Ashland Inc., Dell and Peter Dudley of Wells Fargo Win 2016 Charities@Work Corporate Impact Awards
Awards Recognize Outstanding Work in the Field of Employee Engagement, CSR and Campaign Management
NEW YORK, March 30, 2016 /3BL Media/ – Charities@Work today announced Ashland Inc., Dell and Peter Dudley, Senior Vice President, Community Support Programs of Wells Fargo, winners of the 2016 Corporate Impact Awards for giving back to society in extraordinary ways. The awards were presented by the four partners that comprise Charities@Work—America’s Charities, Community Health Charities, EarthShare and Global Impact—during the 15th Annual Charities@Work Best Practices Summit on Employee Engagement luncheon held at the New York Marriott Marquis.
Ashland Inc. and Dell each earned the Corporate Excellence Award for their exemplary employee engagement and CSR programs. Peter Dudley received the Individual Partner of the Year Award for making a significant difference in his community. All three were selected based on proprietary criteria and the recommendations from the judging panel. Nominations for the Corporate Excellence Award were open to any company with an employee giving and volunteer program. Submissions for the Individual Partner of the Year Award were open to individuals leading a giving or broader employee engagement program. Winners were selected by an independent panel of industry leaders.
“On behalf of the Charities@Work partners, I congratulate Ashland Inc., Dell and Peter Dudley for their extraordinary service,” said Steve Delfin, current chair of Charities@Work and president and CEO of America’s Charities. “Each has demonstrated significant achievement: Ashland Inc. has a deep commitment to maximizing employee engagement excellence and employee participation; Dell’s corporate leadership is the difference maker in their volunteer programs and continues to lead the field in effective, authentic top-down engagement; and Peter Dudley—who is this year’s Charities@Work Advisory Council Co-Chair—has shown exemplary leadership throughout his career and visionary thinking surrounding CSR and employee engagement.”
Charities@Work Corporate Excellence Award
The Corporate Excellence Award honors two corporations for overall excellence in philanthropic giving, employee engagement or CSR. Nominations were open to any company with an employee giving and volunteer program. The awards' focus was a company’s excellence in workplace giving, their leadership engagement in CSR activities as well as other employee engagement best practices. The jury commended both Ashland Inc. and Dell for their strong corporate leadership in advancing their individual programs.
Ashland Inc., a global specialty chemical company, has been lauded for increasing employee participation and promoting partnerships between nonprofits and its uniquely branded matching gifts program. With the theme, “Your Choice ... Make Great Things Happen,” the program aligns with Ashland’s official tagline, “With Good Chemistry Great Things Happen.” It targets all U.S. employees, encouraging them to donate to a choice of 10 national, nonprofit agencies, with Ashland making a 50-cents-on-the-dollar match.
As a Responsible Care® company, Ashland proactively engages with its communities through transparency and two-way communication. Every Ashland facility with 10 or more employees annually develops a CSR plan reflecting both the company’s strategic areas of focus and employee interests. “At our major campus locations and manufacturing facilities, we are fortunate to have employees who care for and support their local communities, along with various national and/or international causes,” stated Daryl Love, Ashland’s Manager of Community Relations. “With a primary focus on STEM-related education, the environment, and health and human services initiatives, our matching gifts program and employee-led volunteer teams provide financial support and hands-on involvement, helping nonprofit organizations realize their missions.”
Dell received praise from the judges for expanding their employee engagement program to a more global audience. Their internal volunteer portal, which enables team members to connect with local charities and volunteer opportunities, is now available in 11 different languages and open to all team members across the world. This resulted in increased engagement outside of the US. As part of their Legacy of Good plan, Dell has a goal to reach 75% of team members volunteering 5 million hours by 2020. Since 2014, 66% of employees have volunteered more than 1.4 million hours in global communities.
“As a global technology provider, we have a unique opportunity to advance communities in an increasingly digital world,” commented Jeremy Ford, Director, Corporate Social Responsibility at Dell, who accepted the award on behalf of his company. “Finding creative ways to connect our global teams with meaningful volunteer opportunities that use their skills and expertise achieves the greatest impact. When our people are engaged collectively around a common purpose, we can then build better lives.”
Charities@Work Individual Partner of the Year Award
The Individual Partner of the Year Award is awarded to an employee of a major company who has gone above and beyond the call of duty to make a difference in her or his community. In addition, this award recognizes the individual who works to advance the continuum of engagement (giving, volunteerism and education) within their company and one who has served as an exceptional partner of Charities@Work. Individual Partner Award candidates came from companies that have giving or broader employee engagement programs. The award focuses on the individual’s strategic advancement of giving programs, the partnerships they forge with nonprofits as well as on their leadership and vision in executing those programs.
Peter Dudley runs the nation’s largest workplace giving campaign at Wells Fargo, and thus manages multiple volunteer programs under the Wells Fargo Volunteers brand, as well as employee hardship and scholarship funds. Peter also spends time educating the field and raising the collective voice around employee engagement. For example, he recently blogged about the challenges of running an online auction for CSRWire Talkback, and led a #DriveChange live Twitter chat about how to do well by doing good.
Said Dudley when accepting the award, “While every action, no matter how small, can make a huge difference, the most important benefits of a strong employee volunteer program exist on a much deeper level than the bottom line. They’re under the surface. I’m proud to receive this award and I thank you for the recognition.”
The Charities@Work Corporate Impact Awards have become a staple of the Charities@Work Best Practices Summit. The awards highlight the progress across the fields of employee engagement, volunteerism and CSR and the different ways in which both companies and individuals are changing the landscape of how corporations can impact their communities. Past winners have included Sprint, Carlson, American Express, UnitedHealth Group and many more.
To find out more information about Charities@Work and its annual award program, visit www.charitiesatwork.org.
About Charities@Work
Charities@Work, www.charitiesatwork.org, bridges the corporate and nonprofit sectors in order to achieve greater social impact. Charities@Work is an alliance of four nonprofit organizations – America’s Charities, Community Health Charities, EarthShare and Global Impact – that collectively represent more than 2,500 of the most respected and effective international, national and local nonprofits. These four networks exist to facilitate interaction and partnerships between charities, companies and their employees for meaningful outcomes and impact for all parties.
