Headquartered in Newark, NJ for more than 100 years, Prudential is a recognized leader for its commitment to the local community. No stranger to employee volunteerism, Prudential demonstrated its investment in helping the community thrive by partnering with Taproot Foundation to host a ScopeAthon to benefit Newark, NJ nonprofits.
The Pro Bono Week ScopeAthon was a half-day pro bono volunteering event in which Prudential employees unleashed their professional expertise to diagnose the critical challenges facing nonprofits and then map out the projects necessary to address them. On October 30, 2015, 26 Prudential employees worked directly with eight nonprofit organizations local to the headquarter city. In just four hours, Prudential employees used their professional skills to address infrastructure challenges across a range of functional issues including social media and marketing strategies, business planning, and financial modeling tools.
Kicking off the event, Jamie Kalamarides, Head of Institutional Investment Solutions at the company shared, “There are three goals for today. The first is to help these organizations define and achieve a very specific goal. The second is for Prudential leaders to develop skills and talents and to exercise those in new and creative ways. And the third is how to put both of them together so that we can improve our communities in Newark and the surrounding areas.”
Pro bono in action
The employees of Prudential brought the right skills to the table, and the short 4-hour time frame required teams to focus specifically on the challenge at hand to ensure the outcome included actionable next steps for the nonprofits. All of the nonprofits in the room are long-term partners of Prudential, with many organizations thriving as a direct result of Prudential’s deep investment.
The key to the event’s success was Prudential’s talent. Despite their busy schedules, the senior level employees from Prudential proved to be well-qualified thought partners for each organization. Nonprofits spoke highly of their Prudential teams.
I was so impressed with our team and how much they are invested in [our] organization. We can tell they spent so much time to learn who we are and that means so much to us and that was the best thing.
And it was not just the nonprofit participants giving thanks: employees found the experience meaningful for themselves and the nonprofits, with one employee sharing, “It was great to be able to meet and work with the nonprofits and a talented group of my colleagues during a new event. Having Prudential show its continued commitment to the community makes me proud.”
Community commitment
Prudential’s commitment to Newark, NJ doesn’t stop at just investing money. The Pro Bono Week ScopeAthon is an example of Prudential’s long-term commitment to ensuring its partner nonprofits continue to grow and succeed. Mr. Kalamarides shared,
This is really consistent with our purpose-driven brand. We do this as an organization, we’ve done this for 140 years, and we’ve going to keep on doing it.
This is good news for employees, nonprofits, and the broader local community. Thank you, Prudential, for finding new ways to maximize your commitment to responsible citizenship in Newark, NJ.
About the Taproot Foundation and Pro Bono Week
Taproot Foundation is a nonprofit organization that makes business talent available to organizations working to improve society. We engage the nation’s millions of business professionals in pro bono service both through our award-winning programs and by partnering with companies to develop their pro bono programs. One day, we envision all organizations with promising solutions will be equipped to successful take on urgent social challenges. Taproot Foundation, an innovator in the pro bono space, has connected nearly $140 billion in pro bono services through pro bono programs with volunteers and corporations since 2001. Pro Bono Week is a global campaign that celebrates and activates pro bono service across all professions that use their talents to make a difference. Inspired by the American Bar Association’s National Celebration of Pro Bono, Taproot works with partners around the globe to focus attention on the pro bono movement each year in October.
