caring for our community
making a difference in our community and around the world
BeaconCares is the heart within Beacon that beats continuously to help others. We see it as a responsibility. Giving back is at the core of our values, whether it’s helping out local families and non-profits, contributing to our clients' communities, or making a difference in the lives of Rwandan children and families.
Since 1998, Beacon has focused on making a difference in two ways: (1) helping our clients grow their business through web technology and (2) helping people that need a caring hand.
An Urgent Need
Hunger, health, and children: the needs related to these areas transcend politics or trends. That's why they form the core of our charitable work as a company and are the cornerstone of our service in the Piedmont Triad community.
Every year, we partner with the local chapter of United Way to raise funds that serve to feed, educate, and improve the lives of thousands in our community. We also volunteer our time and efforts to assist other organizations and causes, such as Give A Kid A Coat, which seeks to provide warm clothing for children in need; Greensboro Urban Ministry, a social services organization; and Kids Path Perinatal Hospice Care Consortium.
In addition to the work in our own community, we've been thrilled to extend our charitable reach even further with our client-designated donation program. As part of an annual BeaconCares Week, we ask our clients (and staff) to name their favorite charitable causes, then make donations on their behalf. The result is thousands of dollars given to benefit the people who need it most across the country.
An Astonishing Impact
Our biggest charitable venture so far is a unique project called Weaving Hope. This initiative—launched in partnership with our long-time clients (and friends), burton + BURTON—raises money to build schools and offer meal programs to school children in Rwanda.
Weaving Hope also makes a difference in how it raises money for the schools. The project is built around selling special, hand-woven African baskets. These baskets come directly from a women's cooperative in the village of Muhanga, providing steady work to not only support their families, but also help the women escape inequality, discrimination, and violence.
Our work with Weaving Hope continues, but we celebrated a major milestone in the project in 2019. That year, we completed the funding and construction of our first school in Nkuzuzu, Rwanda. “This will be the centerpiece of the community, where weddings will take place, where people will attend church, where children will play and learn, where local events will take place," said a Rwandan archbishop. "It will change lives."
A Culture of Caring
Aside from the work we do company-wide, our team carries on the BeaconCares culture at the individual level. Beacon employees are given the time and leeway to devote themselves to the causes they are most passionate about. Our team members have volunteered many hours with local organizations near to their hearts, including the Guilford County Animal Services and the Second Harvest Food Bank (a Feeding America affiliated organization). They've also donated toys and meals to help the needy at Christmas, and given gently used clothes to benefit ClothingDonations.org, a service group that raises money to fund programs that support the needs of veterans.
We like to think that when it comes to giving, we are just getting started. We'll continue to donate, volunteer, and offer aid however we can to improve the lives of people in our community and around the world.
2023 impact report
In our first quarter, Serving Our Neighbors, our efforts were directed towards helping two organizations: Brightspire and Habitat for Humanity. While at Brightspire, we spent our time mingling and playing card games with the senior citizens there. While at Habitat for Humanity, we helped as best we could in doing outdoor landscaping tasks, primarily assisting with an abundance of mulch that needed shoveling.
In our second quarter, Advancing Education, we lent a hand to our next two select organizations: Backpack Beginnings and the Black Child Development Institute (BCDI). During our visit to Backpack Beginnings, we helped in auditing a warehouse full of school supplies in support of education and children’s literacy. At the BCDI, we were met with the many smiling faces of a local 5th grade class and spent our time there doing arts and crafts and reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
In our third quarter, Helping Furry Friends, we focused our help towards the efforts of two local animal organizations: Guilford County Animal Services (GCAS) and Horsepower Therapeutic Learning Center (HTLC). Just down the road at the GCAS, we helped in assembling goodie bags for future pet owners and building carts for the facility. Through our efforts, we even earned a generous chunk of time playing with very small puppies (whose puddles spoke to how equally excited they were to see us). At HTLC, we donated a variety of items from blankets and towels to treats and allergy medication, assisted with their outdoor yard project and even got to meet some of the horses on their property!
In our fourth and final quarter of the year, Making Spirits Bright, we embodied the holiday spirit in the best way we knew how: assisting both the Greensboro Urban Ministry (GUM) and the Children’s Home Society (CHS). At GUM, we visited their community food pantry and helped out by stocking shelves, sorting through donated produce, measuring and bagging sugar, moving and arranging boxes in their warehouse and even decorating their Christmas tree! Upon visiting the CHS, we spent the morning unloading a trailer full of gifts, loading up a “shopping area” with donated items that were not assigned to specific children, checking gift lists not once, but twice for sponsored children, and auditing their wish lists to ensure that each and every bag was filled with everything that could be provided.
315
service hours
12
individual outings
8
different organizations
our mission in 2024
- For our first quarter, we plan to volunteer with Meals on Wheels and Hospice House as well as donating to Senior Resources of Guilford County.
- In our second quarter, we look forward to contributing to the Black Child Development Institute’s (BCDI) After School Craft Time program, FirstNC’s inventory Camp in a Kit supplies, and collecting education and art supplies for BCDI.
- In our third quarter we will be visiting both Guilford County Animal Services and Horsepower Therapeutic Learning Center in addition to collecting allergy relief items for Horsepower.
- For our final quarter, we will be working with Greensboro Urban Ministry and Children's Home Society (CHS) as well as collecting items for CHS’s Hope for the Holidays gift drive.
Interesting in joining the team and our quarterly community service efforts? Check our available openings and contact us anytime!