It was a few days before Christmas when Debra Green received the phone call from a local shelter. Green, senior community relations specialist for Medical Mutual of Ohio, passed along the message: The home was hoping the insurer’s employees would “adopt” a child by making donations for the holiday.
“We literally had a truck full,” says Green. “We originally requested 30 students to adopt, but I had over 145 requests for children. They ran out of children to give to us. Our employees just wanted to give.”
It’s this get-involved attitude that Medical Mutual was trying to create when it developed the S.H.A.R.E. committee in 1996. The letters stand for serve, help, aid, reach and educate. Tom Greene, vice president of human resources, helped put it all together.
“A lot of people had talked about volunteer work that they had done,” Greene says. “Other people told me they were interested in it, but didn’t know quite how to go about getting involved.
“At the same time, we had been talking about company image. That given our role in the community, we should be a little bit more public about some of the effort we put forward, relative to volunteerism, and make it clear that we were committed to the communities that we both service and that our people live in.”
With the help of the Business Volunteerism Council, which provided ideas on how to get the committee started, Greene called together some employees and founded S.H.A.R.E.
“This was a grassroots thing,” he says. “This is really something a number of people here expressed an interest in, and I was in a position to facilitate it.”
It’s been an outlet for people like Debra Green.
“As long as I’ve been with the company (15 years), there’s been some sort of giving or volunteering, but nothing formalized or nothing with a name associated with it,” says Green, who serves as chairperson for the committee. “We always did United Way. We had sponsorships, but it wasn’t captured in one central location, or there wasn’t a group to coordinate and field everything.”
In 1998, through activities directed by the S.H.A.R.E. committee, 50 percent of Medical Mutual’s 2,500 employees contributed almost $200,000 and volunteered about 12,000 hours toward charitable activities. The company participated in more than 80 volunteer events, including The MS Walk, Swim for Diabetes, The American Heart Walk and Meals-On-Wheels.
Employees were also involved with Junior Achievement, The March of Dimes, United Way, the American Red Cross and the Harvest for Hunger food drive.
The 12-member committee gives Medical Mutual three routes to approach philanthropy. The company donates its money and name to sponsor events; executives can go to the S.H.A.R.E. committee with a suggestion about how to get employees involved in the community; and employees can bring an idea to the committee.
That doesn’t mean, however, that every idea is accepted.
Local BMW dealers recently held their Ultimate Test Drive, through which money would be donated to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. As a breast cancer survivor, that is a very important cause for Green. But the company chose not to participate.
“We never want it to appear that we’re endorsing a product at all,” she says. “And I agree with it, even though I felt like I personally wanted to. But it didn’t send a message that the company wanted to send.”
There are other benefits beyond the pure selflessness of philanthropy.
“We work a lot with the schools,” Green says. “And for us, that’s an employment tool. If we’re going to go out and hire people, why not hire from the Cleveland Public Schools.”
Volunteers from S.H.A.R.E. mentor students and facilitate a work-study program.
“We have a partner in education program because we believe in the community,” says Green. “If we make the community better, we all live here and it benefits us in the long run.”
There was a time, not long ago, when Medical Mutual didn’t have the reputation it has since begun to nurture. Before the company changed its name, “sometimes you were a little reluctant to say I work for Blue Cross and Blue Shield,” Green says. “There was a time when you weren’t always so proud to say that because you never know what the perception was.”
Now it’s different, and the feeling inside the company is just as important as the public perception.
“It’s wonderful to be able to do something like this,” Green says. “I was raised that you’re always supposed to give back; you’re always supposed to help those who are less fortunate than yourself. Just to know our president and our executives recognize the importance of volunteerism; that bottom line filters down into making it a better company.
“Employees feel better about it. Employees feel that if, ‘I really needed it, the company would come to me and support me, too.’ That’s one thing that we’re really trying to put out there.
“Not only do we help those outside of these walls, but as an employee, if you’re in crisis, if you’re in need, we’ll come to you, too.” How to reach: Medical Mutual of Ohio, (216) 687-7000
Daniel G. Jacobs ([email protected]) is senior editor at SBN.
How do you rate
It might seem odd to suggest that some charity is better than others. After all, giving of one’s time or money isn’t something you’re required to do. But that is just what 12th century Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, better known as Maimonides, has done. So if you give, where do you rate?
From best to worst, here is how Moses ben Maimon, Spanish rabbi, philosopher, and royal physician, ranked types of giving:
1. A gift, a loan, a business partnership, or a job that renders alms unnecessary
2. Benevolence in which the giver and the recipient are unknown to one another.
3. Benevolence in which the giver is unknown to the recipient (but the recipient is know to the giver).
4. Benevolence in which the recipient is unknown to the giver (but the giver is known to the recipient).
5. Giving before one is asked to give.
6. Giving after one is asked to give.
7. Giving less than appropriate, but graciously.
8. Giving grudgingly.