How CDW Stokes A Passion For Volunteering

At Lemontree we work with volunteers from corporations of all shapes and sizes–from multi-national banks to massive retailers. One thing is clear, there is no one-size fits all approach to volunteering, everyone approaches corporate social responsibility differently.

In such a varied landscape, Taylor Amerman's team at CDW stands out. In our work together, we've been consistently impressed by the passion that the CDW folks bring to their volunteerism. During our remote volunteer sessions, their enthusiasm and empathy radiates through the screen. And, before and after the event, folks step up beyond their job responsibilities to give back and participate.

I'm lucky that I had the chance to spend some time with Taylor talking about her journey to CSR and how she gets such incredible engagement. Read on below for our full conversation and thank you Taylor for your wisdom.

If you're interested in learning more about volunteering with Lemontree, you can check out more info here. And, if you have suggestions for future guests, you can email me at Kasumi@lemontreefoods.org

Kasumi: Taylor, thank you so much for taking the time to sit down and chat with Lemontree about this. Can you tell us about your role at CDW?

Taylor: I lead our global social impact team at CDW. For us, that's all of our philanthropic giving partnerships with nonprofits, as well as getting our coworkers involved and our co-worker benefits of matching gifts and volunteerism.

Kasumi: Okay, and how did you get involved in the work of corporate responsibility?

Taylor: It’s such an interesting story. During undergrad, I was living in Belfast in Northern Ireland. And when I was over there, I noticed that they had Master's-level courses in corporate social responsibility. I was really intrigued about CSR as a career because of that experience.

But getting involved in the community has been a part of my life for a long time. I would say one of the most transformational experiences of my life was in high school, and I was part of a choir. And we traveled for that and served communities, and that was a really transformational experience. I had this deep, like: How can I serve? But I also have this strong business background, that mindset and efficiency, and I love partnering. Between the desire to serve and be a part of a community, plus learning about CSR plus business expertise is why I was really intrigued by this work. So I have a Master's in Corporate Responsibility. I've worked at nonprofits like the YMCA and a cancer center locally, but I got started in the beverage alcohol industry, and corporate responsibility is very important in that industry. I also worked at UPS in Atlanta, and now at CDW!

Kasumi: Oh my gosh, I'm so glad I asked that question, because we've never talked about this. I'm so glad you found something that was such a perfect intersection of all those different things.

Taylor: Exactly. And I love it. In college, I was undecided for a long time. I don't think I knew I really needed something kind of tailored, something special and unique. Getting exposed to CSR, to local foundations in Lexington, Kentucky, where I went to school, I learned that that was even a part of a business.

Kasumi: Yeah, I don't think I even learned the term Corporate Social Responsibility until college.

Taylor: Me either. And it's the best! I love it. It's perfect for me. I love it. And I've also had the nonprofit experience, because I think it builds on that perspective.

Kasumi: For sure! So tell me more about corporate responsibility at CDW, what makes it special?

Taylor: Let me just set the stage because all the terms are so confusing and every company talks about them a little bit differently. The overarching term that we use at CDW is ESG. But, all the work under ESG is dispersed across the company. So our legal team, they do the reporting. We have a diversity, equity and inclusion team that’s in HR, and we have a team for business diversity, which is supplier diversity. And they’re embedded within operations of the business. And then the piece that I lead is the social impact work, or the community work of ESG, which falls under corporate communications.

Kasumi: That's awesome, thank you for breaking that down. Every company structures it so differently.

Taylor: Yeah, my role is community relations, but the newer term is social impact. And we wanted to reimagine what social impact looks like at CDW. It's not new, but how we do it is evolving and changing. I've been at CDW for a year and a half and it's been great. The time has really flown by." As a company, we decided that our expertise and our superpower is to address digital equity. We are uniquely capable to address that societal challenge. So now that we know what we're trying to achieve, how in the world do we do that? What are the most impactful ways? What can we support and how can we direct our efforts to have the biggest impact, based on evidence-based practices?

We worked with a company called Ecotone Analytics that really helped us articulate our focus areas and strategies. Those three are access–we want to make sure everyone has the access to the technology that they need. The second building block would be education. So we support computer science, digital literacy, STEM education, and the next building block is workforce. We work very closely with our DEI team to build a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce, not only at CDW but for the entire tech industry. So that's what we're focused on. But, at the same time, we've also implemented trust-based philanthropy efforts with our nonprofit partners. Yes, we want them to support those building blocks, but we trust them to serve their communities in the best way–we’re not overly prescriptive about how those dollars are used with our nonprofits.

Kasumi: That's awesome, thank you for breaking that down. And from the nonprofit side, thank you for trusting us to do the work the way it needs to be done! Within those building blocks, tell me more about volunteering at CDW. What does that look like?

Taylor: As a company, we are getting more specific and strategic in addressing that digital equity piece with our corporate donations. I should add, though, we also overlay that with our partners. Because CDW is in the middle of the industry, we will work closely with partners from leading hardware and software companies, and we want to align all of those social impact efforts on digital equity. So it's not just our team that does this work. The sales team does it, marketing does it, our sponsorship teams–with the NFL and MLB teams, for example–are also addressing digital equity. So it's embedded across what we're doing as a company.

Now, it's the complete opposite when it comes to our coworkers. We care a lot about empowering our coworkers to serve their communities, and we do that in two ways. The first is through volunteering. We do not restrict the organization someone can volunteer at, but they get eight hours of paid time a year to do what they want to do, as an individual or they might do it as a team, with their family. We want it to be part of our culture and for our coworkers to feel empowered to get involved where they want to.

The second way we empower our coworkers is through a matching gift benefit. They have up to $2,000 a year where CDW will match their dollars to the organization of their choice. There's not a list to pick from. Yes, they're vetted and in our system, but it's thousands and thousands of nonprofit organizations. And then this October, we did something called Empower Month, where we actually did a two for one match! So coworkers had $4,000 they would get from the company, and over 500 organizations benefited from Empower Month, which is a huge success. We were thrilled with the results that we had.

Kasumi: That's fantastic! I'm so glad to hear that. I think it's important from an employee perspective. And something I heard from another interview is to keep things fresh, you know, offering new opportunities or changes to the programs in the past. A two for one match must have been so exciting for your employees.

Taylor: Yes, and now we’re in the evaluation phase, and we're doing three projects to evaluate. The first was a nonprofit partner survey, and we got the results back on metrics that we care about. Of course, we care about the dollars and the impact of those dollars. But we also care about what kind of partner we are as a company. Do our nonprofit partners trust us? Are we good communicators? What more can we do to be a better corporate partner?

Then we’re going to be launching a big evaluation of all of our partners to see, where are we! What regions do we give to? What do the dollars go towards? How long have we partnered with those organizations? We really want get some strong data and analytics. And then the third project that I'm excited about is a coworker internal survey. Similar to our nonprofits–output metrics like total hours and total organizations, total dollars matched are good, and we're going to continue to use them–but I also care about how they feel! Do they feel empowered, do they know about these benefits? What more do they want? It's always with the intention of, what more can we do? And how can we be better? So we need the results of that in order to have some directive on how to improve our programs for our coworkers.

Kasumi: That makes sense. And I like that you're taking this multi-faceted approach because there are a lot of parties involved in these conversations. It's great that you're listening to everybody.

Taylor: Yeah, it's important. Now we're at a phase where we really want to understand the changes we’ve made. Sometimes you have to show that something like, Empower Month–that was a big change! But look how much better this is because of the changes we made! So there's that balance of leading and influencing change, as well as providing the input. It’s both/and.

Kasumi: Last question: is there anything you want to share about plans for 2023? Anything you're working on?

Taylor: I would say the number one word is going to be communication. That was the number one thing we heard from our nonprofit partners–they want to hear from us more, they want more touchpoints. They want to be more integrated into CDW, and they want robust partnerships. Similarly, internally, our word is going to be ‘integration’. So it's not just the social impact team talking. It's not just Taylor, not just Brandon, but what are the company leaders saying? What is your local regional sales manager saying? So making sure those messages are embedded and tailored and local, but also that leadership is demonstrated in those messages. So when the company leaders are talking, what are they doing? How are they demonstrating that commitment? How is that sales leader demonstrating the commitment? Again, both/and, but that's going to be the theme: storytelling, integration, communication.

Kasumi: Yeah, that makes sense. Those are really great themes for 2023. I think I'll integrate those into my own life as well! Communication is always good. Thank you so much Taylor, again, for taking the time to share all this with us.

Taylor: I truly, really appreciate the partnership. Y'all are amazing. Not only is it impactful, but it's a good experience for everyone. And they get to see the impact that they have. You all are amazing, especially for that virtual option of bringing our coworkers together for a volunteer experience. I have not seen anything like it. Congratulations.

Kasumi: Thank you so much, Taylor! I really appreciate that.

Thank you Taylor & CDW for all you do to support our work at Lemontree! Learn more about their social impact strategy here.