunity to revisit our strategic plans and get alignment on what to focus on in 2010. The end of last week I was also involved in kicking off a new non-profit, Team Rogue. This non-profit is focused on a number of things, one is developing an Austin based elite running team to compete at the National, World and Olympic stage. The elite runners will also be actively engaged in the Austin community to engage middle-school and high-school students. I’ll write more on this soon, I’m travelling for work so it’s a little harder to keep up.

An environment that encourages community giving

This time of year with the NI Gives campaign I’m remind of one of the things I enjoy about the work environment at NI. We don’t just pay lip service to encouraging volunteerism and philanthropy. A large number of NI engineers volunteer in local schools, helping teachers and students learn science and engineering concepts with Lego Mindstorms. This is actively encouraged and when I talk to engineers that take part in the program it’s obvious to see the benefit that they also get from the experience.

For over six years I’ve been on the volunteer board of a local non-profit, Green Doors, that provides affordable housing to formerly homeless vets and to at risk single parent families and NI has been great in allowing me to remain active with Green Doors. These all sound like small things but they do add up and I’m grateful that NI supports these efforts of its employees, here are three things I’ve benefited from:

• Once a month I leave work early for our board meeting, it’s on my calendar and it’s a time that people don’t get upset about (very busy people with titles much cooler than mine) that time being off limits. Every other week I come in later one day for a meeting with our executive director.
• Corporate matching yearly of up to $1000 of personal donations and willingness to contribute pro bono work
• Flexibility … things come up, sometimes during regular work hours and as long as it’s reasonable I’ve always found my managers to be accommodating to me needing to out for a couple of hours during the day

It seemed difficult at first 6 years ago working crazy hours to make time to volunteer but once it beacme part of the routine it hasn’t been as daunting as it once seemed. It really does help that the culture at NI encourages us to find workable solutions that balance our work and personal lives.

NI Gives, the NI Charitable Giving Campaign

This week is the second week of three of the NI Gives campaign. This is the annual charitable giving campaign and like many other companies we’re in the season of giving. Last years campaign fell at about the same time of the year, right after all the bad financial news had come out and even with that it was a record year in charitable contributions at NI which was a really great thing to see. As part of the campaign today and tomorrow during lunch a number of local non-profits are setting booths up in our cafeteria during lunch to expose the different volunteer opportunities available in Austin and also to present themselves as organizations to consider to donate to.

Charity isn’t just about giving money. Don’t get me wrong, being part of the board of a non-profit I know the value of unrestricted funds (funds that aren’t tied to a specific use) as they provide the most flexible form of money, which can be used where an organization needs it. If money is tight being able to volunteer your time, cleaning up, landscaping, painting a house, teaching somebody to read or use a computer are all extremely valuable. In many ways they are more fulfilling because of the personal interaction and direct benefit you see with those you’re serving. I hope many of us at NI are able to make the time to drop by and see some of the organizations that are visiting us to get an idea of how we can get involved in our community.