Woburn company gives employees $2,000 each to donate to local non-profits
WOBURN - A Woburn company has an unprecedented way of giving back at the start of the holiday season.
Cummings Properties gives every employee $2,000 each to donate to any local non-profit.
"I think that the one of the things that we have really learned through membership of the giving pledge is that visibility really is important because people give because other people are giving," company founder Bill Cummings told WBZ-TV.
Account manager Natalie Breen chose the Medford Public Library Foundation.
"That money can go so far for the library. They can do programming, buy new materials, they can bring in a speaker. So, they are just beyond excited," she said.
Employees can make a single donation with the money or split it and donate $1,000 each to two organizations.
Kelly Dineen has been with Cummings for eight years. She gave to the Woburn Library and the Tanner Ta Ta Foundation.
"I'm a ten-year cancer survivor and I see what they do with it. I see the giving, the generosity They send meals," she told WBZ. "It's giving back to someone who was so great to me, an organization that's so good to me, so generous. To be able to give back, they are thrilled for everything they get."
"The non-profits are the lifeblood of the community. They do so much behind the scenes and we really couldn't do it without them," Breen said.
"The ones that really hit you are the ones with the tears, and it doesn't take much if you have a small charity and you're barely making ends meet and suddenly there's $2,000," Cummings said.
Cummings Community Giving donates more than $700,000 per year to non-profits. They've helped 195 of them in 80 cities and towns in Massachusetts.
For more information, visit their website.