A Year in Review: Blackstone Employees Complete over 8,000 Hours of Service in 2018
2018 was an exciting year for Blackstone Connects, the Blackstone Charitable Foundation’s employee engagement program. This year, we saw increased engagement and impact in the communities where our employees live and work. Over 1,800 Blackstone employees globally dedicated more than 8,000+ hours of volunteer service to 42 deserving nonprofit organizations.
Even as we begin to look ahead to 2019, our employees remain committed to finishing the year on a strong note — during this 2018 holiday season, over 200 #BXConnects volunteers committed 600 hours of service to five amazing NYC-based nonprofits: Coalition for the Homeless, City Harvest, Project Sunshine, Part of the Solution Bronx, and God’s Love We Deliver.
On behalf of the Blackstone Charitable Foundation team, thank you to all of our employees for generously donating your time, energy and resources over the past 365 days — we’re looking forward to working with you to grow our legacy of commitment and compassion in 2019.
A YEAR IN REVIEW
EMPOWERING THE NEXT GENERATION: Throughout 2018, Blackstone employees volunteered with 28 youth-focused organizations. Whether they were transforming school spaces with DreamYard in New York, conducting mock interviews with Resurgo in London, or participating in career talks and resume reviews with students at Lingnan Secondary School in Hong Kong, our volunteers spent the year working to empower the next generation.
PUBLIC SPACES FOR ALL: From building trails in Hammock Grove on Governors Island to cleaning up the Thames River with Thames21 in London to building an entire outdoor play space with Playground of Hope in Tokyo, Blackstone employees helped revitalize, maintain, and ready numerous public spaces to for visitors and community members to enjoy.
FIGHTING HUNGER: Blackstone is proud to partner with organizations that are working to ensure that food-insecure community members are able to access nutritious food for themselves and their families. At City Harvest, volunteers repacked tens of thousands of pounds of rescued fresh produce and non-perishable food into family-sized meal boxes. Volunteers at God’s Love We Deliver focused on kitchen and meal preparation. At West London Mission, volunteers hosted monthly breakfast services for WLM clients.
PRO BONO PROGRAMMING: Now in its fourth year, the Blackstone Pro Bono Program provides free legal expertise to support underserved NYC-based communities. Throughout 2018, in collaboration with our law firm and nonprofit partners, our team held 7 pro bono clinics, with over 70 Blackstone volunteers assisting over 100 very deserving clients through a number of projects, including advising veterans and small business entrepreneurs and assisting on naturalization, asylum and DACA renewal applications.
MENTORING PROGRAMMING: The Blackstone Mentoring Program aims to raise awareness of various career opportunities and pathways across all industries and backgrounds, and to help students become college and career-ready. In New York and London, 130 Blackstone employees served as mentors in 2018, both for for high school and college-aged student with Seizing Every Opportunity (SEO), ThinkForward, New Entrepreneurs Foundation and the City of Westminster College as well as for our college-aged entrepreneurs in our Blackstone LaunchPad Program
EMPLOYEE-DRIVEN FUNDRAISING: As a firm, Blackstone ran and biked over 10,000 miles for cancer research with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and Cycle for Survival, and we maintained our spot as the #1 New York City Corporate Fundraiser for City Harvest’s Skip Lunch, Fight Hunger campaign. On the West Coast, the Blackstone Los Angeles office raised $50,000 for Habitat LA to build a home for a deserving family in Culver City. Most recently, as part of our new employee-driven 10th Anniversary Grant Competition, over 175 Blackstone employees applied to win grant funding for their favorite nonprofit organization (grant awards to be announced in February 2019).
