Humana Foundation Learnings: "Benevity Live" Annual Conference for Philanthropy and Employee Programming

The Humana Foundation utilizes the Benevity platform for managing our employee programming like matching gifts for employee donations to nonprofits and logging volunteer hours. To stay abreast of news and current trends in the industry and learn from colleagues who leverage Benevity in their daily operations, Humana Foundation team members Emily Major (Director of Finance and Operations) and Nicole Heuker (Finance and Operations Professional), along with several Humana Inc. employees in Associate Programming, attended the annual conference, “Benevity Live!” from April 22-26.

Emily and Nicole attended sessions throughout the week and networked with colleagues in the space of both philanthropy and employee programming. In pursuit of leading the thinking and actions in these shared spaces, they shared several important learnings and takeaways from the “Benevity Live!” conference:

• If a model in operating philanthropy is broken, change the model. Don't be afraid to change the way philanthropy is done, sometimes we get stuck in certain ways that might not be the most beneficial be willing to change. Find new ways to help.
• Employees sharing their strengths is the way to make the biggest impact in communities.  Don’t force a person into a box that does not fit.   Organizations should create opportunities to give back in a way where each person’s talent can shine.
• Invest in solutions, not just short fixes. 
• Understand the power of doing vs the power of thinking of doing.  Many people will think about helping (ex. with a natural disaster), but how can organizations provide the right opportunities for people to act?
• To get employees involved in programming you need to be transparent.
• Nonprofits are many times expected to adjust things to the way that foundations want them; Instead, give opportunities to your partners; let them tell their story, allow for open conversation.
• Open the lines of communication. You want your partner organizations to feel as if they can reach out and communicate. Allow your organization to help partners by creating channels to bring together people to find the best solutions.
• It is important to have localized engagement. Make sure that in the engagement your core values shine through for the community to see.

Thank you to Nicole and Emily for sharing their learnings from “Benevity Live!”

This article and accompanying insights are part of the Humana Foundation’s continual growth journey where we share learnings from around the industry as we seek to evolve our knowledge in philanthropy to better serve our communities.