At my first week at Stanford University Graduate School of Business they had us brainstorm what we wanted to achieve. I still have the notebook where I scribbled down, "Figure out how to get businesses excited about doing good."
I spent an entire year talking with professors, interviewing businesses, and even designing my own independent study class to learn all I could about what businesses want and how that might overlap with community impact.
After one year of market research and two years of working hand-in-hand with over 50 corporate sponsors to help young adults land first-time jobs, I realize that my initial goal was completely wrong. It was based off the premise that businesses don't necessarily want to do good.
I can tell you today that there are thousands of companies out there who are actively looking to give thanks to their customers and build up their local neighborhoods. In fact, many feel frustrated because it's tough to find a nonprofit that can effectively quantify and communicate the impact that they are generating. Many nonprofits are too overwhelmed to truly thank the companies who give to them or don't have the bandwith to create a true partnership beyond the exchange of money.
What I should have written on that notepad was "Figure out how to make it easier for companies to give back."
I'm proud of Sprouts Chef Training's corporate partnership program because our team makes giving back as seamless as possible. Without them, we wouldn't be in the business of helping youth land jobs in the first place. We take the time to thank each business and create meaningful, quantifiable content around their give; we invite their employees to volunteer or serve on our board; we proudly display our partners all over our website and event materials. Most importantly, we ask businesses tell us what would make giving back easy for them - and we listen.
We recently published our 2023 impact report so that our sponsors know exactly where their donations went. There is no way we could have trained 120 youth if it weren't for dozens of corporate partners who forfeited return on investment to invest in impact.
Cheers to all of the businesses out there that helped 120 youth achieve stability through job training.
Whole Foods Market, OpenTable, Impossible Foods, Twilio, JPMorgan Chase & Co. , Current Foods 🌊, ChefUniforms.com, Benefits Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, Clover Sonoma, Alto, Keegan's Caramels, Sysco, Petaluma Poultry, Patriot Holdings
