News Category: Chartwell Culture

This holiday season, Chartwell continues to uphold its charitable mission to help make the world a better place to live. Our annual Giving Back campaign was focused on bringing joy to youth and families in need across the country. By contributing to the overall well-being of our greater communities, each of our office locations selected an organization to partner with and collectively committed $14,000 to this year’s campaign!

Minneapolis – MATTER is an organization that works with companies of all sizes to create fun and easy packing events for employees to do good in their communities. In a two-hour volunteer session, our team put our organization skills to work to assemble basic hygiene packs, school snack packs, and medical kits for doctors in remote locations around the world.

Chicago – Toys for Tots, a program run by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, is well known for its mission to distribute toys to children in need during the holidays. We researched the hottest kids gifts for 2024 and donated almost 50 toys to the program.

Dallas – Through monetary donation, we empowered Soldiers’ Angels, which provides aid, comfort, and resources to military personnel, veterans, and their families through a variety of programs such as food assistance, care packages to deployed soldiers, and holiday help.

Orange County – Supporting our traditional “Sponsor a Family” initiative, we fulfilled a family’s holiday wish list through the Orange County Family Justice Center Foundation, an organization that provides resources to victims and families whose lives have been impacted by domestic violence, sexual assault, and child/elder abuse.

Philadelphia – Through monetary donation, we empowered HopePHL, whose mission is to inspire Philadelphia’s children, youth, families, and communities to thrive by providing housing, advocacy, and trauma-responsive social services designed to promote equity, resilience, autonomy, and well-being.

Portland – Also supporting our “Sponsor a Family” initiative, we fulfilled a family’s holiday wish list through the Native American Youth & Family Center, an organization that works to enrich the lives of Native youth and families through education, community involvement, and culturally specific programming.

Raleigh – Through monetary donation, we empowered the Bair Foundation, a therapeutic foster care agency that has provided hope and stability to more than 250,000 children and families in crisis over the past 50 years.

As a relationship-based firm focused on the long-term success of our clients, Chartwell recognizes the importance of giving back to our communities. Our entire team is dedicated to upholding this value. In addition to our corporate philanthropic events, every Chartwell professional is encouraged to support causes and dedicate time to organizations they are passionate about.

Chartwell celebrated Employee Ownership Month by staying active to raise funds through ESOPathon. Our team logged miles spent walking, running, and biking throughout the month to help support the Employee Ownership Foundation in its effort to drive the formation of new ESOPs and support employee ownership.

For the fourth year, our wellness committee pledged various dollar amounts to activities completed towards the campaign. At the close of ESOPathon 2024, Team Chartwell logged over 3,700 miles and raised more than $8,800 for the Employee Ownership Foundation!

Chartwell has unparalleled expertise working with ESOP-owned businesses and companies exploring employee ownership. For nearly 30 years, we have remained focused on serving clients for the long run and ESOPs are proven to sustain the lifecycle of many business models. Our ESOP experts share why they are passionate about working with our employee-owned clients:

As part of Chartwell’s commitment to fostering an inclusive and equitable world, members of our Minneapolis team participated in the 2024 Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity Rainbow Build. In our one-day volunteer shift, we sanded and painted walls, hung doors, and stained the front porch of a home in St. Paul, Minnesota. Rainbow Build helps raise awareness for issues involving affordable housing in the LGBTQ+ community. While building a new home for a local family, volunteers also show their support for Habitat’s mission.

Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit organization that aims to provide affordable housing for people in need around the world. The organization works with volunteers, partner families, and donors to build and renovate homes, making them accessible to low-income families who might not otherwise be able to afford decent housing. Habitat for Humanity operates in various countries and regions, focusing on community development and advocating for affordable housing solutions and relying on volunteers to help with construction.

As a relationship-based firm focused on the long-term success of our clients, Chartwell recognizes the importance of giving back to our communities. Our entire team is dedicated to upholding this value. In addition to our corporate philanthropic events, every Chartwell professional is encouraged to support causes and dedicate time to organizations they are passionate about.

The Chartwell team gathered in Chicago for our annual summer volunteer day, an initiative organized by the firm’s charity committee. Through our 2024 “Chartwell Cares” campaign, we supported MetroSquash. Chartwell kicked the day off with our all-team meeting, where MetroSquash CEO Janae Meyer spoke about its mission, her journey to leadership, and some of the challenges its students face. Chartwell presented Janae with a $50,000 check as a means of financial support. “MetroSquash is doing amazing things and Chartwell is honored to be a corporate sponsor,” said Will Bloom, Chartwell Managing Director and MetroSquash Board Member.

Following the meeting, Chartwell bused our team to the MetroSquash facility located in the Woodlawn neighborhood to help prepare for the upcoming school year, when the organization will serve over 400 students from middle school through post-secondary completion. We rolled up our sleeves to clean the squash courts, prepare classrooms, organize administrative files, wash windows, vans, shoes, and racquets, serve lunch, and even rally a few balls on the courts.

“What an incredible team!” said Meyer. “The energy and enthusiasm Chartwell brought to every single project was a gift. We are so very grateful, it truly set the bar high for what future partnerships could look and feel like.”

 For Chicagoland youth who desire and deserve more, MetroSquash combines academic support, competitive squash, and enrichment opportunities to empower students to realize their potential and make their mark. To date, MetroSquash has demonstrated a 100% college acceptance rate, 98% college enrollment rate, 88% college persistence rate, and 85% of alumni have secured full-time employment.

As a relationship-based firm focused on the long-term success of our clients, Chartwell recognizes the importance of giving back to our communities. Our entire team is dedicated to upholding this value. In addition to our corporate philanthropic events, every Chartwell professional is encouraged to support causes and dedicate time to organizations they are passionate about.

As part of our ongoing initiative to support local organizations through monetary and time-based means, Chartwell teamed up with JP4 Foundation for a professional skills workshop. Our team members helped facilitate an in-person networking / “speed-dating” format interview session to help the mentors of JP4 sharpen their speaking skills and practice their personal elevator speeches.

The mission of JP4 Foundation is to enrich the lives of youth in underserved urban communities through healthy activities, healthy meals, and healthy relationships. Based in Minneapolis, JP4 supports its mission with year-round programming, summer-long camps, and an after-school program, the Diamond Club. JP4 uses mentor relationships to ignite children’s dreams and potential, fueling lasting optimism about the future and inspiring them to flourish as teens and adults.

As a relationship-based firm focused on the long-term success of our clients, Chartwell recognizes the importance of giving back to our communities. Our entire team is dedicated to upholding this value. In addition to our corporate philanthropic events, every Chartwell professional is encouraged to support causes and dedicate time to organizations they are passionate about.

Amid a busy unwinding of another extraordinary year, Chartwell is reminded of our common charge to help each other freely. We closed 2023 with several notable initiatives aimed at building connections, strengthening community, highlighting interdependence, and – in keeping with our charitable mission – helping to make the world a better place to live.

Expanding Access to the Benefits of Employee Ownership

Chartwell celebrated Employee Ownership Month this October by staying active to raise funds for the Employee Ownership Foundation. Nearly 40 individuals participated by walking, running, and biking. Chartwell pledged money for every mile logged, with bonus money applied to those joining in on 5K races held in cities with Chartwell offices. All told, Team Chartwell logged nearly 2,000 total miles and raised over $6,500 to support employee ownership.

Fighting an “Unsettling” Drop in Life Expectancy for Men

Following a recent decline in life expectancy for men that The New York Times calls “unsettling,” the life expectancy gap between men and women reached its widest in nearly three decades, driven mainly by more men dying of Covid and drug overdoses. In support of the fathers, husbands, brothers, sons, partners, families, and friends in our lives, Chartwell teamed up with the Movember Foundation to raise money for, and awareness of, a number of different men’s health issues. Team Chartwell’s moustache and beard competitors, along with those who opted to “Move for Mental Health” by taking steps for the cause, raised more than $6,000 in 2023 alone. In our six years of support for the Movember Foundation, Chartwell has raised nearly $30,000 to help tackle some of the most significant health issues faced by men.

Spreading a Little Joy

Once again this year, our “Sponsor a Family” initiative was an important part of Chartwell’s Giving Back Campaign. Focused on contributing to the overall well-being of our greater communities, each of our office locations selected an organization to partner with and collectively committed nearly $7,600 to our sponsored families.

Through Youthprise, a nonprofit with a mission to increase equity with and for disadvantaged youth, Chartwell Minneapolis connected with two families facing financial hardship and purchased gifts along with basic necessities. Chartwell Chicago supported Project 180, which offers occupational therapy, financial assistance, psychological counseling, and recreational therapy in group residential homes to individuals with little to no resources. Chartwell Dallas shopped for Soldiers’ Angels to help send holiday cheer to military families.

On the West Coast, Chartwell Portland purchased gifts for a local family through the Christmas Family Adoption Foundation, a nonprofit focused on making the holiday season a time for joy and celebration for families in need. Meanwhile, Chartwell Orange County donated gifts through the Orange County Family Justice Center, which provides assistance, empowerment, and prevention resources to victims and families whose lives have been impacted by domestic violence and abuse.

Finally, on the East Coast, Chartwell Raleigh donated funds to The Bair Foundation, a nonprofit that supports children and families throughout the foster care and adoption processes. Chartwell Philadelphia supported HopePHL, an organization with the mission to inspire children, youth, families, and communities to thrive by providing housing, advocacy, and trauma-responsive social services designed to promote equity, resilience, autonomy, and well-being.

Positive Impact Spinning

In December, some select energetic teammates participated in a Chartwell-organized Spinathon to raise funds for the JP4 Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to enrich the lives of youth in underserved communities through healthy activity, healthy meals, and healthy relationships. Chartwell pledged $5 per mile over the course of an hour, and in a showcase of endurance, commitment, and generosity, we raised $1,000 for this great cause.

Pickleball for a Purpose

Chartwell’s pickleball tournament also saw enthusiastic participation! In addition to the fun, the lively competition, and the displays of some serious game, the day of pickleball served to encourage individual giving and to support causes personally meaningful to our colleagues. A Chartwell pickleball champion was crowned, and $1,750 was donated to various charities nominated by our teammates, including Coco’s Dog Heart Rescue, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and Big Brothers Big Sisters Twin Cities.

Feeding Starving Children

To close out Chartwell’s Giving Back Campaign, we spent an afternoon at Feed My Starving Children for a meal-packing event. The volunteer room during this holiday season was jam-packed with familiar faces as well as new ones in the community, where the entire group beat FMSC’s standing record of most boxes packed in a single session – 251 boxes! That comes out to enough boxes of soy-veggie meals to feed 149 children across the globe for an entire year.

Chartwell’s Giving Back Campaign this year results in nearly $23,000 donated!

As a relationship-based firm focused on the long-term success of our clients, Chartwell recognizes the importance of giving back to our communities. Our entire team is dedicated to upholding this value. In addition to our corporate philanthropic events, every Chartwell professional is encouraged to support causes and dedicate time to organizations they are passionate about.

This holiday season, Chartwell continues to uphold its charitable mission to help make the world a better place to live. Our annual December “Giving Back” campaign kicked off by bringing joy to local families across the country through the Adopt-A-Family program. Additionally, the Chartwell team gathered in Minneapolis to create blankets for kids at Children’s Minnesota hospital, pack food for neighbors through Second Harvest Heartland, and raise money for patients at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital by cycling in a spinathon!

Each of Chartwell’s office locations have come together to support the Adopt-A-Family program, which positively impacts the communities around us and enriches the lives of our neighbors. Our team is grateful to be able to help these families during this joyous time of year and is excited to share our resources in a personal way.

On Friday, December 9 the full team gathered in Minneapolis for our annual holiday celebration. As Chartwell continues to grow, we broadened our charitable efforts and offered three activities for team members to participate in to help support wonderful organizations.

One group spent the morning matching, cutting, tying, folding, and wrapping fleece blankets for patients at Children’s Minnesota hospital. Children’s Minnesota is one of the largest freestanding pediatric health systems in the country and Chartwell is a proud annual supporter of this organization.

The next group pulled up their sleeves and spent two hours at the Second Harvest Heartland packing and distribution center. During this volunteer session, the Chartwell group helped pack 521 boxes of oranges weighing a total of 21,660 pounds of food, which equates to 18,050 total meals for local families. Second Harvest Heartland works to end hunger through community partnerships and leverages its unique position in the emergency food chain to make an impact throughout the upper Midwest.

The final group got their cycling on and participated in a spinathon for St. Jude. In just 45-minutes, this group completed a total of 350 miles, raising $3,500 together for an incredible cause. The mission of St. Jude is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment.

As a relationship-based firm focused on the long-term success of our clients, Chartwell recognizes the importance of giving back to our communities. Our entire team is dedicated to upholding this value. In addition to our corporate philanthropic events, every Chartwell professional is encouraged to support causes and dedicate time to organizations they are passionate about.

Chartwell focused on supporting the Employee Ownership Foundation’s ESOPathon and the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer during the month of October. These annual campaigns raise awareness for causes that impact millions of lives and our team put our movement and charitable commitment to the test. The results are in and Chartwell is thrilled to share that we raised $8,200 combined for these charities!

ESOPathon is an activity-based fundraising event that allows the employee ownership community to participate in teams while celebrating Employee Ownership Month. Throughout the 31 days of October, Team Chartwell tracked distances spent walking, running, or biking and completed a total of 1,280 miles for employee ownership! The firm’s wellness committee committed various dollar amounts to activities completed towards the campaign, equaling a team fundraising total of over $4,700 and putting Team Chartwell in the top half of the 2022 leaderboard!

Meanwhile, Chartwell’s Women in Leadership Development group was determined to raise breast cancer awareness and spent time internally educating team members about a range of women’s health topics and statistics. Chartwell’s charity committee sweetened the pot and double-matched all employee donations towards the cause, closing out the fundraiser with over $3,500 raised for the American Cancer Society! Making Strides Against Breast Cancer unites communities, companies, and individuals with a collective goal to end breast cancer as we know it. Over the past two decades, Making Strides has collectively grown into the nation’s largest and most impactful breast cancer movement providing a supportive community for courageous breast cancer survivors and thrivers, including caregivers and families.

As a relationship-based firm focused on the long-term success of our clients, Chartwell recognizes the importance of giving back to our communities. Our entire team is dedicated to upholding this value. In addition to our corporate philanthropic events, every Chartwell professional is encouraged to support causes and dedicate time to organizations they are passionate about.

The Chartwell team gathered in Minneapolis for our annual summer volunteer day, an initiative organized by the firm’s charity committee. Our 2022 “Chartwell Cares” campaign was spent at Feed My Starving Children for a meal-packing event. In just a few hours, Chartwell assembled enough boxes of soy-veggie meals to feed 101 children for a year! Chartwell also matched the cost of these meals, helping feed 101 more across the globe.

Chartwell’s charitable mission is to help make the world a better place to live, and we are certain that our recent efforts have done just that. We believe serving others extends beyond our professional lives. Chartwell serves and supports charitable organizations that positively impact the communities around us and enrich the lives of our neighbors.

Over the past several years, the Chartwell charity committee and Chartwell leadership have been working to develop a long-term mission and strategy for philanthropic efforts. This has culminated in an expanded annual charity budget, paid volunteer time off for employees, and a tagline of “Chartwell Charity for Kids.” We as an organization are advocates of sustainability and believe that investing in the next generation will help improve the communities we live in and enrich the lives of our neighbors.

As a relationship-based firm focused on the long-term success of our clients, Chartwell recognizes the importance of giving back to our communities. Our entire team is dedicated to upholding this value. In addition to our corporate philanthropic events, every Chartwell professional is encouraged to support causes and dedicate time to organizations they are passionate about.

Chartwell’s Minneapolis team participated in the Greater Twin Cities United Way Action Day, an initiative to provide backpacks full of school supplies for 50,000 local students. Greater Twin Cities United Way (GTCUW) partners with nonprofits and school districts to distribute these backpacks to ensure kids have the school supplies they need to be ready to learn in the fall. Hosted by the Minnesota Vikings, GTCUW’s Action Day 2022 presented volunteer opportunities to pack backpacks full of school supplies on the field of U.S. Bank Stadium, where the Chartwell group successfully packed over 400 backpacks in just a few hours. What a great way to bring back-to-school cheer!

As a relationship-based firm focused on the long-term success of our clients, Chartwell recognizes the importance of giving back to our communities. Our entire team is dedicated to upholding this value. In addition to our corporate philanthropic events, every Chartwell professional is encouraged to support causes and dedicate time to organizations they are passionate about.