Vidyard, one of the 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 mealsat 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 hoursat 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 officeincluding 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.
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- Hosted 3 Plugin eventsfor 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.”
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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.
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