How Springbuk Is Giving Back To the Tech Community
For Springbuk, giving back to the tech community by supporting local organizations that further STEM education is something they value. Eleven Fifty Academy is thrilled to be the recipient of Springbuk’s latest Indy Tech Gives campaign. The campaign takes place from June 7 through July 16, 2021.
Springbuk is a health intelligence company that provides employers and their advisors with a unique ability to obtain actionable insights from their health benefits data to optimize employee benefits through data-driven decisions. We spoke with Ellen Nielsen, the Human Resources Manager on the People Team at Springbuk about the campaign and how they’re giving back to the tech community.
What is the Indy Tech Gives campaign that Springbuk is participating in?
This year, Springbuk is participating in the Indy Tech Gives campaign to raise money for Eleven Fifty Academy. Indy Tech Gives is a campaign powered through OneCause, a fundraising and giving platform. A couple years ago, Steve Lausch at OneCause wanted to join together the fundraising platform with all the awesome tech companies and nonprofits in Indy. So, he created a specific space, Indy Tech Gives, for tech companies to give back to non-profits.
Why did you choose Eleven Fifty Academy for the recipient of the campaign?
Being a tech company we are always looking for high quality tech professionals to join us. We wanted to partner with an organization that valued and believed in furthering education in the tech community.
I heard Dewand Neely speaking at the Powderkeg Unvalley conference. They gave a little blurb which said it was a nonprofit and a spark clicked in my mind. I knew we would be participating in the Indy Tech Gives program and Eleven Fifty would be a fantastic partner, since their mission is to build tech talent for individuals, employers, and communities . It was a no brainer.
Who all is behind the campaign at Springbuk? How are you promoting the campaign?
We kicked off internally on Friday, June 4. I announced to the whole company what we’re doing and the goal of the organization. There are internal teams that are competing against each other to raise money for Springbuk, with all of the proceeds going to Eleven Fifty. The campaign is six weeks long, so we’re coming up with a lot of ideas to engage others. If a person reaches a certain donation milestone, such as $100 or $500, they can win certain types of Eleven Fifty swag.
We’ve also talked with Chris Hutchinson, the SVP of Engagement at Eleven Fifty. He created a short video that I shared to our team about the Academy and how the funds will be received and benefit the organization. That was really impactful and raised excitement around the campaign.
What is the fundraising goal?
Our goal is to raise $10,000. If we raise at least $10,000, we can turn the donation into what’s called a progressive income share agreement, otherwise known as a PISA. It is basically an interest free loan, so that an individual will be able to then attend Eleven Fifty on behalf of Springbuk’s donation. Once they graduate from Eleven Fifty and are able to find a high earning job, that individual will repay the $10,000. Eleven Fifty can then issue that PISA to someone else, so it can go on in perpetuity. If we don’t raise $10,000, then we could do a one-time scholarship.
How can people get involved?
Anyone can get involved! Whether you know someone at Springbuk or not, anyone can go to the Indy Tech Gives website and donate to the cause – just search Eleven Fifty or Springbuk. All the proceeds will go to Eleven Fifty.
If you do know someone within Springbuk, you can help them out by donating to their page because we’ll be having some friendly internal competition. Depending on how much individuals get donated through their page, they can win some cool Eleven Fifty swag.
What does this campaign mean to Springbuk?
Springbuk puts a lot of emphasis on education. Internally, we have a $2,000 per-year, per-employee training allowance that individuals can use towards furthering their education, whether that be training, a conference, or going back to school. Making sure that we’re furthering the education of our employees is really important to us.
Partnering with Eleven Fifty, who also is also working to further education efforts in Central Indiana, was a no brainer. The tech community is very strong and close knit, it feels like a true community. It’s great to have a partner in Eleven Fifty, where we can give back to the tech community, which has given us so much and helped in becoming the successful company that we are today. It’s awesome to give back to companies like Eleven Fifty, where it’s their mission to educate the next generation of tech doers and tech givers. Hopefully, we’re able to give them enough to where they can further the education of the people that attend the Academy.
I think this could be the beginning of a real partnership. We’re really excited to give back to the organization. I definitely think it could open the door to other collaborations and things in the future.
