GE's iCare Charity Fundraising

Every year, GE sponsors a United Way Employee Giving Campaign.  The GE family contributed over $31 million to more than 450 United Way organizations, placing GE among the top United Way supporters.

As part of the 2009 GE Foundation Food and Shelter initiative, the GE Foundation increased its contributions from 40% to 50% and allocated its donations solely to food, shelter and basic needs.

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Office Mini-Golf for United Way

At the few GE recruiting events I have attended, I often get some derivative of the question, "What does an IMLP do on a typical day?".  As other IMLPs reading this no doubt know, this question is very difficult to answer as the nature of the program and the culture at GE prevents you from slipping into a "comfort zone" that causes to perform the same tasks everyday. GE tries to foster an environment that encourages you to never form a monotonous routine so that you can challenge norms and make a substantive impact in a short amount time during each rotation.

In keeping in step with this objective, GE shook up my Tuesday with Mini-Golf Day for United Way! Teams were tasked with designing their own holes using office items. Players could then pay a $5.00 fee to play the course and rate the holes with the best designed hole netting a free pizza party! Office events like these have so far raised over 1500 dollars to be donated to the United Way.

GE & the United Way team up to help the community

Throughout the coming weeks, many GE businesses are setting aside a week from their busy schedules to participate in the United Way Week of Caring program.  This means that thousands of volunteers from throughout GE will be putting down their computers, phones, notepads, and pens and trading them in for shovels, hammers, paintbrushes, and power tools in an effort to better the communities in which they reside.

This week, GE Capital Solutions took to the streets of Danbury, CT to kick off their Week of Caring.  Partnering with Family & Children’s Aid, a local organization that helps children and young adults in need, the volunteers of GE took on a great variety of projects.  With record numbers of volunteers on-hand, efforts were split amongst projects such as building a new playground for the children, creating new concrete walking paths, painting rooms and murals within the many area group homes, creating a library for use in the children’s academic studies, and much more.

I was put to work on the team creating new concrete walking paths.  Step one was to dig out the area where the path was to be placed.  This meant cutting out a 4-foot wide, 4-inch deep, 50-foot long area through what can only be described as “old-fashioned New England farmland… rocky and rooty.”  After digging the path out, the team worked together to stake out and frame the to-be path using 2x4s, wooden stakes, tape measures, hammers, saws, drills, and levels.  Once the frames were in place and secured, we laid in stone dust and leveled the base of the path, making everything ready for the next day’s concrete pour.

Overall, the day was hard work, but it also very rewarding.  Putting aside the fact that it was a great opportunity for networking and team building, it always feels good to take some time to help out people in need.  It’s times like these when I’m proud to be a member of a company like GE.  A company that takes civic engagement as a responsibility… one that puts a priority on giving back to the community.  This is also why I’m glad that IMLP puts a focus on volunteering.  With IMLP-run volunteering committees always organizing volunteering opportunities, the GE volunteers website available as a way to easily find volunteering events in your area, and with business-sponsored initiatives such as the United Way Week of Caring going on, volunteering is definitely a part of IMLP and GE as a whole.  I’m already looking forward to the next one.  Hope to see you there!