Brand Power: Digital Enhancements
R
egina Key, Senior Director of Marketing and Creative Services at DCi, sat down with us to explain why CSR initiatives are a non-negotiable for DCi and how these worthy causes make an impact on everyone involved.
Paying it Forward
“We are a women-owned business, so supporting other diverse, small businesses is a cornerstone of our company’s approach to CSR,” Key says.
As a certified women-owned business that has found great success, DCi has prioritized offering support and resources to small, up-and-coming companies. DCi knows the power of turning around and helping the companies coming up after them.
Causes Everyone Can Get Behind
Great causes can be found anywhere you look, so DCi chooses to look toward its employees to help decide which CSR initiatives to throw its support behind.
“We want our team members to feel included with major decisions within the company, and that definitely extends to choosing CSR initiatives,” Key says.
Key explains that if an employee is passionate about a cause, DCi wants to know about it and support it. She recalls a time when a co-worker expressed interest in participating in a 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb event in downtown San Diego. Her father was in fire service, so it was a cause near and dear to her heart.
“So, we rallied and got a team of DCi employees to participate. DCi paid all the registration fees. It was a great cause anyway, but it really hit home for the DCi team because we had that personal connection as well,” Key says.
The Short List
DCi has go-to non-profit organizations and mission-driven companies that it recommends to clients who are looking to add a charitable element to their events. DCi provides clients with recommendations based on their corporate values.
Mission-driven companies like Love Your Melon and Bombas have been tapped by DCi to provide gift services for events and employees.
Together We Rise is a non-profit organization based in California that focuses on supporting kids in the foster care system. The organization was one of many referred to DCi from an internal staff poll when Key was researching a charity to support for an annual holiday give back. It was a charity that aligned with DCi’s CSR goals and values too.
DCi jumped at the chance to align with an organization that helped set kids in the foster care system up for success. A program called Sweet Cases was the first, but certainly not the last, project DCi did with Together We Rise.
“When a foster child moves to a new home, they often pack their belongings in a large garbage bag,” Key says. “So, Together We Rise gets corporations to sponsor duffel bags filled with things that can be very reassuring to kids. We decorate the outside of the bags, then fill with things like coloring books, crayons, and teddy bears. The bag and everything in it becomes the one thing they can call their own.”
DCi knows that CSR is dynamic. Sometimes it’s integrating mission-driven companies into their business model, sometimes it’s donating to non-profit organizations, and other times it’s putting together a team of passionate employees and getting work done.
