Citizens Energy Group’s Corporate Sponsorship/Philanthropy Team exists to evaluate requests and determine financial contributions to various organizations. In this Q&A with Team Leader Jeff Brown, Director of Brand Development, learn more about how the team functions.
1. How does the team determine what to support?
The team has established six primary giving categories: Economic Development, Education, Environmental Stewardship, Diversity & Inclusion, Cultural Institutions, and Basic Human Needs. The spend per category depends on the budget dollars available and the number of grant requests in a given year.
2. What role do individual team members play?
Team members are assigned to each of our six focused giving areas in two-person sub-teams. Each sub-team is responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with people/organizations associated with their assigned category.
Team members have continued to meet, via Microsoft Teams, during the pandemic.
3. Why is philanthropy important at Citizens?There are multiple reasons. Being a good corporate citizen is part of the fabric of the Public Charitable Trust. It’s a customer expectation. It’s a component of the “EBCs” of sustainability, the “C” standing for “Community” and helping enhance quality of life. Philanthropy also supports our employee engagement pillar because most employees want to work for an organization that gives back to the community. It also makes good business sense, as it helps spur economic development and contributes to higher quality of life.
4. How do organizations seek funding from Citizens?
We recently transitioned from a very manual process for grant applications to an online grant management system called Cyber Grants. With our new system, the process is now completed digitally, including application, evaluation and approval/rejection. Organizations submit requests by filling out the “Community Partner Application” on Citizens’ website. The online system streamlines the process and offers a number of advantages, such as saving time, reducing errors, and providing better reporting.
5. How often are requests reviewed?
Requests are reviewed by team members on an ongoing basis – as they are received – and discussion, as well as approval or rejection, normally occurs no less frequently than during our monthly team meetings.
Learn about a local organization, Nine13 Sports, that Citizens recently supported HERE.
Current Team Members
Leader: Jeff Brown
Ryan Basore
Steve Berube
Jessica Castellanos
Crit Crabtree
Mark Gray
Rhonda Harper
Tamiko Kendrick
Chris Kennedy
Jennifer Mentink
Kim Rogers
Shannon Stahley
Brenda Wade
