Philanthropy program

Philanthropy Program

3D CREATIONS CARES PROPOSAL 2 3D CREATIONS CARES PROPOSAL 2

Executive Summary

We have researched and designed a philanthropy program named

3D Creations Cares that will set a precedent for our organization and

incorporate philanthropy as a part of 3D Creations’ core values and DNA.

This program goes beyond the all-too-common notion that companies

need corporate social responsibility programs out of obligation and

strategically utilizes the skills and passions of our employees to benefit our

local community in Ithaca, New York, as well as other parts of our nation.

3D Creations Cares will have three components: the execution of

an on-going educational after-school program on 3D printing and

sustainable construction for middle school and high school students in

Ithaca, the creation of a 3D printing and sustainable construction

curriculum to be distributed to teachers across the nation online for free,

and a continuous partnership with local artists in Ithaca that empowers

them to utilize 3D printing in their art and bring their art to a large

audience.

This program will also boost employee morale by giving an added

sense of meaning to their workday and a boost in their pride in 3D

Creations. Similarly, it will support employees in their personal

philanthropic endeavors by matching employee donations to certain

nonprofits. Ultimately, it will improve our brand image by communicating to

the community and our current and future customers that we care deeply


about the people in our community want to support our community in

tangible ways, and share in the responsibility of sustaining the Earth for

future generations as best we can.

Statement of Program Goals

Since 3D Creations Cares will be multifaceted, it will have several

strategic goals. The overarching goal of the program will be to use the

skills and resources of our organization to benefit the Ithaca community,

and beyond, while also positively enhancing our brand image.

In terms of benefiting the Ithaca community, our primary goals are

to implement workshops to empower local youth to participate in 3D

printing, increase their understanding of sustainable construction

practices, and encourage artistic creativity. We plan to execute this by

partnering with the Greater Ithaca Activities Center to provide two after-

school programs, one for middle school students and one for high school

students, for one and a half hours once a week every other week. These

programs will be run by employees who receive paid time off to organize

and conduct the sessions in collaboration with a local teacher, who will be

hired for each after-school program to help manage and engage the

students. The programs will be held at the Greater Ithaca Activities Center

and will span eight weeks when they are held twice a year. The Greater

Ithaca Activities Center will allow us to use their facility for free, but in turn,

we will donate 3D creations furniture in lieu of rent to the facility. The first


program will begin in September 2017, and until then the philanthropy

department will work with the hired teachers to plan and organize the

logistics of the programs.

Additionally, we aim to benefit the Ithaca community by giving local

adult artists the opportunity to utilize 3D printing in their art and bring their

furniture or interior decor designs to a large audience. We plan to execute

this by partnering with the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins

County to identify local artists who would be interested in designing limited

edition furniture or decor pieces that we would sell. The artists will enjoy

the benefits of using our 3D printing design software and meeting in small

groups four times a year with our employees for education on 3D printing.

The artists will also benefit from having their works promoted and

receiving a royalty from the sale of their pieces. We hope to gain interest

from local artists and launch this partnership by June 2016,

In order to benefit communities beyond Ithaca, our goal is to create

a basic education curriculum on 3D printing technology, the 3D printing

industry and sustainable construction design and practices that can be

used by teachers nationwide at the middle school or high school level for

free. Our employees will work in collaboration with two hired summer

contractors, a high school teacher and a college professor, to create the

curriculum. The curriculum will then be promoted and shared with teachers

across the nation through free curriculum sharing websites starting March


2018. Every year, our employees will update the curriculum to keep it

relevant to industry technology and trends and give teachers the

opportunity to provide continuously advanced knowledge to their students.

While we mainly aim to benefit children and adults outside of our

organization, our secondary goals are to enhance the brand image of the

organization as well as positively impacting our employees. We plan to do

this by publicizing the 3D Creations Cares around the Ithaca community

alongside our name and logo, as well as publicizing these programs in our

general public relations materials. This program will send the message to

the local community that we are dedicated to investing in community

members and bettering the community, as well as the globe for all

residents. Similarly, we plan to positively impact our employees by giving

them a dedicated amount of paid time off to volunteer with one of the

programs to boost their morale and give them a sense of added meaning

and pride to their work.

Alignment with Our Strategic Goals

3D Creations Cares will build better relationships with many of our

organization’s key stakeholder groups, including community members,

customers, and employees. This program will further our broader strategic

goal of distinguishing ourselves as a leader of the 3D printing industry in

using recycled materials and committing to sustainability and waste


reduction. By promoting sustainable construction practices in our

education curriculum, we will be publicizing our brand’s commitment to

leading the way in sustainable construction. Similarly, we will further our

strategic goal of constantly innovating by working with local artists who will

bring a fresh perspective to designing interior decor and furniture that can

be 3D printed. This program will also propel our strategic goal of making

3D printing accessible to the average person by educating potential future

consumers on the 3D printing process, as well as the industry in general.

Lastly, 3D Creations Cares will add value to our brand because it will be

putting our name and logo around the community alongside our

employees who are volunteering and serving the community. Similarly,

participants in our programs, such as students or artists, will potentially act

as brand ambassadors after participating in one of the components of our

program. They will have a changed view of 3D Creations, and they can

use word of mouth to spread the message that 3D Creations is investing in

the community.

Target Audiences

3D Creations Cares will have four primary target audiences. The

local after-school component will target students ages 10 to 19 in Ithaca.

The local artist component will target artists ages 20 to 60 in Ithaca.

Additionally, the nationwide component will target middle school and high


school teachers across the U.S. who facilitate after-school programs or

are interested in incorporating 3D printing into their class curriculum.

The secondary target audiences consist of the parents of the

students who participate in the after-school programs because we want

them to gain brand awareness of our company and our own employees

who participate in any aspect of the program because we want them to

enjoy themselves and be good brand ambassadors while participating in

the program.

Local Partnerships

In an effort to uphold our beliefs, values, and goals of the company,

we will strategically partner with the Community Arts Partnership of

Tompkins County and the Greater Ithaca Activities Center. Similarly to one

of the missions of 3D Creations Cares, the Community Arts Partnership of

Tompkins County helps assist local artists to connect with the community

through funding programs, workshops, artist markets and festivals, and

community engagement. Also aligning with one mission of 3D Creations

Cares, the Greater Ithaca Activities Center aims to provide a safe and

constructive place for local students to spend their time after school. They

encourage students to work together, accomplish personal goals, and

highlight their artistic interests and abilities. Thus, we have found both of

these local organizations to be great fits for 3D Creations Cares

partnerships.


Procedures and Policies Governing Employee Volunteer Time Off

We will encourage each of our employees to volunteer for this

program to make an impact at local, national, and even global levels. We

believe that by offering this opportunity to our employees to give back, we

will help facilitate the establishment of better team building, leadership

skills, employee morale, as well as a more actively engaged work

community. With this in mind, we recognize that our employees’ time is

valuable, and sometimes their home lives may not permit them to

participate. To ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to volunteer,

every employee will be allowed to volunteer twice a month for any

component of the program with paid volunteer time off. Under this

arrangement, an employee can work a six-hour day and allot two hours

out of his or her day to volunteer, instead of working a normal eight-hour

workday. The employee will be paid for the two hours spent volunteering.

This paid volunteer time can be repeated twice a month for a total of four

hours of paid volunteer time off per month. For the employee to be paid for

their hours, the employee must have their reporting manager approve,

with a signature, the volunteer form with the date and time that he or she

intends to volunteer. The employee must also have the same volunteer

form signed by the volunteer leader who is in charge for that day and then

hand in their volunteer form within one week of volunteering to Volunteer

Resources (See Appendix B for contract).


All employees paid by an hourly rate will be paid the same amount

for two volunteer hours that they would normally receive for the two hours

of normal work. Similarly, those who are paid on a salaried basis will

continue to be paid the same amount as they would be paid. Any overtime

volunteer work will be the charitable contribution of our employees’ own

time, and they will not be paid overtime. Employees with children are more

than welcome to bring their kids and have them be a part of 3D Creations

Cares activities where appropriate. Those who are interested in

volunteering full-time or part-time can speak with the designated head of

volunteer resources.

As a token of our appreciation of employee dedication to volunteer

service, we want to thank those employees who volunteer at least 240

hours within five years by awarding them with a Presidential Service

Award plaque and a donation of $1,000 to any charity of their choice.

We do understand that sometimes work can be demanding, and it

can be difficult to stay productive while taking time out of the workday to

volunteer. However, it is very important to 3D Creations that all of our

employees are actively engaged in the community and understand the

benefits for the company of demonstrating our commitment to

sustainability, creativity, empowerment, and community engagement.

Therefore, we assist our department managers in organizing a time when

their entire team can volunteer for 3D Creations Cares together, if their


entire team expresses an interest in doing so. We will highly encourage

this, but team volunteering would allow coworkers to socialize in a non-

work setting and build stronger relationships, create better communication

skills, and solidify their sense of community.

Description of Employee-Company Donation Matching Program

3D Creations will also sponsor a matching gift program at a one to

one ratio to 501(c)(3) organizations that our employees donate to. For

example, we will match donations given to higher education institutions,

primary and secondary education institutions, arts and cultural institutions,

community-based social services, and environmental organizations. We

will, however, exclude donations to political organizations, sports teams,

and religious groups to minimize the potentially harmful effects of

politicizing our brand and alienating any part of our customer base. For

their donation to be eligible for our matching gift program, our employees

must donate a minimum of twenty-five dollars, and we will only cover up to

one thousand dollars annually in donations per employee.

This program will be conducted online for easy compilation of

information and public promotion of our aggregated donation efforts on our

website. Our goal for this donation matching program is to motivate our

employees to be generous and show our employees that we support their

personal philanthropic endeavors, as well as create a brand image that


shows 3D Creations cares about a wide array of injustices and charitable

causes across the country.

Budget To ensure that 3D Creations Cares makes an effective impact on

our community, while also using our resources efficiently we have created

the following budget. Our budget will have a grand total of $63,335, in

addition to a potential maximum of $750,000 in donations for the donation-

matching program. The majority of our budgeted money will be used to

pay for employee volunteer hours and outside contractors.

For the after school programs, we have calculated that we will need

about six employee volunteers and four hired teachers total for both

schools to conduct each 1.5-hour session. Although as per the volunteer

time off policy, each employee will be paid their normal salary or hourly

rate for their time volunteering for the program, for budgeting purposes we

will use an hourly rate of $200 per employee to estimate the costs of

employee volunteer hours. We also will pay the hired teachers an hourly

rate of $200. For the artist partnership, we also budgeted enough money

to pay five employees an hourly rate of $200 for each meeting with the

artists. We will also host two one-hour long orientations that will introduce

our employees to both local programs. We anticipate about 50 employees

attending each session and have budgeted for paying our employees for

their time spent at the session. For the creation of the free online


curriculum, we will hire two summer contractors, one high school teacher

at the cost of $4,000 and one college professor at the cost of $5,000.

Food will be our second highest expense because we will provide

$10 worth of snacks to all after-school program participants and $20

meals for each local artist at our meetings. Transportation will be provided

for all employee volunteers with an average expense of $20 per round trip.

Instead of paying a rental fee to the Greater Ithaca Activities Center we

will give an in-kind donation of 3D Creations furniture totaling a cost of

$1,500. We will also outsource the production of our promotional materials

for all components of the program at a single rate. Although the printing for

the promotional material will be done in-house, the expenses are factored

it into our budget, as they are an extra cost to the company.

Lastly, we have budgeted for the matching gift program. Since we

decided to match an annual maximum of $1,000 per employee and we

have a total of 750 employees, we will potentially donate a total of

$750,000 annually, which would be completely tax deductible to 3D

Creations. However, this total is based on employee salary analysis, and

is not expected to reflect the actual amount of money that will be donated

through the matching gift program, but rather it is supposed to serve as an

estimate for budgeting.


Communication Plan Matrix

Deliverable/Channel Objective Target Audience(s)

Target Date for Distribution

Delivery Frequency

External Messages

Place promotional posters in local middle schools & high schools (See Appendix C)

To raise awareness of and increase interest in the after school program

Middle school and high school students in Ithaca ages 10-19

September 1-7, 2016 March 20-27, 2017

two times a year

Give pitches to teachers at all school teacher meetings

To recruit teachers to assist in running the after-school program and to recruit teachers to encourage students to participate

Teachers at Ithaca middle school and high schools

September 1-7, 2016 March 20-27, 2017

two times a year

Place a blurb in school newsletters promoting the after-school programs

To inform parents about the after-school programs

Parents of middle school and high school students in Ithaca

September 2016 - May 2017

once a month

Place an advertisement in the New York State Technology & Engineering Educators’ Association (NYSTEEA) and International Technology & Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA) Annual Conference Programs

To make technology and engineering teachers nationwide aware of our free curriculum

Middle school and high school teachers across the country

April 20, 2018 once a year


Email the NYSTEEA and ITEEA to have them promote the free curriculum to their members on their blogs and social media pages

To make teachers nation-wide aware of our free curriculum

Middle school and high school teachers across the country

March 1, 2018 April 20, 2018

Twice a year

Send flyer about local artist partnership to Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County for them to email to their local artist contacts (See Appendix D)

To gain interest from local artists in our partnership program

Artists ages 20-60 in Ithaca

May 1, 2016 once a year

Place flyers about local artist partnership in local art galleries and art supplies shops

To gain interest from local artists in our partnership program

Artists ages 20-60 in Ithaca

June 1, 2016 once a year

Post on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram about our programs as they are happening (See Appendix E)

To promote our involvement in the community alongside our branding

Our followers on social media

Starting June 2016

continuously once a week

Internal Messages

Send emails to employees (See Appendix F)

To inform employees about the basics of the 3D Creations cares and invite them to an interest meeting

All 3D Creations employees

March 31, 2016 once a year (and to all new employees)

Give an informal presentation at meeting of interested employees

To excite employees about the program and inform them of the details of each component of the program

3D Creations employees who have expressed an interest in participating in the program

April 17th, 2016 Once a year and with a private appointment


Give presentations at an orientation for employees interested in each of the different components of the program

To inform employees about the details of the program and begin planning each program

3D Creations employees who have decided to commit to participating in the program

June 27-30, 2016 August 29, 2016- September 2, 2016

Twice a year and with private appointment

Evaluation Plan

We will evaluate the success of 3D Creations Cares by evaluating

the short-term and long-term impact the program has made on the

community as well as our ability to enhance our brand image. In addition

to tracking the metrics of participation in the programs, we will investigate

more complex metrics to evaluate each component separately.

A survey and two rounds of interviews will evaluate the local after-

school programs. We send an online survey to all of the students two

weeks after the program ends, and then interview a random sample of five

students one year and three years after the program ends. The survey will

aim to gather information on if their interest in 3D printing and sustainable

construction practices was increased as a result of the program, if they

plan to apply what they have learned to any projects and if they enjoyed

the program (See Appendix A). The interviews will focus on assessing

whether or not the program has positively impacted their life in the long-

term and if they have used what they learned to benefit their community in

any way.


The online free curriculum will be evaluated by an online survey

sent to the teachers who download the curriculum. The survey will be sent

to the teachers six months after they download the curriculum. The survey

will collect information on the impact of the curriculum on their students

and their community, by asking questions very similar to the questions

asked to the students who participate in the Ithaca program. We will then

send an additional survey to the same teachers six months later in order to

assess the long-term impact of the program on their communities. This

survey will ask questions very similar to the questions asked in the

interviews with the local students one year after the programs. The survey

will ask the teachers to forward on the survey questions to students who

participated in the program if they can’t answer the questions themselves.

The local artist partnership will be evaluated by a focus group of the

artists six months into the program to see if they feel that the program is or

is not benefiting them and if they are inspired to create more sustainable

art. We will also ask the artists if we can track their profits so we can see

how the partnership benefited their businesses.

Lastly, 3D Creations Cares’ impact on our brand image and the

company’s potential increase in revenue will be assessed by random

online surveys of our customers after buying our products to see if they

know about our philanthropy programs and if so, if the programs

influenced their decision to do business with us.


Appendix A Survey for Evaluation of 3D Creations Cares After-school Program in Ithaca

Name: Dates attended after-school program: School of program: Teacher of program:

1. I knew nothing or little about 3D printing before the program? Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

2. I know a lot about 3D printing now? Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

3. I was a little interested in 3D printing before the program? Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

4. I am very interested in 3D printing now? Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

5. I knew nothing or little about sustainable construction practices before the program? Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

6. I know a lot about sustainable construction practices now? Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

7. I was a little interested in sustainable construction practices before the program? Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

8. I am very interested in sustainable construction practices now? Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

9. I would recommend the after-school program to a friend. Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

10. I enjoyed the program. Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

11. What was your favorite part of the program, and why?


12. What was your least favorite part of the program, and why?

13. Do you plan to pursue further education in 3D printing or sustainable construction? If yes, please explain.

14. Do you plan to pursue a career in 3D printing or sustainable construction? If yes, please explain.

15. Do you plan to participate in any project in Ithaca related to 3D printing or sustainable construction? If yes, please explain.

16. Do you have any suggestions for how the program could be improved or any other additional comments?


Appendix B


Appendix C


Appendix D


Appendix E


Appendix F

Philanthropy program

Recruiting & HR

Transcript of Philanthropy program