Dutonians are known for their relentless pursuit of positive impact, in both their work and personal life, and our ATL crew consistently goes above and beyond to model this attribute.

As we approached the end of summer, back-to-school shopping became top of mind for most Dutonians. It’s a time of excitement for the school year ahead, but for some, it comes with feelings of anxiety, worry, and disappointment due to budget limitations.

One of our core values is to Ack & Own, when you see opportunities you make it yours and you make it right. I saw an opportunity to Ack & Own while giving back to my community and facilitated a fundraising campaign in partnership with our Employee Resource Group, Array:Black.

Over the course of a month, we set up a donation campaign and Amazon Wishlist to collect supplies for Kipp Soul Primary School. Our goal was to obtain funding and donations to supply 40 backpacks worth of school supplies for the year. The campaign would culminate in an in-person backpack assembly at our ATL office.

The results were astounding. Not only did we meet our goal of 40 backpacks, we exceeded it!  This included purchasing ancillary teacher supplies, which reduced the financial burden that is often passed to teachers to ensure their classrooms have adequate supplies for their students.

In all, we successfully campaigned and brought in the following:

• 42 Backpacks
• Teacher Supplies
• 1375 School Supply items 
• Cash Donations: $245
• In-person volunteers: 11
• Volunteer hours: 25