It’s National Volunteer Week! We’d like to thank the many volunteers across the world who are running organizations, keeping our local communities safe, and providing much-needed services during COVID-19 crisis.

Need ideas for volunteer opportunities for your business? At Keste, we’ve found that picking an organization we are passionate about, as well as having fun while we participate, makes it the best experience for everyone involved. Seeing how much impact your team has made will have them ready to sign up for the next volunteer opportunity that comes along! 

Keste Gives Back

Keste’s volunteering initiative, Transform Dallas, is how our team members get involved in the community and help make an impact to the environment and people around us. We partnered up with Salesforce and FinancialForce in February to give back to children in need at Children’s Medical Hospital Dallas. Read more about our initiative here. Some of our other past volunteering opportunities include teaming up with Salesforce and friends at Oak Cliff Parks to work in the Kiest Park Conservation Area to spruce up garden beds by replanting new ones. 

We’re currently sheltering in place at our homes, but still striving to give back to our communities. Here are some of the things we’ve been doing while we’ve been working remotely: 

  1. Many communities and local organizations are providing PPE to people who are on the frontline. If you have extra masks, gloves or other protective equipment, please consider dropping these off to a local hospital, police department or grocery store for workers. One Keste team member, Alyssa Johnson, even donated fabric to JOANN to help others make masks and stay protected from the coronavirus.  
  2. Use your skills to provide a much-needed service. Another teammate, Srilatha Chinthala, is a member of an IT professional group that worked together to build an app called “T-Consult”. They’ve enabled people living in rural & remote areas of India with no access to doctors, to receive consultations and seek medical assistance. The app now has 62 doctors with different specializations lined up to help the community. 
  3. Support your local restaurants by ordering in bulk for frontline workers. It’s a good way for restaurants to survive during the current economic situation and to show appreciation for essential workers. Buy gift cards at local restaurants to use later, order take out, or give an e-gift card to a family member or friend as a gift as Michelle Khanin and other teammates at Keste are doing. Dheeraj Sharma, another Keste team member, banded together with his neighborhood to donate food from a local restaurant. Community members including restaurant employees delivered the food to a local hospital to show their appreciation. 
  4. Keste team member, Prasanna Daliboina, is making it her goal to aid furry friends in need right now:  feeding and watering neglected animals, and helping them to find them a home, a loving family or a shelter that will take them in. 
  5. Consider donating non-perishable food or money to a local non-profit, like Keste team member, Suneeta Naga. One of our favorites in North Texas is the North Texas Food Bank.  

Across all industries, many companies are beginning to discover the value of integrating service into their business strategies. At Keste, we are very proud of the volunteer work our team has done, and continues to do, even under challenging circumstances. 

We honor our volunteers and the organizations they support. I hope you will take a moment to read their stories and be inspired to serve the local communities in which you live and work.