Making the Season Bright
Some businesses think it’s better to give than receive during the holidays.

By Linda Cruse

Wendy Sonnabend’s office takes on a decidedly cluttered appearance during the holiday season.

Sacks of toys, coats and clothes are scattered throughout the human resource generalist’s office at DATACORE, an 80-employee database marketing company located in Kansas City, Mo.

Sonnabend doesn’t mind the confusion because it represents employees’ desire to help others. The items are donations for the company’s adopted families and Safehome’s holiday project, a private, confidential storefront where abused women can select holiday gifts for themselves and their families.

“Everyone wants to get involved in the giving,” said Sonnabend. “Even if they don’t have time to shop, they donate money or designate a payroll deduction and I do the shopping for them. We adopted three families last year through Redemptorist Social Services and plan to do that again this year.”

Companies That Care
DATACORE is one of hundreds of area small businesses helping community service organizations during the holiday season. As unemployment rises, more families need assistance both at the holidays and year-round.

“We have an additional 1,000 requests this year,” said Aleta Rosenthal, volunteer coordinator for the Johnson County Christmas Bureau. “We’re going to extend our hours to accommodate the additional needs. That means we’ll need additional volunteers.”

Rosenthal said that in addition to churches, schools and individuals, more businesses have signed up to assist the holiday store this season. They include employees at Clinical Reference Laboratory, Sales Professionals and Nations Holding Company, she said.

“Their employees will be helping set up the store, stock shelves and assist low income residents with shopping needs,” she said. The store is located in the former Nall Hills Elementary School in Overland Park. Low-income residents referred to the Christmas Bureau by social service agencies can shop at the store for clothing, holiday gifts and food.

David Fisher, an accountant at Nations Holding Company, said there was 100 percent participation among the 20-member accounting department when it came to volunteering at the bureau.

“We decided as a group that we wanted to help people at the holidays, and everyone plans to volunteer,” he said. “It’s a worthwhile organization and will help others.”

Fisher said the company’s owner has encouraged employees to find ways to volunteer not only during the holiday season, but also year-round.

“We have a group that volunteers at Children’s Mercy Hospital and another who reads to elementary age children,” he said.

"Our owner has encouraged us to share our blessings with others.”

Sharing Services
While some businesses are providing opportunities for employees to donate items or volunteer their time, others are donating their company’s products and services.

Integrated Printing Solutions donated the printing for 20,000 flyers that were used by the City Union Mission during its November 2003 holiday food drive.

Steve Larson, president and principal, said this year marks the second year the 11-employee, Overland Park-based business has donated the flyers.

“We’re impressed by what the mission is doing, and it’s our way of giving back to the community,” he said.

The flyers explaining the mission’s “Stuff A Truck” campaign are handed out to shoppers during November.

“Shoppers can purchase bags of food that are donated to the mission,” said Larson. “I’ve also encouraged my daughter’s class to work as volunteers at the Hy-Vee store, assisting with the drive.”

Plum Design, a graphic design company, donated the graphics for Safehome’s annual holiday card. Mark Hennick, owner, said he decided to donate his services because “it was a great opportunity to help a good organization.”

Organization leaders said donating services could be just as valuable as time or money.

“It’s a great help to have businesses willing to help,” said Kelly Roy, community services coordinator for Harvesters: The Community Food Network. “We’re always looking for volunteers.”

Roy said businesses helping Harvesters range from a small doctor’s office to an entire hospital.

“Lots of preschools and apartment buildings help during the holiday season,” she said. “We also have several independent realtors offices helping us out.”

Helping Beyond the Holidays
Neil Getzlow, agency spokesperson for Sullivan Higdon and Sink advertising agency, said approximately 45 employees in the Kansas City office initially became involved with a community service project by donating items to a battered women’s shelter.
    “We brought in clothes and toys for the women and children at Newhouse Shelter,” he said. “But we got so involved with helping them that we decided to take it a step further.”

The advertising company helped the shelter launch a fund-raising campaign last year featuring work donated by the agency.

“We did a series of pro bono posters, outdoor advertising and radio advertising for their campaign,” he said. “Everyone just wanted to do something more than just during the holidays.”

Getzlow said the agency plans to select a new holiday project this year.

“Our managing partners think it’s important to give back to the community, and are great about giving us time and resources to become involved,” he said.

Another company that helps beyond the holidays is the American Academy of Family Physicians. Located in Leawood, the company traditionally held a food drive for Harvesters prior to the holidays.

“But after discussions with them, we learned that they have a much greater need after the holidays when the contributions begin to trickle off,” said Dr. Doug Henley, executive vice president. “We have deliberately delayed our annual food drive to February, in order to help them even out the ups and downs that they experience.”

The company also began a new giving tradition last year.

“Instead of giving turkeys and hams to our staff, we’re donating the money to several charities,” said Henley. “Last year we gave money to three organizations: Heartstrings, Operation Breakthrough and Associated Youth Services. We plan to donate the money again this year.”

Hands-on Help
Some groups are rolling up their sleeves and joining forces to help with holiday projects. For example, 10 organizations housed at 4747 Troost participated in Christmas in October this year.

Founded in 1984, the local organization rehabilitates houses of low-income homeowners in the Kansas City area. Approximately 7,000 volunteers worked on 400 homes this year.

Volunteers from 4747 Troost spent a Saturday in October working on six homes in the Vinyard neighborhood, most of which were owned by elderly residents, such as 71-year-old Betty Williams. The victim of two heart attacks, Williams has been unable to maintain her home by herself.

Participating were employees from First Step Fund, Growth Opportunity Connection, the Entrepreneurial Growth Resource Center, BRIDG, KCCatalyst, University of Missouri Outreach and Extension, iStrategy Studio, the University of Missouri-Kansas City Small Business Development Center, PowerComm and the Kauffman Foundation.
The organizations at 4747 Troost have also adopted families during the holidays.

 Helping  in Different Ways
CK Enterprises, a Lee’s Summit manufacturing company, doesn’t limit itself to giving during just the holiday season. The 32-employee company has been donating cleaning supplies to City Union Mission since June 2002.

“We appreciate what they’re trying to do for the less fortunate and this is our way of helping,” said Amanda Kunkel Adams, office manager.

Laundry soap and cleaning supplies are donated throughout the year as needed.

Jason Cohen, owner of Total Martial Arts, has raised more than $700 for Safehome by donating a portion of its Krav Maga registration fees to the organization.

“I have first-hand experience with the issues Safehome deals with, and I believe strongly in what they’re doing,” said Cohen, who purchased the 11-employee, three-year-old business in January 2003.

Scott Henson, owner of Night Sky Films in Lenexa, donated a video to Safehome.

“I tend to gravitate toward projects that help people,” he said. “Instead of working in a soup kitchen, I donate my talents toward helping others.”

In addition to Safehome, Henson has created a video at a reduced cost for the National Conference for Community and Justice 50-year anniversary. He also did a free promotional video for Literacy Kansas City and a free documentary video for La Strata Del’ Arte.

Other Alternatives
Small business owners can also give back to the community by participating in holiday activities sponsored by professional and networking groups. Some groups hold holiday events that serve as fundraisers for community organizations.

The Kansas City Chapter of the National Association for Women Business Owners is holding its annual holiday meeting on Dec. 10 and will be collecting canned goods for Harvesters.

The Greater Kansas City Professional Chapter of the Association for Women in Communications is holding its third annual Holiday Silent Auction to benefit Literacy Kansas City on Dec. 2 at the Grand Gallery & Café, 1815 Grand.

Business owners can also participate in holiday events sponsored by the organizations themselves. YouthFriends Holiday Fund-Raiser at the Mission Road Antique Mall was held Nov. 14 to benefit the youth mentoring organization. The evening included an evening of antique shopping, drawings and food. Holiday home tours, parties and balls are other opportunities to have fun and raise funds for charities.

How to Help
For businesses interested in finding volunteer opportunities, a holiday giving and volunteering guide was created by the Volunteer Centers of Metro KC, a collaborative initiative of Kansas City Area Volunteer Centers.

Compiled from responses to a holiday needs survey mailed to more than 900 nonprofit organizations in the Kansas City metropolitan area, the guide lists the needs of 188 different organizations, said Ron Howard, public relations director for the Kansas City Area United Way.

“We wanted to make it as easy as possible for individuals, groups and businesses to volunteer,” he said. “We receive numerous calls at the holiday season from people looking for ways to help. We refer them to the guide.”

Agencies are listed alphabetically. Included is a brief description of each organization, a list of items the agency needs and holiday volunteers needs. The guide is available on-line at www.kcunitedway.org.

Linda Cruse is managing editor of Kansas City Small Business Monthly.