Security Gives Back: Verkada Reaches Into Community and Around the World to Help
Verkada Gives continues to expand the philanthropic efforts of about 2,000 employees around the world with new causes.
SAN MATEO, Calif. — Three years ago, Verkada launched Verkada Gives, a community service initiative that started by embracing and helping causes near its headquarters location during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic before eventually expanding to about 20 countries around the world.
With a mission of “giving back to communities in which we’re living, working and operating in,” there are three components to Verkada Gives: donations of money, donations of products and donating time, says Verkada vice president of people Dervilla Lannon.
The company is constantly talking about how to expand the Verkada Gives program outreach and make it better through a company Slack channel, says Lannon, who challenged the sales team to do the most volunteer work in the company to earn a prize during her keynote at the company sales summit.
“It’s really just awesome to see them provide insight into the into the cause, what work they’re doing and perhaps how they’ve contributed or we’ve contributed,” says Lannon about the Verkada Gives Slack channel discussion.
“People post their pictures and I definitely think it builds interest amongst the rest of the employee base in terms of what other teams are doing,” she says, noting the company offers all employees two days off per year to dedicate to volunteering.
How Verkada Gives Has Grown
Verkada Gives has grown from the early days when employees set up a COVID-19 testing clinic for when testing was hard to get in the San Francisco area to sponsoring mobile clinics, which would provide vaccinations to people in lower socioeconomic areas within the Bay Area.
Then, says Lannon, “we branched out into basically any cause that’s aligned with our mission, which is to protect people and places in a privacy-sensitive way.”
That includes opening a refuge for survivors of sex trafficking in Oahu, Hawaii, and donating products and money to a relatively new refuge for survivors of sex trafficking and human trafficking in Monterey, Calif.
Verkada Gives has also supported causes that help homeless people and children in the Bay Area and the Homeless Prenatal Program in San Francisco.
“A lot of these requests come from our employees so they’re personally involved in the causes or their families, or they just have heard of them,” says Lannon. “It’s been really incredible just to see the breadth of causes we’ve been able to support. It’s been awesome to be involved in.”
In addition to getting ideas from employees, Verkada Gives includes programs that are important to company partners. For example, Verkada employees participate in Convergint’s annual Social Responsibility Day.
Verkada Gives has grown beyond the U.S., including a golf tournament in London that raised $11,000 for The Passage, a program that helps homeless people in the area, that will become an annual staple.
Verkada will also sponsor a mission by members of the Armed Forces in Britain to the Arctic Circle in February 2025. Company employees will ride bikes and walk on treadmills to raise money for the cause, says Lannon.
Why Community Service is Crucial
“Our founders are super-passionate about giving back and are super-passionate about this program as is our CFO, so that certainly helps,” she says. “My personal opinion is we’re in a very privileged position. We’re in a business that’s building great products and I think it’s important for us to give back to causes that we’re in a position to give back to.
“Hopefully, the efforts will grow over time. When we started three years ago, our efforts were pretty nascent. We’re evolving and doing more, but hopefully over time, we can do even more in this space,” says Lannon.
Companies of all sizes are equipped to do some sort of community service initiative, whether they have a handful of employees or are part of a global corporation with thousands of workers around the world, she says.
“You can start small, like we did,” says Lannon. “Start reaching out. You don’t have to look far to find people who need help. With that mindset and a Google search, you’ll find some causes to help. Engage with the local community in terms of what their needs are and you can build from that.
“The other thing is have a good relationship with the person who controls your budgets at the company. You need to make sure that you get the buy-in at your organization,” she says.
If you participated in Security Industry Community Service Day or are involved in other service-based initiatives, contact SSI digital editor Craig MacCormack at [email protected] to be part of our ongoing Security Gives Back series.
Click here to read all the stories in our Security Gives Back series!
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