The spirit of giving: Graniterock Cares is the team managing philanthropy

One of the ways Graniterock supports philanthropy is through the Graniterock Cares Committee. 
Graniterock Cares is a dedicated team overseeing the Company's philanthropic endeavors, managing the many donation requests that pour in – an average of one each day! 
From supporting local charities, schools, sports teams, Scouts and various community events, Graniterock Cares ensures that our giving spirit makes a meaningful impact.

We invited Amy Nama, Keith Severson and Abbie Gordon to join the podcast to pull back the curtain on the inner workings of the Cares team. 
They talk about how donation requests get prioritized, managing budget constraints and the hard part...saying "no" to worthy causes. 
In all, Granniterock Cares has made 60 contributions in 2023. 

Transcript

: 0:01

That's a pretty wide selection of Grand Rock tables it takes the village.

: 0:04

I know I was going to say how do you guys all possibly agree on?

: 0:08

where to give your money and your time. The Cares Committee are part of the Grand Rock Cares. Committee in the studio today Abby Gordon, Keith Severson and Amy Nama Awesome, so glad you guys are here. Let's go and start with Amy. You guys introduce yourselves, tell us what you do at Grand Rock, how long you've been here and then how you got into the Cares Committee.

: 0:32

Well, I have been with Grand Rock for almost four years. This upcoming March and I work in the Environmental Department as their administrator, and when Terry Brazile would walk by my desk and she would say, oh, I'm going to a Grand Rock Cares meeting, it really intrigued me to learn more about it. And then, when she was getting ready to retire, I told her I'd be very interested in learning more about it and participating and she let Keith know and thankfully they allowed me to be a part of their committee about a year and a half ago and I love it.

: 1:12

Awesome, Keith. Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got on this committee.

: 1:18

That's our good fortune to have Amy join us. She's been a great asset to the team and I've been here for 27 years. I'm the Director of Marketing and Community Involvement for Grand Rock and I have been on Grand Rock Cares since it was created. Shortly after Bruce passed, we realized how many different things Bruce was involved in, just in a philanthropic and community cares kind of way, and so we really needed to handle it in a thoughtful way. So we created this committee and it kind of represents all of the geographic areas of Grand Rock, all of the operation areas of Grand Rock, and then we try to build a team that is sort of diverse in that regard as well. So we're trying to cover all the bases, as it were, and Grand Rock's caring strategy tries to cover equally all across the region, although we tilt a little bit towards Amponado County.

: 2:34

Of course. All right, Abby, tell us a little bit about yourself, how long you've been here, what you do, and then how did you get on this committee?

: 2:41

So I've been with Grand Rock for 26 years, I work in the accounting department under Accounts Payable, and I just felt that there was a need to have a representation from accounting, since once the request or process they do come back to my department. So I thought it would be a good fit. And I live and work in Watsonville so I kind of have a pulse of what goes on in this town. And I guess I joined the committee about two years ago, same time as Amy.

: 3:19

Okay, awesome. So I know we get a lot. Grand Rock gets a lot of philanthropic requests. Whether it's money or materials or whatever you name it, we get asked for it. So tell us a little bit about how the committee works, and how do you guys decide who to donate to or who to contribute? Who do you say yes to?

: 3:40

Great question. I'm going to start by saying I like to like heartily say we get a request a day. We get well over 300 requests annually, and then I'll let the team talk about what our process is.

: 3:56

So usually our process we get by mail, we get a direct request from an employee, emails, prior donations. They return and then we meet as a combined group whether it's in person or teams once a month and then we go through and kind of read through what the request is, you know, versus how much they're asking for, who is involved, how is it going to help the community. And then we just kind of like go around the room and say our opinions and sometimes we say let's put it on hold and then we'll come back to it. We have an annual budget so we break that down, you know, per month. So we try to stay on a per month budget and then if we go less it rolls over, if we go more, you know, it reduces the next month.

: 4:58

Is it hard to decide who to say yes to and who you have to let down gently?

: 5:04

I wouldn't say it's hard. It's a collaboration with our team and we all have our input, like Abby was talking about, and we just want to make sure that it that we're supporting our mission to donate to youth education, healthy families and healthy environments. So that's top of mind for us when we're making our decision.

: 5:27

And it's been really great to be able to have those filters. It gives us a map of guidelines that help us, because everybody is worthy, right, and you know, your heart is there all the time, and so we do have to make some tough decisions on occasion, and so we use these, these guidelines, these filters, to handle that. They kind of grew out of the spirit of Granite Rock's culture. The youth education that, bruce, you know, is so championed with Algebra Academy, is our first filter, and then the rest just fall in line and we get more requests than we can. We got money for, that's for sure.

: 6:14

I'm sure you do. It must be hard to say no to the ones that you say no to that are worthy.

: 6:20

Absolutely.

: 6:21

And they're like, right on the board, are like, oh, maybe we want to donate to this one, but we just can't quite make it happen, and so we, as Abby said, we kind of roll this stuff over.

: 6:32

At the end of the year, we certainly spend all the money that we have, and we'll be able to go back and maybe offer somebody some consideration.

: 6:42

So how many projects or how many contributions would you say the committee makes in a year? Like, how many are you participating in? Over 60. Yeah, 60 individuals.

: 6:54

This year.

: 6:54

So we're we got one more meeting, so it'll be well over 60 projects, organizations, requests that we've answered and you know, again very thoughtful, we sometimes can donate materials in a very limited quantity. Certainly the materials that we produce are easiest for us to donate and that can go to a Eagle Scout project or it can go to the Girl Scout equivalent, which is called a Silver Star project, I think, and or a driveway or something like that, and then sometimes just straight up monitoring.

: 7:40

So five roughly five projects a month. Any favorites? Abby, that you guys contributed to this year or Amy, do you guys have any favorite?

: 7:51

Mostly, I like to see where it's going, to somebody who's really in need, whether it's the elderly or children or a school, something where you're going to see the benefit.

: 8:05

In our community. Yeah, Annie, stand out to you.

: 8:08

For me, our participation in the Pajaro Valley Loaves and Fishes has been really a holistic type of philanthropy initiative we've taken, I would say, because it started out in January when they asked for our support. And so we have the Granite Rock team members going to their kitchen monthly and so we all have our Granite Rock Cares purple t-shirts and we're serving the community and we've also been able to donate monetarily to help with providing those meals to people that are in need.

: 8:50

That's really been sort of a need initiative for our group this year, and fun and hands-on we're not just sitting there chopping up money and giving it away, but we're actually involved and it's been very, very rewarding. Pv Loaves and Fishes here in Watsonville kind of gives me goosebumps just talking about. It just feels so good to go and help those folks and distribute some food and it's just been very rewarding this year. I'm proud of our team and I'm happy about the work that we've done there.

: 9:26

So let's talk a little bit more about the team, because we just have the three of you here today, of course, but there's others on Granite Rock Cares committee. Who else is there? Who else is participating?

: 9:35

Well, I'll tell you the founding folk, or Rich Satcher, carl Phillipovich, don Barrett, myself, and then we have Stephanie Niffin, leticia Valdal, karen Hagen newly oh nice, she's a new member this year Danita Danita from up north is our representation Granite Awesome.

: 9:59

Yeah, and that's been great because we've actually been getting a lot more requests from Redwood City and San Jose and we're starting to really pick up our involvement with our donations in those areas.

: 10:13

And so we're always on the lookout to kind of share across our region, and Danita has been a great assist in making sure that we're getting some of that north representation in this year.

: 10:28

That's great because she can have her finger on the pulse on those communities.

: 10:32

Exactly.

: 10:33

And then we have. Lila working in Redwood City and San Jose and throughout the whole Bay area. That's great, that's awesome. So that's a big committee.

: 10:42

It's a pretty wide selection of grantor-arrival it takes the village.

: 10:45

I know I was going to say how do you guys all possibly agree on where to give your money and your time.

: 10:51

These two folks here with me today Amy helps me put together the agenda and helps me with the letters and the check requests. Abby, of course, keeps us online for accounting and all that sort of thing. Then we can also when we get a duplicate request, we generally can give once a year to an organization and in spite of the fact they'll ask us three times or four times, Three or four times a year.

: 11:19

They will In the same year.

: 11:21

Oh yeah. So Abby will say no, we did that in January. They got to wait until January.

: 11:26

Well, Abby's a stickler.

: 11:28

She's going to keep us in line. She's got to be yeah, yeah.

: 11:32

That's awesome. So how do you guys measure the impact of the work that you do and the money and the contributions and materials? How do you guys measure the impact on your philanthropic initiatives?

: 11:44

I think we get quite a bit of thank you letters, thank you emails letting us know what our contribution helped with, and then a lot of times we'll attend some of the events and then we're meeting stakeholders you know face to face that people that are really involved with their philanthropic efforts as well, so that's really wonderful.

: 12:10

Yeah, our monthly agenda. We meet first Mondays after the executive team meeting and we will start with all of the thank yous that we've got from the month prior. Oh nice.

: 12:24

All right, and we see a lot of them also on social media. Some of the people who've received contributions from Grant O'Rourke will tag us and say like thank you, Grant O'Rourke, and it's really nice to see that.

: 12:36

Yeah.

: 12:37

That's cool, and so what's the overall importance of this Like? Why does Grant O'Rourke even have this committee? Why is it important that we do this? And we've got almost a dozen team members that gather once a month to pour over the contribution requests, the donation requests. I mean, how important is this for Grant O'Rourke?

: 12:58

I think it's important to show that you know, as a company, it's important to give back, to show the community we are giving back. We do support the community. Obviously, they support us by buying our materials, so I think it's just as equally important.

: 13:20

I was just going to say building relationships and letting people know what Grant O'Rourke and Grant O'Rourke cares does for our community, and people know that they could reach out to us if they're in need. We've had occasions where that has happened and we've been able to fill the need for what people are looking for.

: 13:43

And we we Grant O'Rourke live and work and play in these communities. This is, these are our communities. It's not something separate from us. So these are our Grant O'Rourke communities, and just being good corporate citizens is a really nice. It's nice to work for a company that does that right, and so the culture can be exhibited or put on display by being really good corporate stewards. And, as as Amy said, we build relationships with these people where, when emergencies occur or needs arise in crisis, we can help. We have a communication line already open. So, whether it be flooding or road repairs or anything else, we've already got relationships there. It's not just brand new to us. So it's just kind of spreading the deep, rich culture that Granite Rock has.

: 14:46

Yeah, that's awesome. It must be great to see the impact of your work out in the community. A lot of people think of Granite Rock and they think of community and support and doing good things right.

: 15:02

Yeah, so I got to walk the parade route at Lights on Parade in Hollister on Saturday and heard the comments from the people as the Granite Rock truck goes by and they were all positive and fun and that's the kind of stuff that just really feels good.

: 15:20

You probably wish you had more money to hand out right, I mean because when you get these donations every month, I think saying no is the hardest part yes, yes.

: 15:29

It's easy to say yes, but it's harder.

: 15:32

We absolutely would love to have more money. For those of you who are listening out there, the first strings yes, go ahead, give us some more money. Yeah, make it.

: 15:42

Yeah, and then you guys pull together quite a group of people within Granite Rock. I mean the committee pulls from all different parts of the company. So that must be interesting to work together and to see and hear the different perspectives of the team members on the committee and what they think is important.

: 16:02

It really is.

: 16:02

It's good to hear, and people have their favorites, you know, that's for sure. Also, when we fulfill a need or a request, particularly with materials, it's really fun to work with some of the other parts of the company. You get a nice Quote, as it were, for materials, whether it's aggregate or building materials. Sometimes there's special requests that are kind of interesting. You know a neat project, and so we get to reach out to some of our colleagues here at the Rock and get input from them, and it's really great to see a project fulfilled.

: 16:40

So now the Christmas, Hanukkah, holiday season is coming up, but anything in the store we grant at Rockcares, anything philanthropic happening out there in the next few weeks as we get ready for the big holidays.

: 16:52

Yes, the topic for the next Cares meeting next Monday is local food banks. So we have about $13,000 to give to local food banks to the regions that we work. So that's going to be very exciting. So if anyone out there has a particular food bank that they would like to suggest, we're open for suggestions. So you could email any of us and we could bring it to the meeting.

: 17:21

Last couple of years we've had a little bit of money left over on that last month, and so we've kind of gone to the needs at food banks, which seems right and appropriate at this time of year. It might be a little bit less money after today's activities. Amy had to tell you we may have spent some of that money elsewhere. Already you don't quite have 13. Awesome.

: 17:45

All right, and then anything we can say about how other Grand Rock people might be able to get involved with Grand Rock Cares. I mean, maybe not be part of the committee but have a voice or make a request Like how, how will we get other team members involved?

: 18:01

I would say, if they hear about something or they think that something is a really good cause that the company should donate to like, please reach out to the Grand Rock Cares team, let us know saying hey, this is going on, whether it's they're directly involved or not.

: 18:19

And keep in mind that we do youth education, healthy families, healthy environment kind of in that order, and so if it's something along those lines, that'd be great. I think it's important that Grand Rock, as a company, cares about what its people care about, and so it would be really great if we got some input from Grand Rock team members out there about things that they care about and need a little support, and we would certainly take that under advisement. We do really look at things that come directly from Grand Rock team members with a special care, because that's obviously what we want to do to help out.

: 19:00

Great. You guys are doing such great work. It's fun to hear about it and I really appreciate you taking the time to come and talk on the podcast today. Anything else you guys want to say before we call it a day?

: 19:11

I will say that again. The hands on thing at Lozen Fishes this year was really great, and it wasn't just the Grand Rock Cares team. I stood next to a new CEO the other day and we've had some other folks from accounting and payroll A little fun. Yeah, so we've had folks from all over the company come and help at Lozen Fishes.

: 19:37

How often are you guys doing that?

: 19:38

Third Thursday.

: 19:39

Oh, third Thursday every month.

: 19:40

Yeah, so we've got one more coming December, or?

: 19:43

something, and it's during your lunch break.

: 19:45

Yeah, it's kind of 1130 to one or something like that.

: 19:49

I think the first day that we did it, we brought like 10 or 12 people.

: 19:55

And we overwhelmed them.

: 19:56

They're like we didn't know what to do with all of you.

: 19:59

They're like we only need five.

: 20:01

And you're like okay go home, go back to work, go back to work. Oh, that's fun.

: 20:06

Are you guys actually serving food and participating.

: 20:09

Yes, generally yeah To about anywhere from 80 to 125 people. We're about 100. A sitting yeah.

: 20:15

Yeah, well, we did that years ago, I remember. Yeah we did that it was really cool. Yeah, that's fun and that's here in Watsonville right.

: 20:22

It is, we're doing the one in Watsonville, yeah.

: 20:25

Good Well, keep up the great work, you guys. I mean really fantastic, and it's heartwarming to know that this work is going on and to talk to the people who are doing it.

: 20:36

Our pleasure.

: 20:37

Thank you.