48 inspiring hours for Box.org
I got to spend a couple days in New York City this week representing Box.org. In just 48 hours I experienced almost all the aspects of Box.org’s work: I spoke with nonprofits using Box to fulfill their mission; I rolled up my sleeves and volunteered with dozens of Boxers in East River Park; I accepted an award for Box.org's work advancing youth well-being; and I broadcast a nonprofit-enabling webinar!
On Tuesday I landed at JFK and went straight to the 2018 Children’s Rights Benefit at Chelsea Piers. I was humbled to spend the evening with over 400 inspiring and influential child advocates from the legal, child welfare, arts and media sectors. It was an honor to receive the Champions Award on Box.org’s behalf for our work with Sixto Cancel and his organization Think of Us in the foster youth innovation space. It was unforgettable to receive recognition alongside some of our favorite change-makers, Sixto Cancel from Think of Us and Lee Gelernt from the ACLU, “for harnessing the power of technology to build bright futures for vulnerable children.” Deep bows to Children’s Rights for including us.
I woke up early Wednesday and joined dozens of Boxer colleagues for volunteering with the LES Ecology Center that maintains the 57 acre East River Park. We learned volumes about the conservation efforts underway in the Big Apple. We pulled 2.61 million weeds and planted 426 flower bulbs (approximate numbers). The team had a blast and it felt great driving by our volunteering site the next day on my way to JFK.
I spent Wednesday afternoon in the high energy Box New York City office on the phone with several of our incredible nonprofit customers discussing their needs, challenges, goals and dreams. I was also pleased to sit down with several groups of Boxers interested in how they could share their skill-sets with our nonprofit community members. Box.org is 100% in the blood stream of the Box operating plan, culture and values. They even included Box.org trivia questions in the office trivia happy hour that evening. I can never get enough authentic and informative team bonding.
Thursday morning took me to Brooklyn’s Cadman Plaza, home of the New York City Office of Emergency Management. Along with Box.org collaborators from Facebook, Twitter, Uber and AirBnb’s crisis innovation teams, I was hosted by Big City Emergency Managers (BCEM), a nonprofit and Box.org customer, that convenes the top emergency managers of the largest U.S. cities twice a year to share best practices and ideas. I’m always inspired to see nonprofits and governments responsible for safety in our communities succeeding with new technologies from Box and our collaborators.
Later that day I spent three hours at the office of the Foundation Center, an incredible non-profit capacity-building organization that helps non-profits get the information they need to make a difference. Spending the lunch hour with their technology team got me excited about all aspects of their digital journey… More on that in a future post. After lunch I headed down the hall to the Foundation Center webinar broadcasting area and teamed up with DonorsChoose.org’s CMO Katie Bisbee (long-time Box customer, partner and advocate) to present a webinar to nonprofit executives about how to successfully approach and build mutually impactful partnerships with tech companies who are building new sustainable social impact programs into their business plans.
On my flight home I saw this great story written by a partner of ours that helped us raise over $125K in donations from hundreds of members of the Box community for three incredible nonprofit partners at our recent BoxWorks 2018 event.
It’s amazing how productive and rewarding 48 hours in the Big Apple and flights on either side can be. Thanks to everyone who is helping scale of Box.org. All of our stakeholders (nonprofits, Boxers and Box Inc) are all benefiting more and more thanks to you.
Please visit box.org to learn more about our work, access our nonprofit donation program or contact us.