U.S. Legal Support Launches the Employee Emergency and Relief Fund, Holds Food Drive for November 1-18

With the holidays rapidly approaching, U.S. Legal Support is in the middle of its final philanthropic initiative for 2022. From November 1^st – 18^th, U.S. Legal Support is holding a food drive, accepting donations of non-perishable items in three of our locations: Woodland Hills, California, Chicago, Illinois and Houston, Texas. We’re partnering with local food banks in those areas to make a difference fighting hunger in our communities.  Speaking from a human resources perspective, we always have such great success with these initiatives, both from our staff working in-person at those locations, and from our remote employees who now have a great way to participate from afar: gifting monetary donations to one of The Houston Food Bank locations near our corporate headquarters.

Did you know that the holiday season is one of the most philanthropic times of the year?

According to one survey, 3 out of 5 Americans donate to a charitable cause in the last two weeks of the year. While charitable giving is always a good idea, at U.S. Legal Support, we try to prioritize giving back continuously throughout the year and not just during the holidays. Community is one of our core company values, because as an organization we believe we serve our clients best when we first serve one another. 90% of our philanthropic endeavors are completely employee-led, which I think says a lot about who we are as a company.  

This final food bank event caps off a calendar year of philanthropic events organized by the U.S. Legal Support Fun Committee. Our Fun Committee is entirely employee-led and run, and this amazing group of people puts together one charitable event per quarter. For this year, philanthropic initiatives for the company have focused on smaller scale giving for (what we hope is) greater local impact: free yoga for employees as part of an ongoing emphasis on mental health and wellness, a very popular diaper and formula drive we held in the late Spring and Summer to help combat effects of the national shortage, and more.  

U.S. Legal Support’s biggest philanthropic undertaking in 2022 was creating the Employee Emergency and Relief Fund.

This fund is an internal initiative where U.S. Legal Support collects monetary donations for our employees for when a non-work-related tragedy occurs: things like hurricanes (or other natural disasters), car accidents, sudden illnesses. Once again, the fund was the brainchild of our employees who wanted a way to help their colleagues in need. I’m proud to support the Employee Emergency and Relief fund is entirely employee funded (although U.S. Legal Support as a company often offers matching contributions.) This program was launched in January of 2022, where employees can donate a recurring portion of their paycheck to the fund.  

The Emergency and Relief Fund was tested during the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. The fund did not have enough money to support all the employees in need during Hurricane Ian, so the fund was opened up to one-time donations.  We received an overwhelming response from employees all across the United States who donated to assist coworkers in the Florida area. U.S. Legal Support then matched all the contributions that came in from employees. My favorite thing about how U.S. Legal Support functions around philanthropy and charitable giving is that it isn’t something that is “top down.” The executive leadership endorses the efforts, but mostly it is employees in a certain city or two, those who have a passion and want a way to make an impact, that organize and make these events possible. 

Because these initiatives are employee-driven, I do believe they greatly influence overall company morale. Recently, U.S. Legal Support was named one of the top 100 companies with the happiest employees by comparison site Comparably, next to industry giants such as HubSpot, Adobe, Google, and Facebook. Happy employees are also giving employees and vice versa – for employees to know their colleagues care goes a long way toward making everyone feel better and happier at work.