Creating Impact Through Giving with Daymaker

My first experience with Daymaker was in New York City, as an extension of our company holiday party. I gathered round the dance floor with my co-workers as our founder MC’ed the event and gleefully encouraged us all to donate more gifts. “Everyone, the more you donate, the more we’ll match.” The sky was the limit. There was an air of comradery and cheer as we all rallied around a common cause — giving to children in need.

These in-person gifting moments aren’t as easy anymore. Team volunteering, charity events, even drives for toys or canned goods aren’t as simple in a fully-remote work environment. So when I learned that Daymaker was pivoting to be a virtual giving experience, I stayed in touch with their CEO, Brent Macon. With the needs of communities rapidly evolving — at work and beyond — it’s important to work with partners who are able to innovate and still make an impact.

Between the added stress of the pandemic and with inflation jumping by 6.2% in October, the largest increase in 30 years (according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index), families need support more than ever. This holiday season, Daymaker will gift to 6,500 kids supported by more than 60 nonprofit partners across the country.

Daymaker has always been a platform that helps companies give back to their communities. A large part of the magic happens through holiday giving campaigns, but Daymaker is constantly innovating and providing unique ways to connect with children in need. In a virtual world, what makes Daymaker stand out as a way to give back is how they recreate that warm and fuzzy feeling of truly making a difference in someone’s life. In Brent’s words, “The biggest thing we try to do is provide access to culturally-responsible, high quality items. We tailor those to the unique interests of the children so they can feel seen and known, and have experiences they wouldn’t otherwise that are uniquely provided by Daymaker.”

Helping folks feel seen and represented is a major shared value for The Many. At Daymaker, this manifests even in the gift curation process. For example, the most commonly donated item so far this year is the Brown Toy Box STEAM Kit – Coding & Game Development. Brent adds, “It centers Black characters and teaches kids about the possibilities of coding in a culturally accessible way.”

So how does it work? As a company, you create a hub on the platform and work with the Daymaker team to create the campaign that best suits your needs. They help with messaging, assets, and structure like adding a company match or creating campaign goals for teams. When an employee logs on, the experience is simple and fun. You can read about all of the different children in a location near you, select a gift (or more!) from their wishlist, and send them a personalized message. They can even send a note back to you, which is just outright adorable, and something many giving platforms don’t facilitate.

We selected Daymaker with the following considerations in mind:

Values alignment
Our mission at The Many is to move the world forward. We are humans before anything else, and members of many different communities. Giving back meaningfully is a core part of our DNA. Part of Daymaker’s commitment is to give children in underserved communities diverse educational resources, curated with their interests in mind (cookbooks, science kits, craft supplies etc). There are few gifts more powerful than nurturing a brighter future- for the giver and receiver.

Location flexibility
The Many is now a hybrid team, with some frequenting our Los Angeles headquarters and others working remotely as far as Australia and Canada. With that in mind, it’s important to us for any cultural initiative to be inclusive of as many employees as possible, regardless of their location. Daymaker allows us to filter by 30 major US metros so folks can engage with someone near them, or even from their hometown.

Community building
Daymaker’s Slack integration helps build community in a virtual working environment, giving our entire team a chance to see what’s happening in the campaign from any location. For this campaign, we took over our existing social impact Slack channel with the added bonus of new folks joining to see our impact with Daymaker. Whenever someone made a purchase, our team was able to share the heartfelt messages written to each child with the wider agency, creating an inspiring hub for giving back right on Slack.

One of our employee’s sat down with his family to select a gift, and I think our heart’s practically burst when we saw this come through from his daughter:

That screenshot is just a glimpse of all the joy this campaign brought to The Many this year. Everyone joined together to spread cheer from New York to LA and our Slack channel was flooded with hope.

Our wish this holiday season? For more companies to use Daymaker. Let’s keep the good fortune rolling. If you are interested in a holiday campaign or other giving opportunities, please connect with Brent Macon at brent@daymaker.com.

Johanna Penry is the People Experience Manager at The Many.