Global Impact Week Recap: 1,500+ NetSuite Employees Volunteer 4,100+ Hours During Week of Service

Last week during Global Impact Week, NetSuite’s 2^nd annual week of service, more than 1,500 employees (a 47 percent increase from last year) stepped away from their desks to give back to their local communities. 

From conducting mock interviews and teaching kids to code in San Mateo and Waterloo, Ontario to helping to prepare meals in Denver, Toronto, and Chicago to playing chess to raise money for hospice care in Brno to caring for rescue animals in the UK, Singapore, Barcelona and Santa Monica, employees participated in 100 employee-organized volunteer events and donation drives, volunteering more than 4,100 hours. 

“I’m so very proud of the creative ways employees found to give back to their communities together during Global Impact Week,” said Kathy Zwickert, Chief People Officer at NetSuite. “As a participant myself, I get as much reward out of these events as the organizations we are serving.” 

Bret Crosby, who organized an event for remote employees to prepare and serve meals at St. Vincent de Paul in Phoenix, described Global Impact Week as a “wonderful way to give back and get to know your colleagues.” 

Bal Jutley, SuiteImpact Ambassador in London, who brought NetSuite employees together to repair bikes for people in need in Africa, said “what a fantastic feeling to have helped such a humbling charity! Our amazing London volunteers; Mary, Martin, Arnt, Julien, Rob and I put in a long day preparing and loaded 192 bikes. An awesome achievement and very rewarding day.”

Kenzie McGinness, Business Development Manager in Denver said “volunteering for the Denver Rescue Mission allowed me to make a tangible difference in my local community. I get a sense of immediate gratification, by serving meals to those in need. It’s also great that the meal service is early, so that I can easily balance my work life with my volunteering.” 

Anna Phiefer, Marketing Strategist at Bronto who volunteered at SEEDS educational garden said, “I love doing the SEEDS events because they allow you to spend some time out in the sunshine, get dirty, bond with colleagues, and support a great organization! As a former Bronto Community Member, I’ve loved seeing us challenge ourselves in our volunteering efforts and having our (previously small-scale) efforts roll into the more global SuiteImpact efforts!”

Chayaponn (Eddie) Puvanuttrai who helped create audio books for the blind during an in-office activity in NetSuite’s Bangkok office said “thanks to Global Impact Week and our Ambassadors for this great opportunity to give back to our local communities – especially the Read for the Blind activity where I used four different voices to create a chapter. I feel I have shared my world and what I see with those who can’t.”

Chief Security Architect and NetSuite Co-Founder Chris Blum said, “when I reviewed the Twitter feed, I was humbled and awed by the tremendous work of worldwide NetSuite volunteers on ambitious, generous, and often exhausting projects. I have never been more convinced of the greatness of the people who make NetSuite such a special place.”

Global Impact Week is part of NetSuite’s SuiteImpact program, which engages NetSuite employees around the world in causes and year-round community service projects that matter to them. Since its founding in 2013, more than 7,700 NetSuite employees have donated their time and talents to SuiteImpact initiatives, volunteering for more than 27,000 hours. 

NetSuite.org, the corporate citizenship arm of NetSuite, leverages our most valuable resources – our product and our people, to accelerate the social impact of nonprofits and social enterprises around the world. For a look at our programs, visit http://www.netsuite.org.