What Will Your Group Volunteer Moment Be?
Since 2012, we’ve hosted close to 200 corporate volunteer groups. That’s the equivalent of over 1,000 corporate volunteers who’ve come through our doors to lend our clients a helping hand.
Over the past 2 years and counting, you can only imagine the number of heartwarming moments corporate volunteers have experienced on-site at Furniture Bank. From experiencing a client’s joy of what it means to select and receive furniture, to helping unpack boxes of kitchenwares that will allow a family to sit down for a meal together, to helping move furniture from our warehouse on to our showroom floor for clients to choose from – there’s never a dull moment during corporate volunteer days.
Instead of bottling up these special moments or featuring them in separate blog posts, we wanted develop a common space for these moments to shine and continue living on. That is the motivation behind starting Group Volunteer Moments – a blog highlighting the outstanding efforts of our corporate volunteers who go above and beyond their volunteer call of duty.
Watch This Video And See What It’s All About!
Volunteer Case Study: Ernst & Young
What a day of volunteering with Ernst & Young! EY Connect Day is an opportunity for Ernst & Young employees to get out of the office and volunteer at a local charitable organization for a day. We’re so fortunate that this group chose to volunteer with us. From the moment they walked through our doors you can feel their positive energy. They were such exceptional volunteers, that one of our clients insisted that she left a handwritten note addressed to her showroom guides Kyle, Tom and Eva (click on the photo to enlarge and read her letter). Not to mention that one group member came all the way from Windsor to volunteer!
Volunteer Case Study: Deloitte Canada
It was such a pleasure hosting this group of Deloitte volunteers for their #ImpactDay. Not only did this group spend the whole day assisting clients select furniture and unpack and sort through boxes of housewares donations, but they also surprised us with a special gift. 2 trunks full of housewares donations to redistribute to our clients! One volunteer said it best: “One of my clients we helped was really grateful for our time and Furniture Bank and thanked us by sharing her story and hugging us. The teenager girl was so excited to get her own bed, her first bed ever and that made me think how easy it is to take things for granted. We need to be more thankful for what we have.”
Volunteer Case Study: Toronto Dominion
TD Volunteers donate their time and much-needed kitchenwares. This is the second year we have hosted TD Bank employees for their Days of Caring. Two returning volunteers, Debbie and Glen, remembered the day they were in last year, we were low on kitchenware items for our clients to choose from. This had a lasting impact on them as they showed up this year with a trunk full of kitchenware donations. They brought with them brand new pots and pans, cutlery sets and other much-needed basic essentials for our clients to select from.
Volunteer Case Study: BigKite Consulting
Time lost to paper will be a thing of the past thanks to our work with BigKite Consulting – a Salesforce solution firm that has generously donated their time and expertise to“digitize” the client services paper clipboard onto iPads. This project will allow us to automate many of our processes and systems ultimately allowing us to scale up to serve more clients. The team from BigKite insisted they come volunteer and experience the “old” clipboard before going live with iPads. Learn more about how 1 iPad will change 500 families lives.
Volunteer Case Study: RBC
RBC volunteers donate a new industrial steamer. When our regular group of volunteers from RBC learned that our industrial steamer gave out, they made it their personal mission to get us a new one. A month later volunteer team leads Karen and Gayle got in touch to inform us that they had secured a generous donation from the RBC Foundation to purchase a brand new industrial steamer. This act of kindness speaks to this group’s unwavering commitment to our clients.
Volunteer Case Study: Mackenzie Investments
First time Mackenzie Investment volunteers see the workshop they helped build. Not only has Mackenzie Investment’s staff volunteered hours of their time at Furniture Bank, their Foundation generously donated $40,000 to turn our dream of a furniture repair workshop into a reality. Very soon we’ll be able to divert even more furniture from landfills and teach participants of our Leg Up Skills Training and Employment Program new skills and trades. Learn more about the furniture repair workshop and the impact it will have in the community.
Volunteer Case Study: Sherwin Williams
What started as a day of volunteering turned into a painted workshop. This past May, three members from the Greater Toronto Apartment Association were in for the morning to volunteer. One such volunteer was Laura, a sales rep from Sherwin Williams. During the volunteer orientation, we were discussing new projects launching at Furniture Bank, and our workshop came up. When Laura heard that we had a workshop in the works, she generously offered to donate the paint and the time to get the job done. A few weeks later a team of sales reps from Sherwin Williams came in and painted the workshop Furniture Bank teal!
Volunteer Case Study: BMO
This past June BMO employees spent their #DaysofCaring volunteering with us for 5 days straight! Over the course of the week 40 BMO Volunteers helped:
- 49 families receive the furniture
- 21 children have furniture to grow up with
- 16 new Canadians & refugees have a fresh beginning
- 39 people needing beds now sleep on them
Volunteer Case Study: Intact Insurance
Intact Insurance runs first-ever workplace housewares drive. Since 2012, we’ve had the pleasure of hosting close to 100 Intact employees for corporate volunteer days. Over this time period, Intact volunteers have helped empower the lives of over 300 clients in furnished homes. In 2013, Intact conducted the first-ever workplace housewares drive to provide our clients with much-needed basic home essentials.
