Lane County businesses contribute generously
By James Stegall
The year 2008 was not an easy one. The vagaries of the financial market made it difficult to be charitable—which, of course, only increased the need for charity. But in a year of market crashes, bailouts, and tightening budgets, Lane County businesses still found the means and heart to contribute to their communities.
Most of the businesses profiled in the following pages focused their giving on two things: education and feeding the hungry. Sometimes the companies accomplished these goals through working with other organizations, and sometimes they rolled up their sleeves and provided hundreds of hours of direct labor to service agencies like Habitat for Humanity.
In some cases, employees contributed as much as $500 each to causes such as the United Way, amounts their employers then matched and exceeded. Some small businesses donated their time and organizational savvy to host events to bring the community together or provide training to school kids.
In every case, these businesses demonstrated a vision of serving a greater good in our community, realizing that strong communities bring strong business.
Golden Temple
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In October 2008, Golden Temple Foods sent out thousands of cards to local businesses as part of its new program called Sharing Food, Awakening Goodness. Each card contained information on how businesses can help feed the local hungry. “We felt a lot of businesses want to help, but aren’t sure how to do it,” explains Elisa Brown, associate brand manager for cereal. By partnering with Lawyers Alliance Against Hunger, Golden Temple hoped to give other businesses strategies for the fight against hunger. For its part, Golden Temple has donated more than 500,000 pounds of bulk cereal since it was founded 12 years ago. Golden Temple accounts for its donations as servings, and in 2008 the company donated one million servings to Oregon food programs. They expect to donate more than 1.5 million servings in 2009. One of the company’s major areas of focus is school breakfast programs. “We believe kids need to eat well to learn,” Brown says. “We’re really proud to be able to help.”
SELCO
SELCO Community Credit Union has been a prolific contributor to Lane County education projects for the last 70 years. Its Social Responsibility program has helped more than 250 nonprofit organizations and schools, including CASA of Lane County, Looking Glass, KidSports, and the Boys and Girls Clubs. SELCO has also given more than $30,000 in mini-grants to K-12 educators to fund classroom projects. The credit union encourages its employees to contribute their time to the community as well by providing paid time off for volunteering. In 2008, 235 SELCO employees volunteered more than 2,000 hours on such programs as middle school mentoring, high school financial literacy, and Junior Achievement. SELCO also offered a slightly different means of support by sponsoring the creation of a website for a brand new Eugene nonprofit called Bags of Love, an agency that provides hand-sewn bags filled with age-appropriate items for children taken from their homes and families due to abuse or neglect.
Springfield Creamery
Springfield Creamery, makers of Nancy’s Cultured Dairy and Soy, gives weekly to FOOD For Lane County—in 2008 alone the company donated more than 37,000 pounds of food, directly benefitting needy Lane County families.
The creamery also supports the Eugene Ballet, Eugene Marathon, Eugene Celebration, EcoTrust, KidSports, the Willamette Farm and Food Coalition, and Plate and Pitch Fork.
Co-founder Sue Kesey is the board treasurer for Mainstream Housing, a nonprofit that provides low-cost housing options for Lane County residents with developmental disabilities.
Deluxe Fashion
Mitra and Aaron Chester started the Deluxe fashion show in 2007, so that local designers and clothing artists could strut their stuff for Lane County. But the couple’s outreach hasn’t ended at the runway.
In addition to the fashion show, the owners of Deluxe, and now Kitsch, regularly donate clothing to St. Vincent de Paul and since the shop opened, have been working with students interested in fashion and marketing. The Chesters are a great example of what small-business owners can accomplish on a limited budget. Mitra is currently designing an internship program aimed at developing entrepreneurship in young women, with a fashion and marketing focus.
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Re/Max Eugene
While Re/Max Eugene gives to several causes throughout the year, it was the 2008 School Supply Drive that really captured the imagination of the office, which includes more than 120 real estate agents and loan officers. “I felt like I never stopped loading supplies in my car for donation,” recalls marketing director Heather White. “You can’t imagine what the outcome will be, but you know it will be something great.”
Other charities Re/Max Eugene supports are Toys for Tots, CASA, and the Relief Nursery, which supplies local needy children with clothing and toys during the holidays.
Arlie & Company
In the midst of her battle with ovarian cancer, Suzanne Arlie decided she wanted to help other women with the same struggle gain access to the many complementary therapies that had helped her, such as meditation, massage, and acupuncture. To accomplish this goal, she started the Golden Ribbon Foundation, which provides $1,000 grants to any woman in Lane County diagnosed with ovarian cancer, regardless of financial status.
Arlie & Company also provides funding and support to several local charities, including Greenhill Humane Society, Committed Partners for Youth, the Relief Nursery, the Center for Community Counseling, and FOOD For Lane County. The company was also instrumental in the City of Eugene’s acquisition of a 200-acre parcel of land between Mount Baldy and Lane Community College that will extend the Ridgeline hiking trail.
Windermere Real Estate
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Since 2004, Lane County residents have been getting down at Windermere’s annual benefit concert, which has raised more than $35,000 for Lane County Habitat for Humanity. However, the gift of boogie is just a small part of what Windermere contributes to Lane County.
In 2008, the Eugene Chamber of Commerce awarded the firm its Emerald Award for Community Caring, citing a long record of local support of such agencies as HIV Alliance, Looking Glass, Committed Partners for Youth, Northwest Youth Corps, Little Eagles Literacy Program, Camp Fire, Springfield/Eugene Habitat For Humanity, Springfield CHORE Program, Relief Nursery, FOOD For Lane County, and Shelter Care.
Windermere also encourages employees to volunteer on company time, and holds an annual Community Service Day, taking place every June for the last five years, where brokers, staff, managers, and family members help with harvesting, weeding, and other gardening chores at the FOOD For Lane County GrassRoots Garden.
Siuslaw Bank
In 2008, Siuslaw Bank donated more than $165,000 to leadership grants for college-bound high school students in all 11 Eugene 4J schools, with $1,500 for each student. For a company with only 132 employees, Siuslaw Bank digs deep to contribute to the community, which earned the bank a Top 10 Philanthropic Company award from the Portland Business Journal for the second year in a row.
In a year when donations to the United Way were down 10 percent overall, the bank’s employees beat 2007’s gift by 29 percent, with more than $69,000 donated to educational, art, and cultural organizations in Lane County—a donation that the company increased to more than $100,000. Each employee gave an average of $500.
Symantec
Symantec gave more than $66,000 in grants to local nonprofits in 2008, supporting organizations like Junior Achievement, FOOD For Lane County, CASA of Lane County, and the Wildish Community Theater. In addition, local office employees gave more than $9,000, which Symantec matched, including more than 2,400 volunteer hours for educational and youth-focused causes.
The company’s other main program for giving is Dollars for Doers, which matches an organization’s volunteer hours with monetary grants. In 2008, Dollars for Doers contributed in excess of $22,000. The company also made software donations worth more than $188,000 to Oregon-based nonprofits.
Ninkasi Brewing
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Although it has been in its new Van Buren Street facility for less than two years, Eugene’s Ninkasi Brewing is already a strong contributor to the Whiteaker community it calls home. The brewery has been an organizer and sponsor of the Whiteaker Block Party, an annual event since 2006 that highlights local businesses and entertainment.
Ninkasi is also focused on the concept of the bio-region, and currently only uses products from, and sells its beer in, locations that can be reached in eight hours or less—part of founder Jamie Floyd’s dedication to the Pacific Northwest.
Pacific Cascade Federal Credit Union
While they work for a relatively small firm, the employees of Pacific Cascade’s three locations in Eugene and Springfield have contributed volunteer hours and money to numerous local causes and schools. The credit union has given to Rotary Club, Junior Achievement, the Eugene City Club, Womenspace, McKenzie Willamette’s Festival of Trees, local intramural sports, the United Way, and many other groups and events. Most of the credit union’s giving focuses on local schools, including sponsoring the alcohol-free senior parties for several high schools and awarding two college scholarships of $1,500.
Pacific Cascade is especially proud of its contribution to the Junior Achievement 2008 Bowl-A-Thon, sponsoring the event and raising money through employee volunteer hours. Pacific Cascade teams raised more than $7,000 in one night through the event.
PacificSource Health Plans
Founded in Eugene in 1933, PacificSource has been operating as a not-for-profit health care provider for more than 75 years. The company’s giving focuses almost exclusively on improving access to health care, and provides in-kind donations, grants, and employee volunteer hours to local causes.
The PacificSource Charitable Foundation focuses annually on projects that help children and assists the under- and un-insured of Oregon. The foundation has funded health clinics, public schools, and numerous education programs through its Healthy Communities giving program. In 2007, the foundation awarded more than $450,000 to Oregon causes, including Relief Nursery, CASA of Lane County, Committed Partners for Youth, Mental Health for Kids, and many others.
High Maintenance Salon
High Maintenance Salon has implemented a policy to support one different local charity each month.
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The salon, open since November 2007, made the decision to support FOOD For Lane County for its first three months. Customers received a significant discount if they brought in three cans of food. “We did this mainly because the program worked so well” the first month they tried it, says owner Chris Spencer. “We wanted to help through Thanksgiving and Christmas.”
HIV Alliance received support from High Maintenance throughout the month of February, and the salon also sponsored “An Evening in Greece,” an annual dinner, dance, and silent auction at the Hilton in February, and the walk for multiple sclerosis in April. Spencer says they are filling up their calendar this year with plans to support other local organizations like Greenhill Humane Society and the Relief Nursery.
Kendall Auto Group
Not many corporations will go to the trouble of hosting a yard sale to fundraise for schools, but Kendall Auto Group does it every summer to raise money for backpacks and school supplies for 4J schools. In another move supporting grass-roots fundraising, Kendall started a program called Kendall Ambassadors, which created small groups of employee leaders in each dealership’s community, to empower employees and their families to make decisions about volunteer hours and the direction of the company’s fundraising dollars.
The Ambassador program, and Kendall as a whole, has had an impact on Lane County organizations like Relief Nursery, Birth to Three, the Boys and Girls Club, FOOD For Lane County, and Christmas for Kids.
Datalogic
Datalogic produces bar code readers, mobile computers, RFID systems, and photoelectric sensors for the AutoID sector. It is structured into three companies, aligned by specific products and markets (Datalogic Scanning, Datalogic Mobile, and Datalogic Automation), and each year, the two Eugene-based companies sponsor a campaign to support local nonprofits the United Way and EarthShare of Oregon. As many as one quarter of Datalogic’s employees participate in this program through payroll deduction; Datalogic then matches them 50 cents for every dollar. “Since 2004, our combined efforts have resulted in donations of over $400,000 for these two worthy organizations,” says Bill Parnell, president and CEO of Datalogic Scanning. In addition, every year about 70 Datalogic employees role up their sleeves and pitch in to support the United Way’s annual Day of Caring, which takes place in September. The American Cancer Society, March of Dimes, Boys and Girls Club of Emerald Valley, Alzheimer’s Association, and Youth Corps also benefited from Datalogic Scanning’s employee-sponsored fundraising in 2008.
Funk/Levis
Every year, Funk/Levis throws a holiday party to show their appreciation for their clients, vendors, family, and friends—they also use the opportunity to raise support and awareness for local nonprofits. In 2008, they turned their party into a food drive and fundraiser for FOOD For Lane County. Together with their fellow partygoers, they were able to collect 558 pounds of food and $600 cash, all of which will help feed the hungry right here in Lane County.
For the 15th year in a row, Funk/Levis has also donated the design work for Chefs’ Night Out, a major annual fundraiser for FOOD For Lane County and a gathering of more than 50 local restaurants serving samples of their tastiest treats.
“We are so lucky to have a great nonprofit like FOOD For Lane County helping to fight hunger in our community,” says Anne Marie Levis, Funk/Levis president. “Funk/Levis is proud that our time and efforts can be used to support them and their mission.”
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PeaceHealth Oregon Region
PeaceHealth Oregon Region operates three hospitals in Lane County, including Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend; Sacred Heart, University District; and Cottage Grove Community Hospital. The nonprofit health care system also provides primary and specialty care at PeaceHealth Medical Group clinics in Eugene, Springfield, Junction City, Creswell, and Cottage Grove.
PeaceHealth provides care to the uninsured and underinsured at no cost, and forgives unpaid bills—PeaceHealth provided $66.4 million in uncompensated care in 2008.
Other local organizations also received support from PeaceHealth Oregon Region, including the United Way, White Bird, and Volunteers in Medicine. PeaceHealth provides funding for the Lane Community College nursing program, to help train the next generation of nursing professionals.
SkinnerLopata Harris LLC
The three partners of SkinnerLopata Harris law firm are involved in philanthropy in Eugene in a number of ways, from monetary donations to volunteering their time. The firm sponsored the 2008 Grrrlz Rock event, a month-long series of concerts that put more than 40 of Eugene’s female-led bands, dancers, filmmakers, and comedians in the spotlight. A Mother’s Day ad donation supported the Lane County Legal Aid Domestic Violence Clinic, and the firm funded the 2008 celebration party of Basic Rights Oregon, held at the Tango Center in Eugene. In addition to donations throughout the year to Basic Rights Oregon, the Soroptomist Club of Eugene, the Girl Scouts, and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Eugene, the partners volunteer for a number of organizations.
Cassandra SkinnerLopata is a member of the Board of Directors of Head Start of Lane County, and a member of the Oregon State Bar, Quality of Life Committee. Jet Harris is a member of the Oregon State Bar, Ethics Committee, and a member of Unitarian Universalist Building Project Oversight Committee. Cassandra, Andy SkinnerLopata, and Harris are all mentors in Lane County Bar’s Attorney/Law Student Mentorship Program.
Most of the businesses profiled in the following pages focused their giving on two things: education and feeding the hungry. Sometimes the companies accomplished these goals through working with other organizations, and sometimes they rolled up their sleeves and provided hundreds of hours of direct labor to service agencies like Habitat for Humanity.
