NerdsPayItForward Volunteers Lend a Hand to Animals

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Written by NerdWallet
NPIF-animal-support

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This post was written by Heather Yamada-Hosley, senior HR generalist and NerdsPayItForward co-president.

Every quarter NerdsPayItForward (NPIF), NerdWallet’s employee-led social impact group, works with two NerdWallet leaders to pick a cause the leaders are passionate about. Using this theme, NPIF organizes a volunteer event, hosts related guest speakers at our headquarters and chooses an impactful charity to donate to.

In the second quarter of this year, with NerdWallet CFO Laura Onopchenko and VP of design and user experience Michael Chanover, we chose a theme of Animals. During the three months of Q2, NPIF:

  • Donated all proceeds from our in-office coffee bar to Farm Sanctuary — a nonprofit that houses hundreds of rescued farm animals, including pigs, cows, goats, chickens and more.

  • Volunteered with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy at Fort Funston, a local, dog-friendly park. We helped remove invasive species and weeds from an area where rare native wildflowers were growing.

  • Hosted professional dog trainer Rebecca Frank in our office to speak about the benefits of positive reinforcement training — and give actionable tips to use.

At our Fort Funston volunteer event, both Laura and Michael came out and got their hands dirty alongside us! Volunteers got to know these NerdWallet leaders on a more personal level, as well as chatting with people from other teams while soaking up the sun.

In addition to the animal-themed events and efforts, NPIF also hosted a presentation by Tom Prado and Juan Ascencio from San Francisco Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children (SFCASA), who educated us about the foster care system, how it works and what we can do to support children in foster care.

NPIF’s theme for Q3 is the Environment, which includes a volunteer event at Heron’s Head Park and a panel about being on a nonprofit board, with the San Francisco Parks Alliance as our featured charity.

Are you interested in learning more about our NPIF employee-led group? Reach out to [email protected]. We’d love to chat!

Photo: Members of NerdsPayItForward volunteering at San Francisco’s Fort Funston.