The bake sale is complete, the pledge forms have been signed and the principals have received their holiday gift. And, we’ve met the criteria to be a Company that Cares for the 18^th year in a row!

Borshoff is proud to support the United Way of Central Indiana through our annual campaign. This year we raised more than $21,000 – our largest donation yet!

Sure, it was hard eating cookies the days before Thanksgiving, but to help the community, we’ll suffer!

Haven’t made your contribution yet? Visit United Way of Central Indiana to give and earn your year-end tax deduction.

It was truly the most wonderful time of the year when the Borshoff team gathered together for our annual holiday party. Our hearts were glowing as we caroled in the snow. Okay, well maybe we didn’t carol in the snow, but we had a mean karaoke session inside.

After a year of hard work, we took an afternoon to celebrate with a staff lunch and get-together. To make our gathering even more festive, a party planning team came up with activities that would leave everyone in tears and rolling on the floor with laughter.

We weren’t embarrassed to walk down the streets of Indianapolis in our mothers’ tacky holiday sweaters. In fact, our photos are posted on Facebook so that you can decide who looked the gaudiest. As the team filed into the party, everyone placed their white elephant gift under the tree. We’d later find out what “treasures” each of us had lying around our homes. We got sentimental (and laughed a lot) when we watched a slideshow of everyone’s childhood holiday photos set to the tune of “What Child is This?” When it came time to guess who each child was, Josh Taylor, graphic designer, was the winner with 18 correct guesses out of 42 photos.

We often think of others’ needs over our own during this time of year, and we do what we can to help with the gifts we’ve been given. The generosity in time and money that each of our principals provide to the Indianapolis community is unparalleled, and our staff decided that there was no better way to honor our principal owners than with a charitable donation on their behalf. Our team secretly took up a collection for a donation to be made to the United Way of Central Indiana; and on Friday, we presented the principal owners with a $1,127 check for the United Way.

Taking the time to relax together and recognize our accomplishments from this year was a refreshing way to start our holidays. To you and yours, our Borshoff team wishes you the best this holiday season.

Note: If you have fun ideas for our 2012 holiday party, please share!

I don’t know about you, but I can hardly believe that the holidays are almost here! Amidst the chaos of the holiday shopping season it is so easy to think about what WE want…whether that is a designer handbag, home décor or a new car. (Wait—is that just me?)

But, the holidays always have a way of inspiring a sense of generosity that sometimes overshadows that feeling of want. People seem remarkably enthused to give of their time and money to organizations in need around the holidays.

At Borshoff, we have donated to United Way of Central Indiana for the past 20 years and have been named a “United Way Company That Cares” for 17 years. UWCI is important to Indianapolis and a cause that is near to our hearts here at Borshoff. In fact, before Thanksgiving, we’re hoping to get 100 percent employee participation in a United Way “giving” campaign.

If you feel like you may be catching the generosity bug, here are a few things you can do:

• Decide if you’d like to help an organization that is local or national. Some helpful websites for getting started include DoSomething.org and VolunteerMatch.org.
• Choose whether you will give of your time, money or both. Then decide on a dollar and/or time amount and stick to it (for the year…or just for the holidays).
• Compile a list of organizations your colleagues or friends support and use that as a starting point when choosing an organization that interests you.
• Notice upcoming events, such as walks, runs or festivals, which always need more volunteers. These are usually a lot of fun, too!

Personally, I give my time and money to a couple animal advocacy groups in Indianapolis. Sometimes I get the itch to give a little more around the holidays. But, volunteering in general is always a wholesome source of cheer—no matter the season! What are you GIVING this holiday season?

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
At all the times you can,
In all the ways you can,
To all the people you can,
As ever long as you can.”
-John Wesley

 “Thank you so very much for all your help on Friday.  It is so good to see our building “trimmed up” again.  All the staff noticed it and thank you as well. We so appreciate you choosing St. Elizabeth/Coleman.” – Priscilla Kamrath, director of community relations at St. Elizabeth/Coleman Pregnancy & Adoption Services

For 17 years, Borshoff has earned the “Company that Cares” designation from United Way. To continue our streak, we must show that we care for the community with more than just our checkbooks. At Borshoff, we are more than happy to do so.

We all have busy lives and it’s sometimes hard to find the time to volunteer and give back to the community. However, on August 26, we were given the opportunity to do just that. Chosen as Borshoff representatives to participate in United Way’s annual Day of Caring, we volunteered at St. Elizabeth/Coleman Pregnancy & Adoption Services center. A United Way agency, St. Elizabeth/Coleman is a nonprofit adoption agency providing full-service birthparent and adoptive parent preparation and support for domestic, transracial, medical needs, and international adoptions.

On the Day of Caring, we worked with the facility and grounds director to cater and clean-up the land. With a rake, clippers, or trash bag in hand, we trimmed hedges, bushes and trees around the building before cleaning out the fence line. Five hours later, the grounds were in mint condition once again.

In addition to Day of Caring participation, Borshoff holds an annual pledge drive securing donations for United Way and its community agencies and, every year, we strive to be more generous than the last. We are both grateful for the opportunity to meet the folks at St. Elizabeth/Coleman and learn about their services. However, the greatest joy of all was seeing the smiles on their faces just for us coming out to volunteer that day.

Somewhere between planning menus for my husband’s family and scouring circulars for toy bargains, I, along with a few others, decided holding a bake sale at work the week of Thanksgiving would be a good idea. With Borshoff’s annual United Way campaign in full swing, our hearts were in the right place.

Earning the United Way’s “Company that Cares” designation is an honor for Borshoff.  We’ve achieved that distinction every year since the United Way started the program 16 years ago.

So in addition to the presentation at our October staff meeting and e-mails reminding people to fill out their donation forms, a bake sale was the best way to get everyone involved.

For the bakers in the group, it provided a chance to try a new recipe. For the non-bakers, it was a chance to buy something and present it as homemade. Or maybe it was a chocolate pick-me-up to push them through the end of this short week. Regardless of the motivation, bake sales are good old-fashioned fun.

So price tags and silent auction forms in hand, Holly Havener and I started the extravaganza in front of a waiting crowd of co-workers. We had a little bit of everything – chocolate cake, pumpkin cream cheese tarts, sugar cookies, bread – you name it!

The bidding got a little fierce toward the end. Account manager Chad Mertz alerted those bidding against him that this “wasn’t his first rodeo” and he wouldn’t be outbid. He bought the pumpkin tart for more than $40.

All in all, our work paid off. We raised $350 to donate to the United Way’s general fund and had a good time showing we are, after all, a Company that Cares.

Want to learn more about the United Way’s annual campaign? Visit www.uwci.org.

Last Saturday I attended the United Way Diversity Volunteer Recognition breakfast at the invitation of one of my fellow Stanley K. Lacy Executive Leadership (SKL) Series classmates, Sonia Chen. I was excited to go because I’d recently taken over our firm’s diversity initiative, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to connect with others and see what was going on in the community.

My experience turned out to be so much more. Sonia introduced me to a lot of great people, particularly some of her fellow board members from the Asian American Alliance. But what I realized later was just how much my SKL experience had prepared me a year earlier for my new-found interest in diversity in the workplace and marketplace.

I’ve had the privilege of working in some diverse environments, but SKL helped me bond with some of our community’s up-and-coming leaders who have exposed me to different points of view and new ways of thinking. My classmates have also connected me to new experiences and new resources, a perfect example of which was Sonia’s invitation to breakfast.

So while Saturday’s breakfast was a celebration of diversity and of volunteerism in Indianapolis, for me, it was also a celebration of true community and connection, because it brought me in touch with people and ideas that I hadn’t considered before. Thanks, Sonia, for opening a door for me to see something new, and for reminding me why SKL is truly an experience that lasts for a lifetime.

I never cease to be amazed at the generosity of my coworkers. Every year, Borshoff holds a pledge drive securing donations for United Way and its community agencies. And every year, Borshoff staff proves themselves more generous and thoughtful than the last.

For 15 years, Borshoff has earned the “Company that Cares” designation from United Way. We’re in the midst of our annual campaign and looking strong to earn that designation for a 16th straight year. To do so, Borshoff staff must show they care for the community with more than just their pocketbooks.

On August 28, two Borshoff staff members took time out of their busy schedules to participate in United Way’s annual Day of Caring. Kassie Mills and Margaux Childers volunteered their time at the Jordan branch of the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis. As part of the “Brighten up the Environment” project, they planted shrubs along a pedestrian path that leads from the YMCA facility to the Monon Trail. Kassie, being unfamiliar with gardening, took this as a great opportunity to learn how to properly use a shovel!

Yesterday, Borshoff held a company-wide bake sale to raise additional funds for United Way. Staff were invited to bake and contribute their favorite baked good, and also to spend a couple dollars purchasing and enjoying the baked goods. And, we’re certainly a company that likes our sweets – we raised more than $200!

In so many ways, Borshoff truly is a company that cares. Serving as campaign co-coordinator for my third year, I’m lucky to be part of such a great tradition.