PDG Consulting: Building A Culture of Philanthropy
At Principal Development Group Consulting (PDGC), philanthropy and community service are baked into the corporate culture. Based in downtown L.A., PDGC is a successful technology consultancy that got its start in 2010.
From its inception, PDGC Partners Adam Tarshis, Brennan Binford and Justin Stark, knew they wanted their company to have a community and philanthropic focus that expanded beyond their day-to-day tech projects.
“We work in a company that has had great success and has a great team of employees, said Partner Adam Tarshis. “I think it’s critical that we understand our place in a world where others are struggling. We hope to foster good citizens who contribute to their community as part of our culture of employee development.”
VP of People and Culture T. Kurera came to PDGC after a long career in the industry, partly because of this strong commitment to a service-oriented culture. He leads the company’s Employee Giving program and spearheads a variety of internal initiatives designed to connect employees to the Los Angeles community where they live and work.
“This past summer during the uprisings over the muder of George Floyd we had protests only blocks from our offices in DTLA,” said T. “We knew we needed to do something and our staff wanted to get involved to make a difference, but we didn’t know where to start.”
T. reached out to Liberty Hill as he was looking for ways PDGC’s team could support the fight for social justice locally. The staff at Liberty Hill held a virtual informational session to inform them about the work happening on the ground, the grassroots organizing that makes change happen locally, and the ways a company like PDGC and its employees could support the movement.
“I wasn’t familiar with the many local grassroots organizations doing this work and what I found compelling about Liberty Hill was their deep knowledge of L.A. and the activists and orgs who are fighting for progress everyday,” said Partner Justin Stark. “Working with Liberty Hill took the guesswork out of it for us. They made it really easy to understand the landscape and it was motivating to learn how much can be achieved through organizing.”
The PDGC team started with an initial donation and then they made an additional commitment to supporting social justice by including Liberty Hill in their annual end-of-year fundraising drive. Partner Adam Tarshis also committed to matching any employee donations to the campaign, a commitment he started when he launched their employee giving program. The effort saw a 98% participation rate across the firm and saw increases over last year in both total gifts and the amount raised.
To date, the PDGC team has raised nearly $18,000 in support of Liberty Hill’s work in Los Angeles. They are hoping to continue to expand their efforts in the coming year as they commit to supporting the movement for social justice now and into the future.
“This has been an important moment in our company’s evolution and we are committed to continuing to encourage our staff to get involved with philanthropy,” said Partner Brennan Binford. “We’ve set up an internal PDGC Giving Page to make it easy for employees to engage and we are hoping to triple the number of donations in the coming years.”
The fight for a more just and equitable future is going to take all of us working together. When companies invest in philanthropy and encourage their employees to get involved with community we all get a little closer to the just future we seek.
To learn more about how you or your company can get involved in the movement for social progress, contact Liberty Hill today at SKennedy@libertyhill.org.
