Credera Service Day 2021: Making an Extraordinary Impact in Our Communities

Sandra Kirkby Baker

Credera Service Day 2021: Making an Extraordinary Impact in Our Communities

Every year, Credera holds a company-wide Service Day to give Credera employees an opportunity to live out our mission to make an extraordinary impact on our communities together. This is a day for Credera team members to step away from client delivery and internal operations work to spend time together serving the communities in which we live and work. On June 18, 2021, Credera hosted our largest and most impactful Service Day to date.

Planning Service Day

Our planning team began ideating about Service Day 2021 in late 2020 when we didn’t know when–or if–we would be able to safely see each other, much less serve our communities, in the way we were imagining. Working with a committee of city-specific champions, functional subject matter experts, a core leadership team, and team leads who project managed each volunteer opportunity, we evaluated the unique considerations and opportunities for local engagement at each Credera office.

To accommodate team members’ varying comfort levels and locations, we created a variety of ways for Credera staff to serve, both virtually and in person, in all six of our different U.S. office locations.

It was incredibly important to us to fulfill our commitments to our nonprofit partners, and we managed through the unknowns using an agile approach to continuously adapt to the changing situation.

Where We Partnered

Nearly 400 Credera team members participated in Service Day 2021 across all six of our U.S. offices. We volunteered in a number of capacities, such as packing and distributing meals to those in need, beautification of our parks, and serving families with sick children by preparing meals and building care kits.

Each of our offices also leveraged our knowledge and passion to support young people through education or STEM awareness. Teams assembled science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) kits for the children of an underserved Dallas community, created backpacks and activity guides for a Girls, Inc. STEM summer camp, built and curated content and workshop activities, delivered TechGirlz workshops, and helped students prepare for a virtual STEM showcase with Dreams for Schools. Given the STEM background of many of our team members, these opportunities held an especially meaningful connection.

Through each volunteer engagement, Credera team members impacted thousands of lives in our communities. Among our outcomes, we:

Designed content or activities for 30% of TechGirlz workshops which will benefit 25,000 students
Directly inspired and provided encouragement to 70 middle school children through STEM workshops in partnership with TechGirlz and Dreams for Schools.
Created 2,500 STEM kits and snack bags for the children of the Vickery Meadow neighborhood of Dallas and an additional 350 STEM kits for the constituents of Brother Bill’s Helping Hand.
Provided meals and toiletry kits to over 300 families staying at the Dallas and Chicago Ronald McDonald Houses.
Assembled and distributed meals, food boxes, pantry items, and PPE kits to thousands of individuals through Minnie’s Food Pantry, The Stewpot, Greater Chicago Food Depository, Brave Space Alliance, and North Texas Food Bank.
Weeded, repotted plants, and cleaned seedling containers for Houston’s Memorial Park Conservancy.
Spent over 100 hours merchandising and organizing at the Genesis Women’s Shelter’s Thrift Shop and at Minnie’s Food Pantry Resale Boutique
Created enrichment toys for dogs and cats from Dallas Animal Services.

Gail Stout Perry (sponsor) and Sarah Bruner (Opportunity Lead) present Minnie’s Food Pantry with a Credera match of volunteer donations to provide 10,800 meals to the community

Our team members truly enjoyed the day of giving back, spending time with one another—whether in person or virtually—and connecting with our communities. We are exceptionally grateful to the organizations who welcomed us so wholeheartedly.

A Greater Purpose

At Credera, we’ve always said we want to “grow to give.” That’s why it’s so special for us to continue our legacy of giving back to our communities in many unique ways.

“Our mission is to make an extraordinary impact on our clients and our community,” said Credera Partner Gail Stout Perry. “One way we do that is by giving back together. After a year of such uncertainty, it feels especially meaningful to spend time together serving the communities where we live and work.”

As Credera grows, the benefit of serving our communities together matters more than ever; we will stay united by continuously rallying around our shared purpose of making an impact in our communities. Serving one another, our clients, and our communities unites us across practices, client projects, and physical office locations. It’s who we are and what we do.

Looking Ahead

Philanthropy is not a once-a-year event at Credera. Our people are committed to giving back to those around us throughout the year. While our team members independently give their time, energy, and resources to causes close to their hearts, we are introducing a collective, corporate-wide community impact and service program this year. We’re excited to harness our enthusiasm, skills, and passion to continue supporting others and look forward to the impact our collective energy, passion, skills, and commitment can make.