By Kimberly Bishop|Corporate Responsibility
For the second year in a row, Gen team members from around the world came together for our annual Global Volunteer Week, seven full days of service that support the communities where we work and live.
Through a combination of in-person and virtual events, more than 600 employees logged roughly 1,800 volunteer hours in support of 37 nonprofits. These figures represent an 11% increase over 2024 in terms of the number of people participating and a 35% increase in the total number of volunteer hours, making May 18-24, 2025, seven of the most impactful days in Gen’s history.
Highlights from these events, which spanned 13 Gen sites across three continents, are included below. They demonstrate the strength of our company-wide culture of giving, which remains at the heart of everything we do, and partly comprise the consistent yearly increase in Gen employees’ annual volunteer hours, which are up 35% since 2024 and 75% since 2023.
Genovators in Brno, Czechia, spent a day cleaning and conducting site maintenance at House for Juliet, Czechia’s hospice care center for children
Supporting Vulnerable Populations
Teams all over the world rallied their collective efforts in service of our communities’ most vulnerable members, from survivors of domestic violence to adults with disabilities and many more. Examples of these activities include:
- Through collaborations with National Network to End Domestic Violence and Project Helping, team members across every single one of our U.S. sites, as well as our remote U.S. employees, packed 500 backpacks filled with essential items and uplifting notes for survivors of domestic violence.
- Our team members in Brno, Czechia, spent a day cleaning and conducting site maintenance at House for Juliet, Czechia’s hospice care center for children. After the staff mentioned a shortage of equipment, Brno staff subsequently donated multiple laptops and monitors.
- Teams in Tempe, Arizona, and Plano, Texas, respectively packed nearly 42,000 meals for Feed My Starving Children and sorted more than 15,500 meals for North Texas Food Bank. Mountain View, California, employees cooked and served 150 dinner plates for families at Ronald McDonald House Charities Bay Area.
- More than 50 team members supported people with disabilities through in-person and virtual sessions led by ACCEL. In-person volunteers visited ACCEL’s adult education services, and remote volunteers led a virtual round of Jeopardy to help boost the players’ confidence.
- To care for elder populations, volunteers at the NAM Sales kickoff wrote 100 cards to seniors facing isolation, and in Chennai, India, volunteers visited an elder care home and spent the day with the patients there.
“The shelter was filled with laughter, music and connection,” said Dinesh Bhalaji who volunteered in Chennai. “We played Tambola, danced together and most importantly, we made some wonderful new friends. It was a reminder that somethings, the simplest gestures can bring immense joy to someone else.”
Protecting Local Habitats
We have a long history of supporting our plant and animal neighbors as part of our volunteer efforts, and this year was no different. Employes in Dublin, Tempe, Brno and Prague convened at animal shelters, zoos and equestrian centers to beautify the grounds and help make the physical environments as safe and comfortable as possible for both the animals and their visitors. Similar efforts include tree planting, beautification of a learning center in Bucharest to support children and families, sprucing up the outdoor space for Palata Home for the Visually Impaired in Prague and more.
Empowering the Next Generation
Teams in multiple countries used Global Volunteer Week as an opportunity to reach out to children and young people. They shared their enthusiasm for reading as well as their expertise in digital safety, and they prepared school supply kits for students starting or returning to school next year. Examples include:
- Team members in Dublin participated in a CyberSafe Kids workshop, providing a fun, informative session to help protect youth in Ireland from online scams and cyber threats.
- Chennai volunteers helped design educational games about financial literacy to help teach children about saving, spending and budgeting.
- More than 100 Chennai volunteers assembled nearly 500 school supply kits, helping students have what they need to start the school year with confidence.
- Through Food for Thought, virtual volunteers created heartfelt, encouraging cards for school-age children in South Africa.
- Team members took part in events encouraging students to read, including a virtual read-a-thon with Our Kids Read.
Additional events in Serbia, Romania and beyond saw Gen team members continue to work in support of the causes and organizations that they care about. For more information on our volunteering and giving programs, read our latest Social Impact Report.
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