It's never been a question that SES cares about giving back to the community and to those less fortunate around us. Although the firm has a history of supporting various philanthropic organizations and efforts, there was never a formal program for it, until the creation of SES Cares. "We've always considered people to be more important than money," says president Steve DiBerardine, "We want to do more than just write checks." With this new program, we've formalized and expanded our charitable work and giving process.
The program officially kicked off in the office in 2019 when we purchased and wrapped 38 Christmas gifts for foster children to support Heart's CRI Ministries. More than half of our team members took time out of their busy schedules to work together, wrapping all the various gifts. It was a wonderful time of community and giving, and we've done it again this holiday season, with even more gifts!
Although the pandemic put a hold on our opportunities to serve the community in-person, we are still contributing in other ways. Given all of the recent news about people struggling to feed themselves and their families, we've donated thousands of dollars to local food pantries. Additionally, we've rolled out our Employee Match Program, one of the centerpieces for SES Cares. It enables SES team members to amplify their individual charitable giving with a match of up to $500 per year per person. This not only allows SES to diversify the organizations we support, and gets employees involved by directly helping to determine which causes are important to them. In the past few months, we've given more than $5,400 to worthy causes including those serving veterans, researching cures for Alzheimers, and rescuing dogs and primates! Each month we highlight SES Cares’ work at our company meeting, and each month, we see greater participation. Team member, Pam Hartsell, took advantage of the match program, and praises it. "I am so thankful that SES embraces the core value of Care. The causes that I support help a lot of people in need, so being able to magnify my contributions through the SES Cares program is something I really appreciate!"