February 10, 2017
At Mindsight, we believe businesses have a responsibility to not only serve their customers, but to also better the community around them. In pursuit of that responsibility, Mindsight engages in several Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives every year. It’s now 2017, so we have a new wave of projects and volunteer opportunities for our team coming down the pipe.
To show what’s to come, we’re going to take a look back at the history of our CSR initiatives. Below is a brief summary of each of our projects and how they have helped Chicago-area communities.
Mindsight’s Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives
Mindsight’s Annual Hunger Games
Food insecurity is a serious problem in Chicago, the United States, and around the world. To aid in this fight, Mindsight hosts an annual Hunger Games every October and November. Each year, the Hunger Games have taken a unique form, but the initiative is founded on three principles: education, donation, and volunteering.
Year 1: 2014
Our first year was a simple food drive. Mindsight employees were broken into teams and each competed to collect the largest quantity of non-perishable food. Our goal was to raise 500lbs of foodstuffs. We shattered it by collecting 3,275 food items, which came out to 2,600 lbs., and an additional $500 in monetary donations.
Year 2: 2015
In our second year of the Hunger Games, we structured the competition around a BINGO sheet. Each square of BINGO represented a different volunteer, education, or donation opportunity. The diversity of projects for this year allowed us to have a greater impact in the community.
Below is just a sample of the activities the Mindsight team engaged in throughout our second Hunger Games.
Volunteering:
The Mindsight team volunteered at the following organizations:
- Greater Chicago Food Depository
- Wheaton Food Pantry
- Franciscan Outreach Food Kitchen
- Historic Wagner Farm
- Northern Illinois Food Bank
Donate:
We helped several established food drives throughout Chicago by:
- Bringing in healthy boxed cereals and canned goods
- Bringing food donations to Studio Movie Grill for their food drive
- Participating in the Union Station Food Drive
- Providing food-insecure families with a Thanksgiving dinner through donations to the People’s Resource Center
Educate:
We educated ourselves on the food scarcity problem and helped spread awareness of the challenges of food insecurity for others by:
- Watching A Place at the Table documentary and sharing information among the company
- Sharing hunger statistics from last year’s Hunger Games with new employees
- Playing the Hungry to Get By online game, learning about hunger in America, and sharing the information with fellow employees
- Visiting community gardens
Results:
- Scanned and sorted 5,091 pounds of food
- Packed 2,181 pounds of food at a food pantry
- 100+ meals served to food insecure individuals
Year 3: 2016
Our third year of the Hunger Games once again took a new form. This time, the game was structured like a Tic-Tac-Toe Board. Four teams competed head-to-head to complete a game of tic-tac-toe by donating, raising awareness, and volunteering around Chicago.
Some of the projects included:
Dress Down Day: By donating $5 to the Greater Chicago Food Depository (GCFD), each employee was able to dress in casual attire at work. This simple imitative raised $140 for the GCFD.
Non-Perishable Food Donations: Through a competitive food drive, Mindsight donated 292 cans and packages of non-perishable foods for the Wheaton Food Pantry.
Name That Food: The “Name that Food” game encouraged Mindsight employees to learn about new foods and cuisines outside the normal American fare.
Donating Spare Change: At the time, Coinstar was running an initiative wherein you could donate a portion of your spare change to Feeding America, a non-profit charity. We raised over $80 to help this cause.
Bank of America: We donated 660 meals in the name of Mindsight through Bank of America’s Feeding America program.
Mindsight Domestic Violence Awareness to Benefit A Safe Place
Beyond food insecurity, Mindsight also worked to help survivors of domestic violence by supporting A Safe Place. A Safe Place is a non-profit charity that provides services to survivors of domestic violence and supports them in their efforts to transform their lives. The organization is the leading advocate for eliminating domestic violence in northern Illinois.
In 2015, Mindsight helped in the following ways:
- We collected money and “wish-list” items for A Safe Place, including refurbished cell phones. The cell phones were then distributed by A Safe Place and local law enforcement agencies to help in domestic violence cases.
- Mindsight held a “Denim Against Domestic Violence Day” on February 24th. Our employees wore jeans to the office and each gave a $5 donation to A Safe Place.
- On February 27th Mindsight volunteered to spend a half-day on-site at A Safe Place painting their facilities.
- In total, we donated $515 in addition to phones and wish list items.
Aiden’s Walk for the Cure — a Mindsight Fundraiser to Benefit St. Baldrick’s Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research
There are few tragedies worse than Childhood Cancer. Mindsight has hosted two annual fundraising events to raise money for St. Baldrick’s Foundation to aid in this fight. St. Baldrick’s funds more childhood cancer research grants than any organization aside from the U.S. government. Since the turn of the century, St. Baldrick’s has raised more than $178 Million for childhood cancer research.
Year 1: 2015
- Our goal was to raise $5,000.
- We hosted a cancer walk at Patriot’s Park in Downers Grove. Walk participants paid a $25 registration fee or raised $100 in pledges to attend.
- 100% of all donations and proceeds benefited St. Baldrick’s.
- In total, we raised $6,955 of $5,000 Goal
Year 2: The Mindsight Walk and Olympics
Sponsored by community partners and businesses including Carlucci Restaurant and Bar and 101.9FM THE MIX WTMX/Chicago, Aiden’s Walk was carried on as the Mindsight Walk and Olympics. Through tests of Mind and Body, competitors engaged in light-hearted challenges to support St. Baldrick’s Foundation. Thanks to the generosity of our team, we managed to raise almost $3,000 in donations.
Other Opportunities to Give Back
In addition to our large volunteer projects and initiatives, Mindsight has found other small opportunities to make our community a better place to live. Our office is located in Downers Grove Illinois, so we have engaged in a couple smaller projects in the area.
Plant a Tree for Arbor Day
In celebration of Arbor Day 2016, Mindsight planted a tree sapling outside of our building. We look forward to watching the young Tulip Tree bloom in the spring.
Adopt-A-Highway
Mindsight has also adopted a small stretch of road near our office through the Dupage County Adopt-A-Highway program. Three times a year, Mindsight grabs garbage bags to clean up Finley Road from Lacey to Warrenville Rd.
Doing Our Part
Each year that we take on these CSR initiatives, it becomes clearer to us just how much work there is to do, and every year, we strive to do a little bit more. In 2017, we have every intention of continuing to do our part to enrich the community around us and make the Chicago that much more of a better place to live. We encourage all our readers to take time to support the many charities and foundations doing important work throughout Chicago.
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About Mindsight
Mindsight, a Chicago IT services provider, is an extension of your team. Our culture is built on transparency and trust, and our team is made up of extraordinary people – the kinds of people you would hire. We have one of the largest expert-level engineering teams delivering the full spectrum of IT services and solutions, from cloud to infrastructure, collaboration to contact center. Our highly-certified engineers and process-oriented excellence have certainly been key to our success. But what really sets us apart is our straightforward and honest approach to every conversation, whether it is for an emerging business or global enterprise. Our customers rely on our thought leadership, responsiveness, and dedication to solving their toughest technology challenges.
Contact us at GoMindsight.com.
For Further Reading
Mindsight Fights Food Insecurity with 3rd Annual Hunger Games