Reflecting on Brandify’s Week of Cheer

It doesn’t require much effort to cut a check and send it off to a charity without a second thought, but to involve yourself deeper in ensuring the success of your community speaks to a different level of growth and achievement. This holiday season, our team challenged itself to drive success by involving itself with well-deserving companies and causes in a new way. To create a better and brighter 2016 and beyond, we decided to bring our best-in-class technology to those who are just as passionate and face the same challenges as our clients—but have limited resources. Our goal was to serve the greater good by bringing customers to these charitable organizations through the use of our expertise, services and local technologies.

We got to work in early Q3 and the more invested we became, the more I learned that one generous act serves as a ripple that can affect many. We saw that it’s not just about making sales or even improving ROI; it’s about serving our community’s heroes and giving recognition where it is deserved. In digital marketing, search engines don’t quite follow this principle. That’s why when Tara Payne, founder of Caring Hearts, expressed that she did not have the budget to maintain paid access to Brandify past the free trial, we gave her what she needed so that Caring Hearts would get the visibility, reach and authority that it deserves to help more people.

More and more, organizations are shifting their focus to concentrate on Local and we knew that by leveraging Brandify, these organizations could more effectively reach potential donors, expand their presence and help more people in need.Throughout this Week of Cheer, we have done everything from boosting online presence, to providing free SEO enhancement software services, to developing and implementing business locator software—and our generous team did this all pro-bono. Team Brandify demonstrated that we genuinely care about their future success, whether they are raise awareness for Pulmonary Fibrosis, serve more than 100,000 students in expanded learning or strive for a career in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) field.

Culturally, the Week of Cheer has helped our team grow remarkably. I’ve seen employees roll up their sleeves and commit themselves to cultivating a spirit of giving. We learned about our team’s passions after finding great organizations like THINK Together and Mollyk.org through them. Everyone has been engaged, collaboration has soared and because of this, so has morale. Our canned food drive fed over 70 families in need this holiday, we raised nearly $3,000 through a one-night auction and helped five deserving students fulfill their dreams of achieving a higher education. After visiting these students in person and seeing the genuine gratitude and support by the recipients’ families, I understood that a more hands on approach to giving is what can change the course of someone’s future.

In the end, the benefits we’ve received as a result of working towards these giving initiatives have inspired us to explore more ways to help the community year round. This has re-energized us to focus on being our best selves, and motivate others to understand that they are unique and transformative in their own right. We want to be more hands on, impactful and intentional with our charitable outreach moving forward.

I am both proud and grateful to my team for making the Week of Cheer happen. But we won’t stop after the holiday season. We plan to support those who need it all year round, even when no one’s looking. After all, a company’s success depends on more than one ingredient. And at Brandify, it requires a collaborative culture, a collective spirit of giving, loyalty to stakeholders and technology that can create next-level innovation. After kicking off this series of giving, we have cooked up a recipe for transformation for the new year and beyond.

If you know about an organization, individual or cause that deserves recognition or help boosting its local presence, contact us.