National Desk Free Day: Getting Out and Giving Back

Today's post comes to us from Leila Shamas, a Marketing Specialist and Campus Recruiter based in our Denver, CO office. Desk Free Day is a relatively new concept here at McGladrey, and Leila shares with us some of what happened on the first Desk Free Day back in July.

McGladrey employees recently began participating in Desk Free Day, a quarterly event aimed at getting all of our employees out of the office, in front of our clients and into our communities in both the spirit of volunteering and building our brand in the marketplace. July 28th was our inaugural Desk Free Day across the country with employees participating in a wide variety of tasks and events ranging from volunteering with local not-for-profits to networking with peers in the industry or treating clients to lunch.

After the inaugural Desk Free Day, employees participated in a contest to vote on the best team effort as the personification of building McGladrey’s brand by doing good work in the community. A Kansas City team that volunteered at a client, the Catholic Charities Thrift Center, “won" the first Desk Free Day contest.

“The client has an amazing operation, and it was a privilege to help them and our community for the day,” said Laura B., a regional marketing communications manager. The outing supported the thrift center, which typically takes in $2,000-$3,000 a day for Kansas City-area needy as well as international programs. “Our efforts benefited a great organization, and along the way, we built a little brand awareness about McGladrey, too.”

The Kansas City team members received a $1,000 donation to the charity, a $35 merchandise certificate to McGladrey’s company store, and a special prize from Team McGladrey. The team planed to deliver our $1,000 check to the client, plus bring an even larger group of volunteers to help with clothing sorting, cleaning, shop floor work, whatever they need for next Desk Free Day.

In second place was a Chicago team that visited its client, one of the Midwest’s largest grocery co-ops, to gain “hands-on” experience by squeezing avocados and sniffing the fresh fruit in its warehouse cooler section!

McGladrey’s next Desk-free Day is this week, on Thursday October 21. Coincidentally, as the first event’s winner exemplifies, community service is the focus. Offices from across the firm will be volunteering their time with not-for-profit clients and prospects. Evidently the Kansas City team had so much fun the group is going back this month for a repeat appearance.

Some of the other planned activities include volunteering at various food banks nationally, Junior Achievement, senior center events, cancer walks, Boys and Girls Club activities, local humane society assistance, Habitat for Humanity, pumpkin carving fundraisers, clean-up events, and many other great activities!

Desk-free Volunteer Day is a fun way to make a difference for others in the communities in which we live and work. . . we’ve all really enjoyed the opportunity so far and are really looking forward to Thursday!

Stay tuned for more information about this week's Desk Free Day activities.