Talk about a close call.
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in late August 2005,
Dan Wilson must’ve been holding his breath. After all, his
Columbus-based auto glass replacement company had just
opened a new warehouse in the area.
“The water came within two feet of the facility. Two feet,” says
Wilson, who retired last month as president and CEO of Belron US
Inc., the parent company for Safelite AutoGlass. “That’s about as
close as you want to get. And the facility we had just moved out of
was underwater.”
Still, it was a mixed blessing. Even though the new warehouse
escaped water damage, many business functions had to be relocated temporarily due to the poor conditions in New Orleans following the storm surge and mass levee failures. In addition, at least
30 of Safelite’s 75 employees in the area were left homeless by the
flooding.
“So we not only felt it from a business standpoint, we understood
it from a personal standpoint,” Wilson says. “Many people lost
everything. It was a calling on the company to see what we could
do.”
Safelite set up a donation pool for employees impacted by the
hurricane and seeded it with $40,000. Then Wilson put out a plea
for help across the company. The response was immediate.
Employees volunteered space in their own homes to take in displaced associates. Some traveled to New Orleans. Others offered
clothing, school supplies, blankets, towels or dishes. Still others
wrote checks.
“The $200, $300, $400, $500 checks people were writing to help
individuals get back on their feet was amazing,” Wilson says. “It
really described a lot about the culture and the heart of the company.”
In fact, the outpouring of generosity by employees served as a
catalyst for the company to establish an ongoing vehicle through
which the company and its employees now give regularly: the
Safelite Charitable Foundation.
Here’s how Wilson created a culture of philanthropy at Safelite
AutoGlass — and why giving away nearly $700,000 as a company
last year could just be a start.