This post was written by Heather Yamada-Hosley, senior HR generalist and NerdsPayItForward co-president.
It’s important to take care of the world and the communities we live in. Last quarter, NerdsPayItForward, NerdWallet’s employee-led social impact group, did just that. Working with two NerdWallet leaders, NPIF focused its efforts on helping to improve and clean up the environment in our neighborhood. Nerds hosted related guest speakers at our headquarters, chose an impactful charity to donate to and got our hands dirty with park cleanup.
NPIF:
- Donated all proceeds from our in-office coffee bar to San Francisco Parks Alliance, a nonprofit whose goal is to improve local parks and bring best practices into the conversation around public land use.
- Removed invasive plant species from Heron’s Head Park in the Bayview neighborhood. We created space for native shoreline plants to grow and provided a healthy habitat for local and migrating birds.
- Held a panel about the “What, Whys, and Hows of a Nonprofit Board,” featuring two employees and nonprofit strategist Braden Busch so interested employees could learn about what it’s like to serve on a nonprofit board and how to find one you’re interested in.
At Heron’s Head Park, NerdWallet’s VP of Product David White jumped in and helped us clear 100 pounds of invasive plants! We also cleaned up trash that had been left behind by park goers.
Nerds were passionate about the cause: Lydia Kats, NerdWallet’s senior software engineer and NPIF volunteer, said, "As an avid hiker and birdwatcher, taking care of the environment is really important to me. I love that NerdWallet organized us to volunteer with Golden Gate Audubon and SF Parks so we could do our part to help restore habitat and clean up the park for everyone to enjoy."
NPIF’s theme for this quarter is youth, which includes a volunteer event at Prescott School and an educational talk about the wage gap, with First Graduate as our featured charity.
Are you interested in learning more about our NPIF employee-led social impact group? Reach out to [email protected].
Photos by Lydia Kats