’Tis Better to Give

Wireless Vision employees helped in various backpack drives.

Businesses find creative ways to give back

By Paul Natinksy

As so many of us look forward to the holiday season and the gifts we’ll exchange with family and friends, our thoughts also turn to those who are less fortunate and the true spirit of the season — “Give big, to get back, to give bigger,” as Rob Bava says. Bava is Community Choice Credit Union’s longtime president and CEO.

We talked to Community Choice Business Development Officer Beth Spadafore about the company’s signature giving program, “Give Big Month,” which takes place every September. Each fall, employees are encouraged to “spend” some of the 24 hours of community service they are required to perform each year.

The time spent serving the community is paid time off. Spadafore says Community Choice’s Human Resources Department finds opportunities and helps employees connect. Departments band together “Business services might go to Forgotten Harvest for a half a day and pack boxes for people.” Weeding or gardening blighted areas in the city of Detroit is another opportunity.

Each year Spadafore gets involved with the Stronger Warrior Foundation for “veterans that are not getting the support from government that they require.” She got involved through her brother-in-law. They do a September golf outing each year. This year they raised $14,000. Last year it was about $10,000. Last year’s money went to a veteran who needed a handicapped accessible bathroom built in his home. “He was bathing in a kiddie pool in the garage.”

The beauty of targeting early fall for major fundraising activities is that summer vacations are over, and the winter holidays are still a ways off. Not to mention September boasts some of Michigan’s best weather. Weeding, gardening, and golf are very much in play.

“One of the things I’m most proud of at our company is the way we’ve been able to give back to the community,” says Saber Ammori, CEO of Wireless Vision, a T-Mobile dealer with over 460 stores in more than 25 states. The company has about 20 stores spread across Michigan.

“When you do business in a community, you have a responsibility to give back,” says Ammori. “It’s financial, but it’s also time. We’ve done leadership programs in the community, mentoring new Americans. We’ve done food banks. To me, it’s a responsibility and an obligation.”

In addition to working with children’s organizations such as Brilliant Detroit, a nonprofit organization that provides programming and support for children aged 0-8 in high-need neighborhoods, and City Year, another program benefitting school kids who need help, Ammori says Wireless Vision works with the Chaldean Community Foundation to identify opportunities to help the communities in which it operates. He says CCF is a good place to start for businesses that are new to giving.

Much like Community Choice, Wireless Vision has a signature program complete with a slogan. “We call it ‘WV’s got your back,’” says Ammori. “It started eight or nine years ago, we started giving school backpacks to kids in areas of need, underprivileged areas.”

Sly Sandiha of Pinnacle Hospitality leads a company that owns hotels and related properties throughout Michigan. Unlike many businesses, the hospitality industry serves a clientele that is not geographically related to its business. Guests come in, stay a few days or a week and then return to their homes in places throughout the country or abroad. For Pinnacle, the properties’ communities are the employees, who are local. Sandiha says Pinnacle relies on property managers and employees to help identify giving opportunities in communities.

Being in the hospitality industry affords Pinnacle a unique opportunity to support communities. In cases where homes are destroyed by fires or floods, Pinnacle can host families until their property is rebuilt. “They stay with us for, sometimes, months at a time and it’s their home away from home,” said Sandiha.

Sandiha and Ammori say that much of their passion for helping others reflects the values they learned growing up in the Chaldean community, where they were taught to give back to the people who helped support them and their businesses.

A giving culture has its own rewards for those working in businesses imbued with it. Spadafore has worked in the banking industry her entire career. Now 65, she has been with Community Choice for 15 years and says a big part of the reason she is still working is because the credit union is still giving.

“Coming into this culture was really kind of eye-opening for me to see that the president of the credit union is out there digging holes or pulling weeds.”