The Georgia Chapter’s One Walk is one of our biggest events, in terms of participation and dollars raised. It is an event where nearly 10,000 people share two common goals: to raise money for type 1 diabetes (T1D) research and connect with others who are living with and affected by this autoimmune disease. And while most of the people who come out this day walk as part of family teams, there are other groups who are just as committed to finding a cure for T1D. We call these our mighty corporate teams!

JDRF Georgia recently sat down with one corporate team that is successful in both employee participation and fundraising. We asked Todd Evans, Division Manager at Inglett & Stubbs, to share his company’s best practices for a successful Walk experience.

Inglett & Stubbs has supported many worthy causes in the community over the last 5 years. Can you please share some of the highlights of the impact the company has made in the community?
Over the past few years we’ve supported The Alzheimer’s Association and participated in their walk.  Inglett & Stubbs was consistently one of the top supporters during the years of our involvement. Last year we split our efforts between Alzheimer’s and the Atlanta Habitat for Humanity.  We joined the  Builders’ Blitz with other companies in the construction industry and participated in two build days during the build process as well as financial support.

What contributed to Inglett & Stubbs getting involved with JDRF? Is there a personal connection to type 1 diabetes?
Although this is the first year that Inglett & Stubbs has officially supported JDRF, many employees have supported JDRF through the Preston’s Partners family walk team in past years.  In fact, much of the success of Preston’s Partners should be credited to the generous Inglett & Stubbs family. Preston’s Partners was created in 2011 to support Preston Evans, son of Todd and Michele Evans.  Todd has been a part of Inglett & Stubbs for twenty six years. Preston’s uncle Jerry Evans is part of the Inglett team and happens to be the co-chair of the charity drive along with Jennifer McGlynn. With the personal family connections and so many employees already familiar and supporting the walk it made sense for Inglett & Stubbs to get involved as a company.  And as we expected, when we started spreading the word of our partnership with JDRF several people closely linked to Inglett & Stubbs expressed their appreciation and support because their lives are impacted by Type One as well.

Inglett & Stubbs has already kicked off their fundraising and is over half way to your $50,000 goal. What do you attribute your tremendous fundraising success to?
Inglett & Stubbs depends on the generosity of the employees and industry partners to raise money for our selected charities. Our fund raising is kicked off every year with our summer dress down incentives.  The office employees have the opportunity to donate to the selected charities and in return allowed to participate in a more casual office dress code. We also host a golf tournament every year, coordinated by Sarah Thomas. The golf tournament is a great way to reach out and encourage our partners, employees, vendors and even our customers to get involved and participate in giving. Some other events to get everyone involved and raise money will include raffles, baby pools and a beer tasting event at Battle and Brew this fall.

What advice do you have for other corporate teams who want to increase their fundraising and leverage employee participation?
Provide opportunities and offer fun incentives for all to get involved. Reach out to other people and businesses that you associate with.  It is surprising to find out how other companies will get involved if you’ll provide that opportunity.

JDRF always welcomes corporate teams of any size to join us at the JDRF One Walk.
To get involved, contact Lauren Kennedy at lkennedy@jdrf.org for more information.