Vidyard’s Community Engagement Program Donates More of What Matters Most: Time, Talent and Treasure

December 10, 2019

Sandy Pell

With more than 2000+ volunteer hours contributed, 2070 community meals served, and 15 local charities supported in 2019, Vidyard continues to act upon its community engagement initiatives building a strong “give back” strategy that inspires others.

KITCHENER, Ontario – December 10, 2019 – Vidyard, the leading video platform for businesses, celebrates another year of building its Community Engagement Program since the company reordered its stakeholder list in December of 2018, prioritizing ‘Community’ above ‘Investors’ in a bold move for a technology company of its size.

Throughout 2019, Vidyard staff and leadership teams were involved in various activities to support local community give back programs:

• Served more than 2070 meals at the House of Friendship, a Kitchener-based organization that provides support services for those dealing with poverty, hunger, homelessness, and addiction.
• Logged more than 2000 volunteer hours at the House of Friendship, as well as through outreach programming with LAUNCH Waterloo, THEMUSEUM, Technovation, Catalyst at the University of Waterloo, and the Waterloo Region District School Board.
• Hosted over 100 community-focused events in their office including programming to support LGBTQ+ in Technology with Makingspace, Girl Geek Dinners, House of Friendship, Ladies Learning Code and many others.
• Generated $15,000 in community donations, including gifts to support organizations involved in building a flourishing local arts culture, developing entrepreneurship and leadership programming, aiding healthcare and wellness, and community development.
• Hosted 3 Plugin events for Spectrum at the THEMUSEUM (for the museum), Paddle Royale for Nutrition for Learning, and Nightmare on King Street for Supportive Housing of Waterloo. These community events bring together young professionals in fun and unconventional ways to connect, build and maintain our community. Since Plugin began, Vidyard has supported 14 local charities.

“Vidyard’s Community Engagement Program is designed to help our staff see the different volunteering opportunities available to them in their own backyards, and that small contributions of time can make a big difference,” says Laura Flatt, Community Engagement Program Manager at Vidyard. “For example, we have a group of committed volunteers that go weekly to serve at the men’s shelter, and others who give their time to mentor students in the region. Some even go to donate blood together.”

Vidyard Gives Back: 2 weeks and 800+ hours of volunteer efforts

This past February, Vidyard did something unconventional. Contributing more than 800 hours of time in just two weeks, Vidyard celebrated Community as a true stakeholder during its first annual Vidyard Gives Back program. The program was built for staff interested in opting-in during work hours to support one of six local charities. Over 14 days, more than 200 employees from Kitchener, Vancouver and Boston were divided into 35 groups which then rotated across six different organizations during the two-week period.

Activities were at the request of organizations, and included painting a common room for the House of Friendship, preparing and serving meals for St. John’s Kitchen with The Working Centre, packing kits for Food4Kids and Food Bank of Waterloo Region, running intramural soccer with KW Habilitation, helping prepare dinner for the KW Habilitation fundraising event, serving breakfast with Nutrition For Learning, and localized programs for teams in Vancouver and Boston.

The two weeks of Give Back were so successful for the members of Vidyard’s teams, that employees are now provided with two days of leave each year to volunteer and contribute to something that matters most to them.

“Community Giving” is Now a Defining Part of Vidyard Culture

“Through volunteering, I’ve had the opportunity to interact with new people, and that truly brings a sense of unity and human connection into the community where I live and work,” says Kelsey Finn on volunteering with the House of Friendship.

“I initially went to serve breakfast with Nutrition for Learning, but ended up serving math help and life advice. It was a great experience and I’d love to come back next year,” says Miko Taruc on volunteering with the House of Friendship.

#BanditTour

Earlier this year, a small team of Vidyard staff, including Michael Litt, Vidyard’s co-founder and CEO, joined forces with one Vidyard’s key partners, Traction on Demand, to take part in their Bandit Tour for Good 2019. Having run consecutively for eight years, this annual tour supports charities through volunteerism and pro-bono service consultations that support video best-practices and strategies designed help increase impact and reach.

The 1500km 2019 tour began in Vancouver and ran through to Dreamforce in San Francisco, making 16 stops along the way. By providing “Bandit Acts of Kindness” in communities along the west coast, a variety of organizations saw the team’s support, including Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver, Down Syndrome Resource Foundation, Georgia Strait Alliance, BC Parks Foundation, Teen Feed, Bloodworks NW, With Love, Elementary Literacy Inc., Friends of the Dunes, and others.

“The Bandit Tour represents an opportunity for us to link arms with a great partner. In doing so, we combine our intellectual and physical resources to both help not-for-profit organizations get more mileage out of their technology investments and support them in their daily volunteer and labour needs,” says Michael Litt, CEO and co-founder of Vidyard. “This tour shows our respective teams that it’s possible to grow with empathy and to leverage our immense privilege for social impact”.

Throughout 2020, Vidyard will continue to prioritize weekly volunteering, mentorship programming through local STEAM/STEM initiatives, blood drives, large-scale company-wide events, and Plugin community support activities.

More Information:

• 10 Creative Ways Your Organization Can Give Back: https://pledgeitforward.today/10-creative-ways-your-organization-can-give-back-to-your-community/
• Startup CSR: How To Give Back When You’re Just Getting Off The Ground: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2018/08/13/startup-csr-how-to-give-back-when-youre-just-getting-off-the-ground/#46c92b75b593
• Vidyard Careers: /careers/
• Plugin Events: http://pluginkw.com/

About Vidyard
Vidyard is the video platform for business that helps organizations drive more revenue through the use of online video. Going beyond video hosting and management, Vidyard helps businesses drive greater engagement in their video content, track the viewing activities of each individual viewer, and turn those views into action. Global leaders such as Honeywell, LinkedIn, Citibank and Sharp rely on Vidyard to power their video content strategies and turn viewers into customers.

Media Contact:
Sandy Pell, Head of Corporate Communications – Vidyard
press@vidyard.com