Charitable giving has been a key part of our company since our founding in 1989. For Mike Steinberg, our Founder, it was important to ensure that the company values aligned with his personal values. RELYCO’s focus on community support has only grown throughout the years. Looking back In the last 33 years, RELYCO has donated over $550K to non-profit organizations. The bulk of that funding has come from the company itself. We’ve also invited our employees to get involved in the process. A group of RELYCO employees formed their own Community Service Team in 2004. This team identifies local groups or organizations that could use support, and they create programs or send donations to meet those needs. We have an optional payroll deduction system where RELYCO employees can designate an amount to the fund, and RELYCO matches the total each year.Over the years, the RELYCO team organized or participated in: An annual holiday gift-giving program for kids whose families need some extra help since 2003An annual Thanksgiving Celebration for folks facing food insecurity and other challenges since 2009A charity program at our largest annual trade showMany fundraisers for local non-profit organizations and eventsFood drives & care baskets for kids, struggling families and domestic violence survivorsFor a full list of the non-profit organizations we’ve supported in the last three years, you can visit this page.Looking forwardAs we mentioned in this blog, part of our B Corp journey involves creating more formal systems to focus our efforts, hold ourselves accountable and be more transparent about allocations; charitable giving is one area where we want to achieve this. You may recall that back in May, Bruce mentioned some new and upcoming community service initiatives, including an optional 8 hours of paid time off for each employee to use towards community service work each year. We’re thrilled to officially announce another new program now! 1% of all of our online sales will now be donated to charitable causes. Donations will be made quarterly to Seacoast area non-profit organizations. These organizations are nominated by our employees and selected by our Community Service Team.As Bruce Steinberg, our CEO, noted in our press release, “We are a company with a long history of giving back to our community. We’ve carried that mission forward for years with various programs, and now we’ve decided it’s time to build on that by introducing a formal commitment to quarterly donations. Inviting our employees to nominate the recipient local non-profits is just another part of our vision to be an inclusive and caring employer, doing business for good.”Where to find out moreRELYCO’s first donation from this initiative will be made at the conclusion of Q3, which runs from July 1 - September 30. The first recipient will be Mary’s Dogs - Rescue & Adoption, located in Northwood, New Hampshire. Team RELYCO is full of animal lovers, so this is an ideal non-profit fit for us!We’ll be sharing our progress with this 1% program by posting it on our website. The final amount donated to Mary’s Dogs (and all future non-profit organizations) will be posted on RELYCO’s community support page after the conclusion of each quarter. You can read more about RELYCO’s mission and commitment to giving here.