Throughout our three decades, The Wilkinson Family of Companies has sought to be the best stewards of our community as possible. Over the years our leaders have directed both charitable giving and leadership efforts to agencies and community stewardship organizations including YWCA, Rotary, Red Cross, Pacific Northwest University of Health Science, Salvation Army, Fulcrum Foundation, and a wide variety for schools, churches, clubs and sports teams. Lending time, talent and treasure is a large part of the DNA of our team.
In 2018, we sought to define our management philosophy focusing on purpose, people, planet and profit. We coined the term 360 IMPACT to describe our desire to honor our residents, employees and neighbors.
Recently, we set out to become more inclusive of all our team members in the decision-making process as they let us know which local agencies they found to be doing the most good in their communities across the country. From individual apartment community managers to our home office and regional staff members, we assigned the task for eight teams to collaborate with one another to propose best agencies we could support based on expected impact and outcomes to a small gifting committee.
Each team selected their own leaders, team name and causes they would focus on and then submitted grant request applications to our grant review committee that simply made sure the causes aligned with our company values, demonstrated specific support for our residents or community members and didn’t directly benefit WC or any of our team members. With names including “The MAD Squad” (Make A Difference), “Masters of Donation”, “Bridge Builders” and “Just Do More” all our team members played a role in selecting a variety of agencies that serve people well.
From Atlanta, Indianapolis, Bloomington, Dallas and Yakima, we are pleased to announce our support of the following agencies:
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Triumph Treatment Centers, Yakima WA – Women and children Program https://triumphtx.org
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Love Inc., Yakima WA https://loveincyakima.org
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Lynchpin Foundation, Yakima WA – Engagement programs for children on the autism spectrum https://www.lynchpinfoundation.org/
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Sozo Sports, Yakima WA – Every Kid Scholarship and Santos Scholarship Adopt an Athlete Scholarship https://sozosports.net/scholarships/
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The LUKE Project, Marietta GA – Leading Urban Kids into Excellence – Summer camp, adventure trips, job exploration and leadership development https://thelukeproject.org
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Skookum Kids, Bellingham WA – Foster kids entry, respite, parenting and visitation http://www.skookumkids.org
From four of our properties, Spring Parc (Dallas), Deercross (Indianapolis), Crossings (Atlanta/Dawsonville) and The Fields (Bloomington) property management teams each selected a favorite and focused their efforts on food security and the support given to community members by their pets, including:
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Crossings – Atlanta Community Food Bank https://acfb.org
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Deercross – Gleaners Food Bank https://www.gleaners.org/
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The Fields – Middle Way House https://middlewayhouse.org/
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Spring Parc – The PAWerful Rescue and Pet Adoption Agency
In addition, we have an enormous passion for housing. This passion has led us to choose local and international agencies who are addressing domestic violence, homelessness, abandonment and food security issues.
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Rod’s House, Yakima WA – At risk youth & young adult day and extreme weather shelter https://rodshouse.org/
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Camp Hope, Yakima WA – Homelessness shelter for families https://www.camphopeyakima.com/
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Union Gospel Mission, Yakima WA – Secured shelter for families fleeing domestic violence https://yugm.org/
Over the course of the next several months we will begin sharing stories from our team about the agencies they selected and what inspired them to share our gift with them. Of our core values, Building Beyond Business guides many of our processes, procedures and decision making. We hope you enjoy these stories.