Meeting Opened at 12:15 by President Jerome Freiburger 

- Week 50

• Guests: Leanne Brown – Guest of Maria Horner
• Induction Ceremony: Congratulations to Ana Malleck the newest member of Kitchener Westmount Rotary.  Welcome to our club!

• 50/50  No winner this week.  Pot now sits at $22.50! woohoo

Speaker

Joseph Fung CEO and Founder of Kiite (not a typo)

Mr Fung came to tell us about his experience in the field of Corporate Philanthropy. 

Joseph has longed believed in the importance of charitable work  and giving in the community, however, in completing detailed research, Joseph and his Co Founders discovered that Companies that have incorporated both an employee charitable donation program AND an employee volunteer program have an engagement score 28% higher than companies that do not.  Higher engagement scores lead to greater employee satisfaction and greater retention rates.

With this in mind, Kiite implemented a Corporate Giving program into their business.

The foundation behind it was simple:
1) Make giving a habit

2) Create Longevity – Something that will have a lasting impact on the community

3) Create Engagement – Ensure that staff are involved and aware of where there donations are going and how it’s making a difference.

To Implement the program

• Kiite gave $5000 of seed money to create a KWCF Fund specifically for Kiite.  By creating a fund, they have ensured that the project will have longevity
• Staff are encouraged to donate 1% of there gross income payroll deducted and matched
• Employees are made aware of the program right from the interview process including video presentations of the project
• To make employees feel comfortable, the Ceo is not able to see who is donating nor how much staff are donating, just gross totals
• Staff are given regular updates on the status of the fund as well as how it’s impacting the community.  Increasing engagement

Since implementing the program, Mr. Fung reports that his company now has an 85% participation rate and the average employee is donating 1.4% of their gross income.

Mr. Fung has now made the program “Open Source” and invites any company that wishes to implement the same program to reach out to him for an outline on how to bring this program to their business.

Meeting closed at 1:30 PM by President Freiburger.

In other news....

Congratulations Brooke!

Brooke Henderson captures the Meijer Classic for her 9th LPGA victory. That makes her the winningest professional golfer-LPGA or PGA Tour- in Canadian history. She is just 21 years old.