RevGenerosity: A Year in Review

It goes without saying that 2020 was an unprecedented year. Before March, we were excitedly planning in-kind and volunteer activities for our 2020 community partner, The Gathering Place, and other in-person RevGenerosity initiatives for the year. After the pandemic hit, RevGenerosity went back to the drawing board to reimagine how to fulfill the emerging, urgent needs in the communities where our employees live in a virtual or low contact manner. Ultimately, we identified a number of donation drives and other activities that, in the true RevGen spirit of stewardship, received an overwhelming positive response. 

Sack Lunch & Food Bag Drive

Throughout the spring and early summer, RevGeners responded to The Gathering Place’s needs by providing 420 sack lunches and 27 food bags, and contributing through TGP’s Wish List.

Spark + AI Summit 2020 Hackathon for Good

In June, a team of our data experts brought home the grand prize at the Spark + AI Summit 2020 Hackathon for Good for their interactive tool to conduct cost-benefit analysis of increasing restaurant and shop capacity by expanding it into the streets during social distancing. The team selected The Gathering Place to receive a $20,000 donation from the summit organizer, Databricks. You can check out their winning work here.

DPS Foundation’s Achieve Gala Transformed 

After DPS Foundation’s Achieve Gala 2020 was canceled due to COVID-19, they created the Achieve Gala Transformed. On one day in August, volunteers gathered at several DPS schools to complete projects that would make students proud of their building and know they have community support behind them. In addition, the Foundation asked for assistance with several virtual projects.

As a gala sponsor, RevGeners were excited to jump in to volunteer both in-person and virtually. One team pulled weeds and picked up trash at Manual High School.  Another conducted an online supply drive benefiting Johns Elementary School.  And a number of employees and their children wrote encouraging cards for high school students, designed appreciation ecards for teachers, and recorded early readers for elementary students.

Philanthro-Picks

After putting our spring grant cycle on hold, in the summer we awarded grants to five non-profit  organizations that empower underprivileged families and at-risk youth in the communities where we live to aspire to be more. Our 2020 Philanthro-Picks include: Environmental Learning for Kids; colorado Name Change Project; STEM Generation; Relief Nursery; and Mercy Housing.  Learn more about these organizations and the programs our grants funded here.

Microwaveable Meal Drive

Eager to find a way to continue supporting The Gathering Place and its members this fall, we launched a microwavable meal drive. Once again, RevGeners stepped up and demonstrated their generosity. After surpassing our initial goal almost immediately, we set a more aggressive goal which we also surpassed.Ultimately, we delivered 1,827 microwaveable meals – enough to feed over 250 people for a week!

Winter Clothing & Essentials Drive

When it became clear that we would not be able to host our annual family holiday volunteer event, we pivoted yet again. RevGenerosity provided craft kits for families to create decorations and some festive spirit for The Gathering Place members. In addition, we conducted an online drive to provide essential winter clothing and much needed personal care items, as well as collected gently used coats and cold weather clothing.

We delivered four large bags of gently-used clothing and, from their wish list, 334 pieces of winter clothing and 547 personal care items.

“This year has not been what anyone expected, but you have truly made a huge impact. From supporting the kitchen (they can’t say enough good things about you) to picking up food at the food bank to jumping in where we need support, The Gathering Place has been made stronger with your partnership.”

Looking Forward to 2021

We are excited to continue our community partnership with The Gathering Place for a second year. There is so much more we’d like to do to help them pursue their mission: We are a community of safety and hope where positive relationships, choice, and essential resources transform lives. 

RevGenerosity and RevGen leadership are so appreciate of our clients who made it possible for us to give back to our community this year, and to all of our employees who leaned in to this challenging year and demonstrated the power of RevGen stewardship.