HqO and Building Impact Elevate Corporate Volunteering on a National Scale
New Partnership Brings Building Impact’s Virtual Food Drive to HqO Clients Across Major Markets
BOSTON – September 9, 2020 – HqO, the tenant experience platform for commercial office buildings, is partnering with Building Impact to roll out their annual food drive to HqO clients in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco, San Jose, and Washington, D.C., as part of a new digital programming initiative. Building Impact is slated to offer the drive and more from their full corporate social responsibility (CSR) program via HqO’s Marketplace.
“Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, SNAP benefits for food assistance have been up over 300% in major cities across the country,” said Bonnie Hommeyer, Senior Director of Tenant Experience at HqO. “This sudden increase in demand coincides with over 100 food pantries in urban areas closing from lack of inventory, due to the sanitation practices for the pandemic preventing pantries from accepting individual food donations. This places HqO in the special position to help cities at the local level – by transforming Building Impact’s annual food drive into a virtual event, it allows participants to purchase virtual ‘baskets’ that can be delivered to pantries in bulk to meet their needs.”
The Virtual Food Drive, which will be live within the HqO app in mid-September, comes at a unique time. With the nonprofit organization Feeding America estimating that some 18 million children could be food insecure in 2020, tenants will have the opportunity to strategically fight hunger in severely impacted communities caused by the current global health pandemic. Across ten major markets, the partnership will deliver much needed support to local food pantries on the front lines of helping families.
“As parents across the country have lost their jobs and many schools remain operating with remote learning, about 41% of mothers with children under 13 reported recent food insecurity, the highest level since at least 2001,” said Bridget Akinc, CEO at Building Impact. “We are so grateful to the HqO and their network for partnering with us to operate our Virtual Food Drive to support students and their families. Partners like HqO who consider how to mobilize their networks to help virtually are tremendously important to building collective impact in our communities at this time of great need.”
HqO’s Marketplace allows customers to browse, procure, and manage a curated catalogue of best-in-class developers and vendors that can add value to their portfolio. From one single tool, customers identify partners like Building Impact that fit their specific needs. HqO customers are now able to save time procuring service providers, accelerate innovation within their existing technology stack, and deliver better outcomes with programs such as the Virtual Food Drive.
“As a founding partner, Bulfinch has been collaborating with Building Impact to provide volunteer opportunities for our tenants and our team for close to 20 years,” said Eric Schlager, CEO at The Bulfinch Companies, Inc. “We are thrilled to see HqO and Building Impact partner to create more opportunities, strengthen philanthropic involvement, and impact local communities and beyond.”
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About HqO
For owners and operators of commercial real estate, HqO is an integrated tenant experience platform and strategy solution that strengthens relationships with current and prospective tenants, unlocking business value for owners while bringing property management, marketing, and leasing teams closer to their customers.
For tenants, HqO is an award-winning tenant experience mobile app — connecting employees to the communities in and around their building and empowering them with tools to control their workday.
HqO is headquartered in Boston, with offices in New York City, Dallas, Los Angeles, London, and Paris. To learn more about HqO and request a software demo for your properties, visit www.hqo.co, and follow HqO on Twitter @HqOapp.