[message_box title=”Happy National Philanthropy Day” color=”blue”]

“National Philanthropy Day, November 15, is the special day set aside to recognize and pay tribute to the great contributions that philanthropy—and those people active in the philanthropic community—have made to our lives, our communities and our world” – AFP

At WAVAW we are celebrating this day by honouring all the individuals and organizations that support and enable WAVAW to continue working towards creating communities where every girl and woman is free from violence. Since 2003 WAVAW has had over 80,000 donors taking action to stop violence and each year over 50 volunteers contribute their valuable time to support women and our organization.

Throughout the next few days we will be shining light on two of these committed philanthropists that work with WAVAW. Yesterday we honoured Vanessa Chase and today we have the honour of highlighting Ipsos. [/message_box]

Ipsos is one of the world’s leading survey-based marketing research firms with locations around the world. WAVAW has had the opportunity to connect with their Vancouver office through one of our Board Members and since then we’ve been delighted to be one of their chosen charities.

Every two years, the Vancouver employees of Ipsos select four local and regional charities that they will support for the following two years. But this is no regular fundraising where the company asks its employees for donations, this is FUNdraising! So how does Ipsos make fundraising FUNdraising?

By making fundraising a social activity – imagine barbecues, chilli cook offs and pancake breakfasts!

Each month, Ipsos’ dedicated committee organizes various social activities that also raise donations. The organizing committee is a volunteer group of employees representing different departments in the Vancouver office and  their activities range from online bingo to Valentine’s Day candy-grams to silent auctions to chilli cook offs…to anything that brings the staff together and motivates them to embrace the spirit of giving.

Each year, the Ipsos Vancouver committee raises about $20,000 for the selected charities. In total over the last two years, WAVAW has received almost $10,000 in donations from Ipsos. The company itself also leads by example and matches the fundraising efforts of its employees through corporate matching donations.

Today we have the pleasure to publicly thank Ipsos, their dedicated committee and their employees for supporting the work to end violence against women.  From all of us at WAVAW:

 Happy National Philanthropy Day and Thank you!