His handmade sign reads, "just me and my dog." He has kind eyes and he likes to sit on a bench with a view of the water—just a 5-minute walk from Lighthouse's Seattle office. After only one interaction, I knew I wanted to create a care package to help him.

In addition to hosting Lighthouse-sponsored volunteering opportunities for our employees through the Lighthouse Cares program, Lighthouse offers each full-time employee Volunteering Time Off, or VTO, to participate in nonprofit activities outside of work. Below is one example of a dedicated employee leveraging that time to participate in their community and give back to a cause that is near and dear to them.

In honor of International Youth Day on August 12, 2018, Lighthouse donated more than 25 bicycles to The Chelly Foundation on behalf of the children of Chumkuri, Cambodia. The Chelly Foundation is a non-profit charity providing educational and health services to Cambodian youth. Earlier this month, Lighthouse's Jamie Brown, Vice President of Advisory Services, who serves on The Chelly Foundation Board, spent two weeks in Cambodia to experience life in the village in hopes of better supporting the Foundation's mission. Here's an article describing her experience.

In addition to hosting Lighthouse-sponsored volunteering opportunities for our employees through the Lighthouse Cares program, Lighthouse offers each full-time employee Volunteering Time Off, or VTO, to participate in nonprofit activities outside of work. Below is one example of a dedicated employee leveraging that time to participate in their community and give back to a cause that is near and dear to them.

Lighthouse London employees and UWE alum, Amren Gill and Kevin Burridge, visited the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) to give a presentation to the second and third year Forensic Computing and Security students. Amren and Kevin discussed the differences

In 2013, after a particularly difficult year, my husband and I moved to Vieques, Puerto Rico—a beautiful, tiny island off the coast of Puerto Rico. Shortly after moving there, we started our own custom furniture business and built our home and community there. In fact, our daughter is named for the town we lived in. We have some family there, but the island community became our adopted family when we lived there and they're still huge part of our life to this day.

Since 2015, Lighthouse has been partnering with Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) and their House locations across the world by conducting drives to collect monetary and in-kind donations. RMHC supports seriously ill children and their families by providing them with a place to stay, food to eat, and activities to do while undergoing treatment at local hospitals.

On Friday the 7th of April, a few employees from our London office were able to volunteer at the Lambeth Palace Open Day, an event that I learned about through our partnership with the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC).

In addition to hosting Lighthouse-sponsored volunteering opportunities for our employees through the Partners Give Back program, Lighthouse offers each full-time employee Volunteering Time Off, or VTO, to participate in nonprofit activities outside of work. Below is one example of a dedicated employee leveraging that time to participate in their volunteer opportunity.

This fall, Lighthouse employees from our Seattle office volunteered at the YWCA Angeline's Center for Homeless Women. Volunteers were given a tour of the facility, while they learned about the history of the center and the challenges faced each day serving the community.

No matter how much outreach a community may have in place there is always a need for more—more programs, more awareness, and more participation. It can be both easy to forget and hard to understand that hunger and need exist outside our doorstep. One might feel powerless to make a difference, or that one person cannot solve this problem. However, one person can influence change.

Lighthouse recently volunteered with the Pike Market Senior Center (PMSC) by hosting and participating in their Bingo game. Prior to the event, Lighthouse held a donation drive for Bingo prizes and gathered materials that folks need such as toiletries, clothes, and other household items. Once the materials have been gathered, volunteers walked up to PMSC and helped set up prior to the game's start.

The Goodtimes Project is a nonprofit organization that hosts Camp Goodtimes for children with pediatric cancer and siblings of children with cancer. Kids between the ages of six and seventeen are invited to spend a week making arts and crafts, kayaking, playing games, and simply enjoying the outdoors. The camp originally opened its doors over 30 years ago. But, in 2013, their partner organization pulled all support, leaving the camp with nothing. To avoid the program shutting down, volunteers rallied together and established a new nonprofit, The Goodtimes Project, and found a way to continue their good work.

PR Gives Back is a semi-annual event that brings together nonprofits from the Seattle community with various PR, marketing, and communications professionals for a two-hour workshop. On February 24, 2016, twenty local nonprofits seeking advice around topics such as branding strategies, pitching local media, social media management, newsletter distribution, event planning, internal communications, and much more attended this event. These nonprofits included schools, historical societies, health care organizations, and many in between. The program consisted of a keynote presentation and breakout consulting sessions, allowing the communications professionals to meet with nonprofit representatives and share their advice and expertise.

During the months of March and April, Lighthouse partnered with the Pike Market Food Bank to give back to the local downtown community. In order to accommodate the diverse work schedules of Lighthouse's employees, the company worked with the food bank to offer a few different time slots on multiple days. Employee volunteers had the opportunity to either work the line and pass out food, or go ask for donations from Pike Place Market vendors.