At SoFi, we believe in the power of giving back. In celebration of National Volunteer Week, we are excited to shine a light on our employee philanthropy program called SoFi Gives! The guiding principle of SoFi Gives is to use a “think global, act local” framework that unites everyone around a similar purpose, but is adapted locally to meet the needs of our local communities. Through SoFi Gives, employees have the opportunity to make their footprint bigger than their foot, while making an impact on their local communities and connecting with colleagues.
SoFi Gives empowers our employees with the time and resources to make an impact. Employees have 16 hours of “Give Back Time” each calendar year, which means they are able to take time off of work to volunteer. We have also partnered with Benevity to capture all the details of our employees’ volunteer efforts. Benevity provides us the platform to power our giving, matching and volunteer program! Whether it’s the gift of time or dollars, we make it easy for our employees to give back in a way that aligns with their principles.
Giving back around the globe
Meet Paola Arce Rios, Galileo Site Lead, in Mexico City: She believes that volunteering strengthens her personal and professional relationships so when given the opportunity to support a cause alongside her colleagues, she jumped at the chance. "Volunteering is very important to me," She said. "It promotes empathy and enables our team to work together and feel united for a cause that provides a safe space for adolescents to grow."
Paola and her team chose to spend their volunteer time at Casa de las Mercedes. Casa de las Mercedes I.A.P., has a mission of providing children with quality health services, a decent education, and a life free of domestic violence. Their mission centers on providing a safe place for girls to grow up and earn an education. In over 25 years, they have saved thousands of lives.
What did you do as a part of the volunteer activity?
This is the second time that we have volunteered at Casa de las Mercedes. The first time, we celebrated Christmas with them and we brought donations (clothes, toys, kitchen items and personal cleaning items). Each time has been an amazing opportunity— both to connect with the girls at Casa de las Mercedes, and for our SoFi volunteers to connect as a team. We brought carnations and chocolates for every girl, shared lunch, and played for an hour and half.
How did your volunteer experience bring you and your colleagues together?
Volunteering strengthens the ties of the team, bringing people together with fun and satisfying activities. Volunteering can be the glue that holds a team together — it connects us with our community and makes it a better place. Even helping with the smallest tasks can make a real difference in the lives of people, animals and organizations in need. Volunteer work has helped us develop empathy and emotional intelligence, which are necessary for development within the Mexico City team.
Since our Value of the month is “Get To The Truth” in April, I’d love to learn more about how you live out that value on your team!
In my day-to-day life, I make sure I am true to myself by honoring my instincts and intuition along with analytical thinking, relying on the information shared with me and consulting my leaders when I have any questions. I celebrate this value by building a safe environment for those on my team by inviting, honoring and rewarding truth-telling. We can only make the best decisions if we have the right information, so it’s very important to create a corporate culture where the positives outweigh the negatives.
Paola, thank you so much for being a leader in giving back. Volunteering is uniquely rewarding, through SoFi’s partnership with Benevity, we are proud that our employees can easily find and commit to causes they believe in. They can experience the satisfaction of supporting something they care about, in ways that are meaningful to them by donating their time or dollars.
The individual featured is a SoFi employee. Their personal experiences, obviously, do not take into account your own specific objectives, financial situation, and needs. Results will vary.