Arrow Electronics Celebrates Community Engagement Momentum on National Volunteer Week

In 2017, Arrow Electronics launched Arrow Charitable, the community engagement platform supporting employee volunteering and giving. Two years later, Arrow employees continue to activate purposeful community engagement. 

Originally piloted in the United States and Canada, Arrow expanded access to the platform and its programs to 8,500 employees across the Americas, including offices in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica and Mexico in 2018.

Employees use the platform to find or organize volunteer events, qualify for charitable grants through ‘Dollars for Doers’ incentive programs, donate to causes they care about and join corporate matching campaigns. 

To date, nearly 25 percent of Arrow employees across the Americas are engaged, supporting hundreds of charities, participating in thousands of events and logging their time.

Employee donations and matching grants have totaled over $150,000. And according to the Independent Sector’s value of a volunteer hour, the 11,500 hours logged by Arrow employees equates to about $284,000 in employee giving through volunteerism since its launch in 2017 through the end of 2018. 

“Arrow Charitable is growing the collaborative culture within Arrow and the communities we call home. When we launched, our goal was to establish it with employees in a couple of countries. Last year, we focused on intentional programming and expanding it across the region,” said Alex West, global corporate social responsibility manager. “The employee response has been phenomenal, and we look forward to developing our programs expanding the platforms used by colleagues across the globe.” 

Examples of employee-driven efforts in 2018 include:

• An Earth Day park improvement initiative 
• A multi-city charity race challenge supporting local chapters of Girls on the Run
• Hosting Junior Achievement’s Business Week students at global headquarters   
• International Volunteer Day events supporting local food banks in nine locations
• A holiday giving campaign raising enough funds to provide off-grid electricity to three remote health clinics with the nonprofit customer We Care Solar 

Employees also use the platform to organize service-based teambuilding events, business partner collaborations and donation drives.

For 2019, the Arrow has set a goal to increase employee giving and volunteering by 10 percent across the Americas. 

Arrow Electronics’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) program guides today’s innovators to a better tomorrow, transforming ideas into real and influential achievements that help people in the communities in which Arrow works, and Arrow Charitable reflects this mission.

About Arrow Electronics

Arrow Electronics (NYSE:ARW) guides innovation forward for over 200,000 leading technology manufacturers and service providers. With 2018 sales of $30 billion, Arrow develops technology solutions that improve business and daily life. Learn more at fiveyearsout.com.