Community Involvement

LetterLogic believes in a culture of corporate responsibility and giving back to the community.  As part of an internal service program, each employee is asked to volunteer at least five hours to the community each quarter which allows them to enroll in our company profit-sharing plan. In 2010, LetterLogic employees collectively performed over 800 hours of community service. Some of LetterLogic’s community involvement initiatives include:

Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity is an organization that helps individuals buy houses who might not otherwise have home-ownership opportunities.  The program provides education for potential homeowners, helping them to be financially and personally responsible for their new home.  Habitat families put in “sweat equity” building their house while accompanied by teams of volunteers from the local community.

LetterLogic has been an active partner with the Nashville-area Habitat for Humanity. We also help employees sign up for individual service days if they can’t make our team builds.  LetterLogic provides financial support to Habitat for Humanity as well, a policy we hope to expand as we continue to grow.

In 2009 and 2010, we sent employee teams to Habitat build days. In 2011 we sponsored our very own Habitat home.

Green Day Community Clean Up

In April of 2008, LetterLogic organized its first community cleanup, focusing on the immediate area around our facility.  A group of employees and their family-members picked up trash, sorted recyclables, and improved the neighborhood during a “Green Day.”  The nearby school and park, as well as the historic Nashville City Cemetery, all benefited from our team’s efforts.  In the spring of 2011, we are planning to have another “Green Day,” and we hope to expand our cleaning and greening efforts to include activities such as planting trees in the area. 

Pencil Partner

LetterLogic is a Pencil Partner for Nashville Public Schools.  We provide volunteers and support to our neighborhood school, Napier Enhanced Option Elementary.  Several of our employees give their time and provide tutoring and special lectures – including one on music from our resident musician, Scott Hunt – and even seeds to help them start a vegetable 'learning garden'.

Greenways for Nashville

Urban development claims millions of acres of green space every year, impacting the environment and the health of city residents.  Greenways for Nashville works to preserve and expand green spaces, a cause which LetterLogic enthusiastically supports.  In 2010, LetterLogic contributed money to aid with preservation and cleanups, and acted as a key supporter in the Bikes & Bandannas Program, which encouraged bike traffic on the greenways.

The Red Cross

LetterLogic, Inc. employees donated over 100 hours of volunteer effort to help clean up after the Nashville flood of May 2010.  Additionally, the company sells its used pallets and donates all proceeds to the Red Cross for disaster relief, including help for Haiti and Nashville after their natural disasters last year.

Second Harvest Food Bank

1 in every 8 Americans faces hunger on a regular basis.  Second Harvest combats this by providing good food to those who need it most.  LetterLogic regularly organizes food drives both internally and in cooperation with its vendors and partners.  Additionally, over $2,000 was given to Second Harvest in 2010 to help provide food and water to at-risk families.

Land Trust for Tennessee

The process of development can often consume valuable natural landscapes and remove them from the public sphere.  The Land Trust for Tennessee works to save wild lands from over-development.  LetterLogic contributes a portion of its funds to the Land Trust to encourage conservation efforts in our area.

American Heart Association

Heart disease affects millions of Americans and their families.  Through prevention, treatment, and research, the AHA combats heart disease.  Our own commitment to the AHA's efforts includes participation in the annual Heart Walk in Nashville as well as ongoing financial contributions.

Kiva.org

One of our proudest areas of involvement is with Kiva.org, the micro-loan group that helps entrepreneurs in third-world areas start their own businesses.  Focusing mostly on helping women and marginalized groups, Kiva provides the funding needed on a small scale so that a local business can get on its feet.  Some of LetterLogic’s sponsored businesses have included:

• Helping a family in Samoa start a vegetable garden and a market stand.  Because of loans through Kiva, this family has not had to worry about expenses like school fees or paying for the funeral of a family member, which would otherwise have been crippling burdens.
• Funding a clothing and cosmetics business in Nicaragua, which is now expanding into a grocery business. 
• Getting a Paraguayan craftsman on his feet after he spent time in a detention center due to an error in the Paraguayan Justice Department.  He makes drinkware from cow and bull horns, which are used to drink the traditional herbal beverages of his country, mate and terere. 
• Providing funds to an Azerbaijani farmer so he could buy fertilizer and expand his crop production.

LetterLogic continues to reinvest in Kiva and will further expand our contributions to this wonderful project in years to come.