Comcast Maps More than $3.8 Million and 285+ Recipients of Community Giving in Western Washington and Spokane

January 9, 2013 by

Every year I have the honor of going through a lot of records to map the ways that Comcast donates millions in airtime and cash to nonprofits and others in Washington State. The 2012 maps are out! That’s a lot of addresses to paste into spreadsheets, so please let me sip my coffee as I recover and quickly describe what we just posted.

The first map is of our community donations in 2012. I counted 286, but the way this works, co-workers will remind me of one or more groups that I missed. So that’s why the headline says “285+.”

There are lots of ways to calculate the value of airtime, but by our measurements, Comcast donated more than $3.8 million to nonprofits, schools, and other organizations in 2012. That does not include $90,000 in 90 scholarships offered to outstanding high school seniors and paid to their educational institutions.

You can click on the screenshot below to reach the maps, which by the way come from the very handy and helpful mapping infrastructure at zeemaps. The first map shows community giving for 2012 by Comcast in Western Washington and the Spokane area. Here’s the key:

  • Fuscia color markers represent donations of money (and sometimes airtime) either through our local budget or our friends at the Comcast Foundation. 
  • Forest green represents donations of airtime and publicity, through PSAs, On Demand programming, or Comcast Newsmakers segments.
  • Light purple represents a high school where we presented a senior with a Leaders and Achievers scholarship. You can understand why we wanted to plot the high schools and not the students’ homes, even though they (and their chosen school) are the recipients.
This map represents Comcast's donations in Western Washington and Spokane for 2012

Click on the screenshot to see a map that marks Comcast’s donations in Western Washington and Spokane during 2012

The second map shows where Comcast has donated in 2010, 2011 and 2012, along with some of the major donation sites in 2008 and 2009. This screenshot focuses on the Seattle area, but of course you can use the navigational system to move the map to any location you want.

Screenshot of community giving map for Comcast in Washington

Click on this screenshot to see our community giving for the last several years.

Filed under 2013 Comcast News Releases, 2013 News Releases, Community investment, News Releases Tagged with ,

Looking forward to Comcast Cares Day 2012 in Washington State

March 20, 2012 by

Every year, Comcast organizes one of the largest single corporate days of service in the country, known as Comcast Cares Day. Last year, more than 2,200 Comcast employees and their families and friends volunteered to improve more than a dozen locations throughout Western Washington and in Spokane. One of the locations was El Centro de La Raza, which is featured in the video above.

The local coordinators in our various field offices and call centers have just finished picking the project sites for this year’s Comcast Cares Day: Saturday, April 21, 2012.

We will share more as the projects and work comes together, but here’s a list of what’s to come:

Aberdeen: Habitat for Humanity of Grays Harbor. We’ll be doing some landscaping and other work for two of their homes.

Bellingham: Whatcom Parks and Recreation Foundation. This should be a good and messy project: We’ll be working on trail construction at Chuckanut Falls Trail.

Bremerton: Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound. We’ll do a lot of work at their Bremerton Olympia Avenue location including lots of handywork like painting, simple plumbing, lots of various building repairs, gardening, and fixing up several playground areas.

Everett: Salvation Army (organized by the team from our Everett field offices) We’ll be painting, landscaping, cleaning,  organizing toys, and some light carpentry and repairs.

Everett: Cascade High School (organized by the team from our Everett and Lynnwood call centers, and local corporate offices) We’ll be working on the grounds here, and perhaps some other Everett School District schools as well.

Fife: Fife Parks Department (organized by the team at our Puyallup field offices) This one should also be good and messy: We’ll be helping to clean up and to remove invasive species from the Lower Hylebos Marsh.

Kent: Northwest Harvest (organized by our Auburn-based teams) We’ll be doing a lot here, from caring for the grounds with intensive cleaning and gardening projects, to working the assembly line to prepare food for delivery.

Olympia: Rebuilding Together of Thurston County. We’ll help them with fixing up buildings and some repairs.

Redmond: Eastside Audubon Society. We’ll be removing blackberry bushes and weeding and spreading bark along the Audubon BirdLoop at Marymoor Park.

Seattle: El Centro de La Raza These folks have a big facility, and we look forward to doing a lot of things there. This was one of our sites last year, too.

Seattle: Wing Luke Asian Museum

Spokane: Northeast Community Center

Tacoma: Metro Parks STAR (South Tacoma Activity and Recreation) Center (organized by the team at our Fife call center, in cooperation with the Tacoma Urban League)

Filed under All News Releases Tagged with , , ,

Maps Show Where Comcast Donated to Organizations in 2011 in Western Washington and Spokane County

December 27, 2011 by

map that shows community giving by Comcast in Washington

Click on this map to see where Comcast has been donating over the past couple of years. We just listed the places in 2011 where we donated.

One of the things we do in our office is help manage community giving by Comcast in Western Washington and Spokane. What I like to do as an exercise is plot out on a map where Comcast donates. We use a wonderful tool offered by the great folks at Zeemaps. Today I gathered up info from several databases and charted Comcast’s 2011 giving, and then added that info to the main map.

Click on this screenshot to see where Comcast donated in 2011 alone. This is a closeup of the Seattle area. You can click on the map to move in on various areas.

This exercise helps us identify any geographic gaps. The map also,  frankly, helps answer a question that comes up from time to time: “So what does Comcast do for the community in Washington state?” Now, I don’t know how often that question comes up.  I have no idea how many people take local community giving  into account before choosing to give their business to us or a competitor. Of course, it doesn’t matter how often people ask the question. Community giving is the right thing to do on its own. The right community investment can produce the ultimate return on investment: changing entire lives for the better.

Among the most common ways we donate: scholarships through the Leaders and Achievers program, airtime on Comcast Newsmakers or through public service announcements we air on cable channels, cash grants by the local office or the Comcast Foundation, airtime donated through On Demand, and more. We spend a lot of time thinking about how to donate to support youth technology programs and many other worth groups and causes.

Among the largest recipients in 2011: Hire America’s Heroes (which promotes the hiring of veterans by private industry statewide), the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian-American Experience, the Lenny Wilkens Foundation, Alliance for Education, TVW, City Year of Seattle/King County, Tacoma Urban League, Hopelink, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Spokane County, Whatcom County and Thurston County. As you can see from the map, that’s just a partial list.

All that said, there’s a price that one pays for seemingly “giving away” money. We spend a lot of time having to say no. There just isn’t enough time, money and other resources to say yes to everyone.  We’ve got a pretty full list of groups and causes we sponsor now. But if you ever want to apply for your group, you’re always welcome to fill out our online application. If you’d like someone from a group to be on Comcast Newsmakers, our public affairs segments filmed in both Western Washington and Spokane, you can get more information here.

Filed under All News Releases, Community investment Tagged with , , ,

Woodside Elementary Students Get the Red Carpet Treatment: Comcast’s Big Brothers Big Sisters ‘Beyond School Walls’ Program Arrives in Washington State

December 12, 2011 by

Woodside Elementary School students walk the Red Carpet as the Comcast Big Brothers Big Sisters event comes to Washington state.

Woodside Elementary School students walk the Red Carpet as the Comcast Big Brothers Big Sisters event comes to Washington state. Click on the picture to see more photographs of the happy day.

Update on 12/22: here’s a very nice story from the Everett Herald about this event.

I love Big Brothers Big Sisters. Mentoring a young person delivers life-changing benefits for both the “Bigs” and the “Littles,” as Big Brothers Big Sisters likes to call their participants.

The problem is that many people ask, “Who has the time?” Weekends are crazy enough with yard work, soccer games and the inevitable trips to Costco and Home Depot. Carving out a few hours to spend with a “Little” can seem overwhelming.

Now, Big Brothers Big Sisters, with the help of Comcast, has a solution. It’s called the Beyond School Walls program. The program takes fourth and fifth graders from an elementary school and matches them with employees at a nearby company. The “Littles” meet with their “Bigs” twice a month during the lunch hour at the workplace.

Beyond School Walls began in Philadelphia in 2008 and is now in 12 cities across the country. On Friday, the program launched in Lynnwood, with 26 4th and 5th graders from Woodside Elementary School meeting their “Bigs” for the first time at Comcast’s customer service center and regional headquarters in Lynnwood.

We literally rolled out the red carpet for the “Littles,” pretending they were Hollywood stars arriving at the Oscars. Each “Little” received a pair of sunglasses. They were greeted as they came off the bus by Comcast employees pretending they were fans asking for their autographs and by our local television production crew, which shot a video commemorating the occasion. At the end of the red carpet, they met their “Bigs” who were holding up signs with their “Littles” names on them.

Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon, Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson, Everett Schools Superintendent Gary Cohn and representatives from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Snohomish County and the YMCA joined us for the launch event. But the real focus of the day was on the kids of Woodside Elementary.

While we were discussing the red carpet event idea, I was a little nervous all of the cameras and attention would overwhelm the kids. It didn’t. They rolled with it like real celebrities, as if they were born to be on camera. You can see some photographs of how happy the ‘Bigs’ and ‘Littles’ looked on our Facebook page.

Best of all, it was the perfect ice breaker for the “Bigs” and the “Littles,” who will be meeting through the rest of the school year and possibly for life.

Filed under 2011 News Releases, All News Releases, Community investment, News Releases Tagged with , , , , , ,

ArtsFund Helps Arts Groups Throughout Pierce and King counties

August 18, 2011 by

One of the highlights of the Neary year is sitting in on the Pierce County allocations committee of ArtsFund, the local corporate council for the arts. Comcast donates to the arts in both Pierce and King counties through this organization where our Senior Vice President Len Rozek serves on the board of directors. Because my focus includes Tacoma and Pierce County, I thought I’d brag on what they’re doing here; but the list below also includes King County, of course. You can find the King County news release here. The following news release comes direct from ArtsFund:

ArtsFund Grants to Pierce County Arts Groups Up Thirty Percent Over 2010

ArtsFund, the region’s central fundraising organization and a strong advocate on cultural issues, announced today that it will make grants to eight  Pierce County arts groups totaling $182,575, an impressive 31 percent increase over last year’s Pierce County grants.

These Pierce County grants were part of ArtsFund’s overall $2.374 million in grants to 63 Pierce and King County arts groups.* This $2.3 million grant total for 2011 is 13 percent higher than ArtsFund’s 2010 grant total.

In making the announcement, Jim Tune, President  & CEO, said, “ArtsFund is delighted it was able to increase grant amounts this year. Even though the economy in general is pulling out of the Great Recession, that recovery is slow to reach the arts. Overall, arts groups are managing extraordinarily well. They are effectively concentrating resources on the artistic product, but many continue to have furloughs and many other cutbacks particularly on the administrative side. Since ArtsFund grants are general operating support, organizations can use the money where it’s needed most.”

Jim Duncan, Chairman and Principal of Sparling and Chair of the ArtsFund Board of Trustees, commented, “On behalf of all the arts, we are deeply grateful to the 300 businesses and foundations and 2,000 individuals who contributed to this year’s campaign and to our Board and members of our volunteer Associates program for their tireless fundraising efforts.”

The campaign was led by ArtsFund trustees Stellman Keehnel, Partner, DLA Piper and Sandy McDade, Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Weyerhaeuser.

In addition to support from annual contributions, this year’s grants were funded with an exceptional allocation of earnings from the ArtsFund Foundation. The current balance of funds in the ArtsFund Foundation is $14.4 million.

Since it was founded in 1969, ArtsFund has made grants of more than $63 million to King and Pierce County arts groups. In addition to raising and distributing funds, ArtsFund also supports the cultural life of this region through such research as its recently released economic impact study of cultural organizations and their patrons, through extensive advocacy on important arts issues and through capacity building work such as its Board Leadership Training Program.

2011 ArtsFund Grants                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Charter Members                                                                                         

King County

5th Avenue Theatre……………………………………………………………………………………….. $82,868

ACT Theatre………………………………………………………………………………………………… $118,772

Henry Art Gallery………………………………………………………………………………………….. $102,508

Pacific Northwest Ballet…………………………………………………………………………………. $211,005

Seattle Art Museum……………………………………………………………………………………… $261,117

Seattle Children’s Theatre………………………………………………………………………………. $137,820

Seattle Opera………………………………………………………………………………………………. $270,311

Seattle Repertory Theatre……………………………………………………………………………… $157,418

Seattle Symphony………………………………………………………………………………………… $178,416

Village Theatre…………………………………………………………………………………………….. $108,143

King County Subtotal………………………………………………………………………………….. $1,628,379

Pierce County

Broadway Center for the Performing Arts…………………………………………………………… $63,324

Northest Sinfonietta………………………………………………………………………………………… $9,557

Tacoma Art Museum………………………………………………………………………………………. $54,735

Tacoma Opera……………………………………………………………………………………………….. $10,631

Tacoma Symphony…………………………………………………………………………………………. $19,470

Tacoma Youth Symphony………………………………………………………………………………….. $8,875

Pierce County Subtotal………………………………………………………………………………….. $166,592

Total Charter Members Grants……………………………………………………………………… $1,794,971

 

Continuing Members & Members

King County

Artist Trust……………………………………………………………………………………………………. $18,553

ArtsWest……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. $3,123

Auburn Symphony Orchestra…………………………………………………………………………….. $2,250

Bellevue Arts Museum……………………………………………………………………………………… $3,820

Book-It Repertory Theatre……………………………………………………………………………….. $35,440

Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas…………………………………………………………………. $5,040

Early Music Guild of Seattle………………………………………………………………………………. $13,720

Earshot Jazz Society of Seattle……………………………………………………………………………. $5,967

The Esoterics…………………………………………………………………………………………………… $2,096

Experience Music Project………………………………………………………………………………….. $7,255

Federal Way Symphony…………………………………………………………………………………….. $1,340

Frye Art Museum…………………………………………………………………………………………….. $1,820

Giant Magnet………………………………………………………………………………………………….. $7,235

Jack Straw Productions……………………………………………………………………………………… $8,162

Kirkland Performance Center…………………………………………………………………………….. $1,720

Nordic Heritage Museum…………………………………………………………………………………. $18,605

Northwest African American Museum…………………………………………………………………. $3,355

Northwest Film Forum…………………………………………………………………………………….. $10,225

Northwest Puppet Center…………………………………………………………………………………. $9,383

On the Boards……………………………………………………………………………………………….. $31,628

Pratt Fine Arts Center……………………………………………………………………………………….. $5,405

Richard Hugo House…………………………………………………………………………………………. $8,625

Seattle Arts & Lectures……………………………………………………………………………………. $17,144

Seattle Chamber Music Society…………………………………………………………………………. $21,181

Seattle Choral Company……………………………………………………………………………………. $2,470

Seattle Men’s Chorus/Seattle Women’s Chorus…………………………………………………….. $9,531

Seattle Pro Musica………………………………………………………………………………………….. $11,095

Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra………………………………………………………………………… $8,003

Seattle Shakespeare Company…………………………………………………………………………. $37,224

Seattle Theatre Group…………………………………………………………………………………….. $22,033

Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras……………………………………………………………………. $6,955

SIFF……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… $12,088

Spectrum Dance Theater…………………………………………………………………………………… $7,235

Taproot Theatre Company……………………………………………………………………………….. $15,259

Three Dollar Bill Cinema…………………………………………………………………………………….. $4,255

Town Hall Association……………………………………………………………………………………… $23,631

UW World Series at Meany Hall………………………………………………………………………….. $9,555

Vashon Allied Arts……………………………………………………………………………………………. $3,655

Velocity Dance Center………………………………………………………………………………………. $4,215

The Vera Project……………………………………………………………………………………………… $2,555

Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience………………………………… $35,469

Wing-It Productions…………………………………………………………………………………………. $3,835

King County Subtotal…………………………………………………………………………………….. $462,156

Pierce County

Museum of Glass…………………………………………………………………………………………….. $5,360

Tacoma Musical Playhouse………………………………………………………………………………. $10,623

Pierce County Subtotal……………………………………………………………………………………. $15,983

Total Continuing Members & Members Grants………………………………………………….. $478,139

 

Special Grants

 

ArtsFund Plestcheef Design and Decorative Arts Grants:

Bellevue Arts Museum……………………………………………………………………………………. $10,000

Henry Art Gallery…………………………………………………………………………………………….. $5,000

Museum of Glass…………………………………………………………………………………………… $10,000

Tacoma Art Museum………………………………………………………………………………………… $5,000

Subtotal……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. $30,000

 

Kreielsheimer Remainder Foundation Grants……………………………………………………… $66,157

 

Designated Workplace Giving Funds to Non-beneficiaries……………………………………… $5,046

Grand Total 2011 ArtsFund Grants…………………………………………………………………. $2,374,313

*Note that of this amount, $72,326 was from individuals directly designating to specific arts organizations.          

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Filed under All News Releases, Community investment Tagged with , , , ,

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