Giving Season is a time for crew to help children and families by donating time and gifts to ensure that the holiday season is bright. Although we weren’t able to host any wrapping or shopping parties in person this year, teams across Vanguard came together virtually to help children and families in need. In this blog, our crew share how they were able to uphold Vanguard traditions.

I’ve been the Operations Lead for Giving Season for the past three years.  As soon as the pandemic hit in spring, our Giving Season team pivoted to determine how this program – beloved by our crew and more important than ever to our community – could be adapted for our new reality. Running our traditional campaign was definitely not in the cards, but we were able to work with Vanguard’s Community Stewardship team to introduce an online gift giving platform that delivers to nonprofits. This allowed us to stand up a “virtual” Giving Season with our partner agencies this year. It could be described as a “gift registry” experience. We are so pleased that the Vanguard crew here in the U.S. exceeded our targets for the campaign. Crew also had the opportunity to donate money directly to Toys 4 Tots, since we couldn’t be on campus to do collection bins this year.  What’s more, Vanguard provided matching funds for all of our gifts! The spirit of giving is certainly still strong at Vanguard! – Mark O., RIG Project Manager

In lieu of our annual gift wrapping pizza party, the Office of General Counsel (OGC) Systems team met virtually over lunch to play a Thanksgiving trivia game and do some online shopping for families in need. It was convenient to have a few different options for giving this year, and the opportunity to double our gifts with Vanguard’s 100% match was wonderful! At Vanguard, Giving Season is not just about buying presents or donating money; it’s also about coming together as a team to help others in our community who need it most.
– Joy U., Technical Project Manager

In this environment, selecting a charity to give a donation to couldn’t be easier. You can purchase goods, provide a monetary donation to your favorite charity, or shop for holiday gifts for children. You can donate as an individual or work with your team to make a group contribution. Thanks to Vanguard for making it easy for us to give! – Barbara W., Change Analyst

For two decades, Vanguard crew have donated gifts for children in our communities around the holidays to deliver joy to families in need. As our 2020 virtual environment extended from winter to spring to early summer, it became clear that we were going to need to pivot quickly to ensure we could still make an impact while also keeping our crew and partners safe. Through the hard work and imagination of several dedicated crew, we developed a virtual solution in partnership with several charitable agencies that enabled crew to shop securely online in a custom registry based on wish lists provided by the children our program supports. While it felt different this year, crew were thrilled to still be able to make a difference at the holidays! – Will S., Senior Product Owner and corporate program manager for Giving Season

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