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Building Communities, and Hope
Builders use their business success to launch charitable efforts that benefit their communities.
Charitable efforts include supporting fund-raising events, such as this one for Housing Options, a group in Chicago which provides housing and services to people suffering mental illnesses. Geno Benvenuti, president, Benvenuti and Stein in Evanston, Ill., (center), takes advantage of his businesses’s success by helping those in need.
Donating money is not the only way to make a donation to the community. Dan Packman, president, Design Blue in Newbury Park, Calif. (left), mentors “those in transition” through a nonprofit organization he founded.
Raising money through building or remodeling a home and donating part of the profit is a way to use one’s trade skills to help the community, says Bob Peterson, president, Associates in Building & Design in Fort Collins, Colo. Here, staff from ABD hands over a check to the local Wingshadow organization.
Once a week, Dan Packman (right) meets at a school with local community members looking for help getting back on their feet. Packman’s charitable work takes up about one hour a day, which he says is not much to make a difference where
it counts.
it counts.
Benvenuti provides motivation by participating in events that boost employee morale. Employees work at a soup kitchen and cook desserts for 100-plus people, for example. “That’s something that builds a sense of community within the organization. We have 45 people in the company, and easily get 10 or 15 people that step up and feel they want to give back, too. It’s a little of their time. That’s all it is. If I said, ‘I really need your help,’ I could get 80 percent to volunteer easily.”
Finding the time comes naturally for philanthropic business owners. Packman gets a charity-related phone call every day, and has a meeting once a week. The total is an hour a day, seven days week, which is not much to make a difference.
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