Organizational Governance Organizational Governance

Timberland Launches Serv-a-palooza Challenge to Recruit and Reward Volunteers

Timberland is calling for entries for its inaugural Timberland Serv-a-palooza Challenge – a sponsored volunteerism competition hosted in partnership with charitable fundraising platform, CrowdRise, founded by actor Edward Norton. The six-week challenge aims to encourage consumers to volunteer for a cause of their choice in return for chances to win prizes for themselves, along with donations for the nonprofits they choose to support.

By Aarthi Rayapura | Published 11 years ago | About a 2 minute read

Once enrolled and approved, volunteers create a unique fundraising page where they can track their volunteer hours and invite others to sponsor their efforts with monetary donations. The donors will also be encouraged to sign up to volunteer. Timberland will incentivize participants and donors with fun prizes throughout the challenge.

At the end of the challenge period, the Top Recruiter, Top Volunteer, and Top Fundraiser will receive a $10,000 grant to give to the cause he/she chose to support. The winners will also receive a $5,000 Timberland shopping spree or an all-expense-paid trip to the Horqin Desert in China to help plant Timberland’s two-millionth tree. In addition, they will receive a custom pair of Timberland boots, and have their stories shared in an online campaign. The top volunteer will also have his/her volunteer hours matched by Timberland employees in New England.

“Partnering with a socially innovative platform like CrowdRise gives us the opportunity to engage with our consumers in an exciting way; and it reinvigorates our own commitment to giving back,” said Atlanta McIlwraith, Senior Manager Community Engagement at Timberland. “It’s inspiring to imagine the impact this partnership could have in communities around the country.”

Timberland's Serv-a-palooza event has been on for 17 years and was originally created as a way to support employees in using their 40 paid volunteer hours on a large scale. In May, the company announced that it had achieved a major volunteerism milestone – its one-millionth service hour served by employees. The company's 2013 CSR Report highlighted its service impact along with its other priorities – product, climate and factories.