The Denver Business Journal (DBJ) has partnered with CSR Solutions of Colorado, a project of Community Shares of Colorado and Spark the Change Colorado, to highlight The Civic 50 Colorado 2020 honorees in a series of Q&A articles for the DBJ’s Good Works column. Below is an excerpt of the GroundFloor Media | CenterTable column. If you have a subscription to the DBJ you can read the full article here: Good Works: GroundFloor Media builds CSR network

Why does your company engage in corporate social responsibility? Giving back is part of our cultural DNA. Our team members strongly believe that we must be good tenants of the world. Since our inception in 2001, we have been committed to investing a percentage of our profits back into the community each year through our Get Grounded Foundation, a private 501(c)(3), our paid-time-off Get Giving employee-volunteer program, donated videos for nonprofits, the #DoingMyPartCO effort and our “Good & Grounded” podcast series highlighting civic-minded local leaders, and pro-bono and reduced billing rates for nonprofit clients.

Simply put, it’s just good business.

What corporate social responsibility has your company conducted that is especially innovative? When Covid-19 shut things down a year ago, we realized smaller Colorado nonprofits would be hit especially hard in terms of volunteers and resources. Within two weeks of the state’s shelter-in-place order, our team launched GroundFloorMedia.com/DoingMyPartCO, a Colorado-focused website designed to help smaller nonprofits communicate their immediate volunteer and donation needs.

Then, in August, we launched our “Good & Grounded” Podcast to shine a light on what Colorado leaders are doing and the issues they are facing, how best to support Colorado’s smaller nonprofits, innovative ways small businesses are making a difference, and what individuals and their families can do to help.

What advice would you give other companies on how to get started with corporate social responsibility? Know your company values, hire people who align with those values and then continue to evolve with employee engagement programs that offer hands-on and virtual volunteering, as well as strong partnerships.

Our CSR pillars serve as a guide for our giving. In 2020, none of us were thinking about a global pandemic. We’ve had to be nimble to help quickly address critical community needs. The actions a business takes today will have a lasting impact on how communities, employees and customers view that business moving forward.