NBCUniversal Employees Celebrate Season of Service
December 19, 2023
At NBCUniversal, empowering our employees to give back to their local communities is at the core of what we do, especially around the holiday season.
From November 27 to December 15, NBCUnites hosted Season of Service, our annual holiday volunteering initiative. Over 3,700 employees globally came together in-person and virtually to support 100 of our nonprofit partners. Opportunities ranged from decorating meal bags for the elderly Asian American community in New York City to cleaning up a beach in Los Angeles. We would like to thank all of our wonderful volunteers for committing 5,000 hours of service and making a significant impact in our communities this year!
This Season of Service NBCU employees:
• Assembled 9,500+ essentials kits for families
• Prepared and served 2,480+ meals for the community
• Decorated 1,530+ cards and crafts to be given during the holidays
• Created 400+ music instruments for hospitals to use during music therapy sessions
• Mentored 215+ students to prepare them for college & their first jobs
Hear from our dedicated NBCUnites Leaders about how this year’s Season of Service events made an impact in their cities:
This year we chose to do an in-person drive (aka Giving Tree) by sponsoring 7 amazing families with critically ill children through the HoldYou Foundation. DreamWorkers were happy to pick ornaments off our tree and buy gifts for the kids and their family members. Additionally, we chose to do a virtual toy drive for remote employees in support of HOLA (Heart of Los Angeles) for the kids in their after-school programs. It was heartwarming to brighten the holidays for our local community.
- Jen Caruso, Director of Internal Comms & Employee Engagement, DreamWorks (Los Angeles)
Members of the Orlando office participated in a number of activities benefitting our Central Florida community and beyond, including: hosting a toy drive for Children's Home Society of Florida (donating over 100 items), writing cards to service members with Operation Gratitude (writing 60+ cards), packaging and handing out food during a mobile food bank with Second Harvest Food Bank (serving over 400 families), providing holiday gifts for Salvation Army Angel Tree (adopting 50 angels), and serving families at E.S.T.H.E.R.'s Holiday Party (serving dinner to over 150 single mothers and their children).
- Sarah Yurinich, Manager, Internal Communications (Orlando)
We have set up donation drives in our kitchen areas for winter coats for men, women and children. There are additional drives for toys for a local primary school and presents for a homeless centre. The winter coats have been delivered to Wrap Up London and will be distributed before Christmas to people in need. Lastly, wrap parties have taken place for the toys and presents for the local homeless centre. To accompany the coats, over 300 Christmas Cards have been written for the local homeless community.
- Samantha Pulec, PM Corp Comms & EE (London)
In Los Angeles, we collected 79 pounds of trash from the Santa Monica coastline as part of the Surfrider Foundation beach cleanup. This included nearly 2,500 cigarette butts and plastic foam fragments! We assembled 81 new parent kits with L.A. Works to benefit families at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and fulfilled entire wish lists of 101 children in need through Baby2Baby’s Family2Family program. In addition, we met with 60 San Fernando High School students to give feedback and encouragement on their business ideas with BUILD and donated 36 units of blood with the American Red Cross which will directly impact the lives of 108 patients.
- Britta Engstrom, Director, Corporate Affairs & Social Impact (Los Angeles)
In Stamford, we collected over 130 toys and over 100 coats to donate. We also made teddy bears for a children at a local organization, wrote holiday cards to veterans and the elderly, and packed care packages for patients at a local hospital undergoing chemo.
- Erin O'Grady, Communications, NBC Sports (Stamford)
At 30 Rock we fully embraced the spirit of giving back! We helped guide the next generation of creators through activities such as a financial literacy project with youth from Covenant House New York, a Pitch Fest where students from Urban Arts were able to receive feedback from employees on their pitch, and also worked with Step Up to give a behind the scenes look at what it is like to work in a corporate environment. Employees also built learning libraries with Little Free Library, made no-sew blankets with Project Linus, stuffed Battalion Buddy Bears with Operation Gratitude , decorated food delivery bags with Heart of Dinner and decorated holiday cards with Prison Fellowship.
- Anarid Adriano, Coordinator, Corporate Social Responsibility
Thank you to the many employees who arranged team projects over Season of Service.
