Arkansas Business recently presented Garver with an award for Arkansas Business of the Year in the Outstanding Philanthropic Corporations (medium-sized business) category through the Arkansas Community Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization that promotes smart giving to improve communities. The publication noted that the
award “simply confirms a company tenet: Helping others is good for the
community and good for the firm.”
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Photo courtesy of Arkansas Business |
It was with that understanding that Garver launched
GarverGives in 2015 as a way to be more intentional with how it gives back to
communities. Through that initiative, Garver matches employees’ volunteer
contributions—both time and money—to the organizations they choose, and
donations to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
organizations are matched at $150 for $100 in donations.
“We chose to prioritize STEM, specifically organizations
influencing career exploration, because of the potential to directly contribute
to our pipeline of future engineers and strengthen our community’s workforces,”
said Communication Team Leader Laura Nick. “We wanted to be purposeful with our
giving. We are really supporting what our employees want to support, and our leadership recognized that we
want to make our culture responsive to needs.”
“At the root of this award is that our employees care enough
about the communities where they live and work that they will make an effort to
give something back,” said Garver President and CEO Dan Williams. “It’s because
they care that we formed GarverGives, and it’s because they care that
GarverGives has been as successful as it is.”