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A+E, ESPN AND NBCUniversal Honored for Social Impact

NAPERVILLE, ILL., November 10, 2020 — Today during the opening session of the C2HR CONference, C2HR honored A+E, ESPN and NBCUniversal as the 2020 C2HR Social Impact Award recipients. The award annually recognizes outstanding corporate social responsibility initiatives.

A+E Mission to Honor
Mission to Honor is a powerful outreach initiative infused throughout the corporate culture at A+E Networks with a singular message to audiences nationwide: to support and honor those who have served. The Mission to Honor initiative acknowledged the vital contributions of veterans and shared their stories across all platforms.

Employee engagement was a cornerstone of the campaign as hundreds of A+E employees organized and attended numerous events with elected officials, community leaders and veterans. In addition, there were several key components that made the effort a success. In addition, there were several key components that made the effort a success.

• A+E developed over 70 pieces of content about veterans and military families including profiles of veterans, PSAs with A-list talent, spots about veterans organizations, a #ThankAVet social media campaign for viewers to honor those in their families and communities who served in uniform and more. The outreach resulted in millions of social media impressions across A+E Networks platforms and the estimated media value was approximately $10+ million.

• Take a Veteran to School Day connected veterans with schools across the country so that students could learn about service and give heartfelt thanks to veterans in their communities. A+E organized over 2,500 events in schools across the country.

• The company also partnered with over 15 veteran organizations including Team Rubicon, The Mission Continues, America’s VetDogs, the Bob Woodruff Foundation, Headstrong and more. A+E created short-form videos and participated in events to raise awareness of the organizations on-air and online.

• A+E created opportunities for veterans transitioning from the military into the civilian workforce including a paid fellowship for military veterans to explore careers in media. The fellowship honors the legacy of A+E’s late colleague Pete Segro. In addition, A+E is an active
member of Mission Media, the industry’s Veterans Advisory Council dedicated to hiring and retaining military veterans, and a participant in programs by the NY Dept. of Veterans Services.

Overall, the Mission to Honor initiative stands as A+E Networks’ most robust corporate social responsibility initiative. The initiative elevated the stories of those who have served, provided concrete support for those in need, and mobilized our nation to thank and salute military veterans and their families, not just on Veterans Day, but every day.

ESPN 40,000 Acts of Service
To celebrate ESPN’s 40th anniversary, the company created the 40,000 Acts of Service initiative. The initiative went beyond a traditional volunteer program by encouraging employees to be “of service” to each other, thus fully living the company mission and inspiring others to act as well. ESPN’s Citizenship team created toolkits for human resources and Employee Resource Groups to utilize at meetings and events with a goal of engaging employees across the company.

An internal website, ESPNServes.com, was created to help employees quickly log their acts, track collective progress and post photos of their efforts. The site also provided useful guides, the ability to upload photos, commenting capabilities, and volunteer programs and project
opportunities.

Every Wednesday throughout the campaign, ESPN hosted pop-up stations on its Bristol, Conn. campus to give employees an opportunity to perform an act of service. From writing cards to active military personnel, packing back-to-school backpacks and collecting sports equipment, these unique opportunities on campus allowed employees to perform an act of service and log it. Similar stations driven by Regional Volunteer Champions were set up in ESPN’s remote offices to include employees in all markets.

As a sports organization, ESPN employees live and breathe competition, so friendly department challenges and incentives were set up to encourage participation. As incentives to participate, the Corporate Citizenship team provided limited edition 40th anniversary Team ESPN jerseys to employees who logged at least 25 acts of service. Additionally, the 40 employees with the highest level of engagement at the end of the program received grants to direct towards their charities of choice.

The program not only empowered employees, it shifted their perceptions on how they can serve others to create positive change, big and small, in their communities. One employee was so inspired that he read to local students during his honeymoon in Jamaica. While volunteering at a local food pantry, an ESPN business segment recognized that there was not enough food, so they organized a food drive.

In the first two months of the program, ESPN employees across 14 office locations achieved the company’s goal of performing 40,000 acts, and ultimately generated over 80,000 acts to celebrate the company’s 40th anniversary.

NBCUniversal’s Comcast NBCUnites
In 2018, NBCUniversal launched an extensive employee survey to gauge interest in company-led community service opportunities. The results indicated that NBCU employees are very passionate about working for a company that gives back to its communities and that they wanted to be more involved in a broad range of volunteer activities.

In 2019 the organization launched Comcast NBCUnites, a volunteering and social impact program created to support the communities where employees live and work and to provide employees an opportunity to get involved in a variety of causes. In the first year, more than 14,000 employees contributed over 37,000 hours of service to touch the lives of 140,000 individuals around the globe.

Through Comcast NBCUnites, the company forged new partnerships in the community and expanded existing relationships with 20+ non-profit organizations that address three key focus areas: Building Stronger Communities, Empowering the Next Generation of Storytellers and Promoting Media and Technology Skills.

Throughout the year, Comcast NBCUniversal employees worked on a variety of programs such as preparing meals and supply kits, hosting students from Minds Matter and Ghetto Film School for industry exposure and professional development opportunities, mentoring young people through Big Brothers Big Sisters, and serving on the leadership boards of Taproot, Cradles to Crayons, Story Pirates and more.

Volunteering and social impact occurred year-round through Comcast NBCUnites supported by three tentpole initiatives:

• Service Weeks, a two-week period during the spring that serves as the company’s largest volunteering push of the year;
• Season of Service, which provided employees the opportunity to give back during the first three weeks in December; and
• Volunteer Fairs, which were hosted in the first quarter of the year and allowed 1,000+ employees in several locations to meet with nonprofit partners and learn how to get involved.

Participating employees expressed gratitude and pride as a result of their participation in Comcast NBCUnites with one employee saying, “I am so proud to work for a company that lets us inspire young people and lets us learn from them too. We benefit as much as they do!”

ABOUT C2HR
Content & Connectivity Human Resources (C2HR) is a professional association serving 4,300 members from nearly 50 companies spanning the telecommunications, technology, media and entertainment sectors. C2HR provides industry-specific analytics, information and resources, as well as networking and educational opportunities. Its groundbreaking initiatives include its Annual Compensation Surveys and HR Symposium. For more information, visit www.C2HR.org.