Celebrating 25 Years in Business With 25 Acts of Kindness

Stacey Lombardo wanted to find a unique way to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the business she founded.  She was looking for a way to commemorate what made her business, Infoshred, unique.  “Coming up on 25 years of business was pretty monumental,” she says.  “A lot of hard work and blood and sweat goes into building a company with your team. So, we wanted to figure out a way to mark it in a way that said a lot about who we are,”  She discussed it with her circle of friends and team members and came up with the concept of doing 25 acts of charitable kindness to commemorate the company’s anniversary. They called it 25 Weeks of Giving. This month, Infoshred capped off that effort with their 25^th donation to The Giving Tree, a donor-advised foundation at Hartford Foundation for Public Giving that had a special meaning for Stacey.

As 25 Weeks came to a close, Stacey reflected on how it all began: “We decided we wanted to honor our 25 years with 25 acts of giving.  We had to decide how to reach out to the local community to find ways to make a difference.  We started by involving the members of our team as well as the local community looking for local nonprofits with immediate needs. Those needs ranged from diapers for the Gentle Love Diaper Dispensary to art supplies for Oak Hill and toiletries for those who benefit from the services of the South Park Inn.  We even donated funds for software and a therapeutic riding ring for Shepherd Meadow, a place in Bristol that uses horses and donkeys to provide therapy.  One of the more unusual requests was for a Karaoke machine.  It came from MARC, Inc. of Manchester, a nonprofit that provides opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It felt good to know that that machine would spark a lot of fun times and laughter.  The main thing all 25 donations had in common was that we delivered what the organizations told us they really needed.  And the fun part was that we collected those items and delivered them ourselves.  I’d go out with my team members and see the joy those donations brought.  That was the fun part.”

Giving to smaller, more local nonprofits is part of a growing trend in corporate philanthropy. The reasoning behind this hyper-local giving is that by identifying and supporting smaller, more grassroots organizations that are often underfunded, a company can amplify their impact. “Dollars can go further, and donors can often see the impact they’re creating right in their local communities… I think we’re going to see even more emphasis on local giving with visible results that people can feel good about,” predicted Emily Rasmussen from Grapevine’s giving platform in her blog post, “The Five Trends in Philanthropy to Watch in 2025.”

In the Company DNA

Trend or no trend, celebrating a significant milestone through charitable giving was natural for Stacey Lombardo and those in her company.  Since Infoshred’s founding in 1997, giving back to the community has been woven into their DNA.  “As a business owner, I’ve always felt strongly that going out into the communities you serve to help others should be a part of your commitment,” she says.  “It can be in all different ways, but I think companies should pay attention to community service. Business owners and top executives should think about the legacy their companies will leave. They should ask themselves, ‘How do we want to be remembered?’  ‘What does our company want to give out into the world?’”

Over the years, Stacey’s been personally involved with several nonprofits, but her dedication deepened when she set up “The Giving Tree” through the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.  “As a gift to myself for my 40th birthday, I set up a donor-advised fund so my three daughters could learn first-hand about charitable giving,” she says.  Since the fund was set up in 2012, it has given grants to support a variety of programs.  It was only fitting that the company’s last 25 Weeks donation went to The Giving Tree Fund. I love the synchronicity of that. It just felt right,” says Stacey.

An Inspiration to Other Successful Companies

For Infoshred, the 25 Weeks project was a great way to celebrate their company anniversary.  One that she hopes will serve as a model for other businesses marking significant milestones. Many of those in the nonprofits benefitting from the 25 Weeks campaign told her they liked the idea of a company giving back to the community to celebrate reaching a significant milestone.  “The nonprofits we contacted often commented on it as a novel way to celebrate a monumental company anniversary by giving back to others and considering others,” she said.  “Yes, we could have had a party and invited a bunch of people to eat and drink, but what good would that have done?  Once they left the event, the whole thing would have been forgotten. Instead, as I look back on this effort, I know it will be really memorable. We’re going to be able to say to ourselves, ‘Wow, when we had our 25th anniversary, we touched a lot of folks.  We provided a lot of good and offered a lot of light to many organizations.’ That seems so much more memorable.  We’re on this earth for a blip. If we can go out into the community, even if it’s in small ways, it’s important.  This campaign was a wonderful legacy to reflect on someday and say, ‘Our company made a difference in someone’s life. We took our company’s good fortune and rolled it into somebody else’s life for the good.”

Lessons Learned

For companies considering getting involved in corporate philanthropy, Stacey shared some of the lessons learned from 25 Weeks of Giving:

• Do Your Research – “Take the time to really understand the nonprofits you are consider supporting,” she says. “Do a site tour and spend some time talking to the folks on the ground.  Learn about their needs, their struggles and the best way to provide truly meaningful support. We did a lot of site visits for the 25 Weeks campaign, and I can tell you that doing that made the giving richer because it wasn’t just about writing a check.  It was about learning about what they did and how we could make the best impact.”
• Choose Nonprofits That Resonate With Your Company and Your Team – “Give to organizations you’re drawn to,” she advises. “Their missions should be something that compels you.  While we gave to a variety of organizations in 25 Weeks, we chose ones that meant something to us.  Many focused on children and animals because that’s something people at Infoshred especially care about.”
• Ask the nonprofits what they need – To make your donations the most useful for the nonprofits, ask before you donate. “Don’t assume you know what they need,” says Stacey.  “Make sure you don’t impose upon them what you think they need.  With our 25 Weeks effort, we really tried to approach the nonprofits and ask about their immediate needs.  Then, based on what they came back with, we tailored our gifts to that.”
• Involve Employees – Infoshred made employees a real part of 25 Weeks. They got their suggestions for nonprofits to support, and they often brought employees with them when they delivered the donations.  “It was important to me that we brought our team members into the giving circle of this project.  It was really gratifying for them. And I think it added to a certain pride in working for a company that benefits the community as well as our customers.”

Worth the Effort

As Infoshred’s 25 Weeks campaign comes to a close, Stacey and her team reflect on what it took to make this ambitious effort work: “It was a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun,” she says.  “It brings us immense gratitude to look back at all the different deliveries we’ve done over the campaign.  It was a big undertaking, but we believe it was a really good way to commemorate our first 25 years. It was so well worth it to know that we gave back to folks in so many nonprofits in different ways.  For all of us at Infoshred, commemorating our 25 years in business through the 25 Weeks of Giving initiative was a wonderful way to look back on that special anniversary and know that we made a difference in so many lives.”

Click here for a complete list of the nonprofits supported by Infoshred’s 25 Weeks of Giving