Brighton Jones

Employees: 215
Location: Seattle, WA
Custodian: Fidelity Clearing & Custody Solutions
Top Executive: Jon Jones

Philanthropic Stats:

• 29.34% volunteer hours/employee
• 6,308 volunteer hours completed
• $1,000 matched/employee/year

How does your firm make decisions about what philanthropic programs to offer, events to participate in, and funds to donate?
The six “Compassion in Action” programs are designed and led by our CEO and managed by our dedicated philanthropy team; they prioritize the inclusion of all of our team members and clients. All team members have the ability to champion a cause for Brighton Jones’ support and can join a local Philanthropy Committee of decision-makers.

How do you motivate your employees to participate in the firm’s philanthropic programs?

• Goal-setting: Each year, every team member reflects on their past activities and engagement and sets a volunteer goal for themselves. They then track their volunteer time as a percentage of this goal at an individual level, and we also have dashboards that show progress at the pod and company level.
• Recognition: We celebrate stories all throughout the year in many ways. Every month we send out a leaderboard recognizing the top 10 individual- and pod- volunteers. We give “Charitable Champion” awards that celebrate team members who are going above and beyond for their communities.
• Capacity-building: We encourage team members to join nonprofit boards as a way to be strategic and committed in their volunteering, so we provide nonprofit board training and help individuals find opportunities based on their interests.

How do you define and measure the success of your overall philanthropic program?
We want to help our clients, colleagues, and global community live happier, more fulfilling lives. We measure our success by tracking how many joined in our volunteer events, sat on nonprofit boards, and volunteered their time making our communities stronger, healthier, more equitable, and more just. As a company, we strive to exceed the firm-wide volunteer hour goal (the sum of our individual goals) each year and have 100% participation.

What sets your program apart from others?
We strive to catalyze individuals to give more and do more – in support of any causes that are important to them. Rather than a top-down approach to community impact, we aim to ensure each individual has the tools, time, and support to roll up their sleeves and move the needle for causes they care about most.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted your firm’s philanthropic efforts? In what ways have you pivoted as a result?
We had to get much more creative with our volunteer initiatives – but, fortunately for us, the nonprofit organizations in our communities are quick-thinking and clever: we had opportunities to volunteer outside, socially distanced, in smaller groups, or over Zoom. A lot of us found that what we needed to do was volunteer our time for our neighbors, especially those at higher risk of series COVID-19 complications. Our philanthropic department provided frequent opportunities to volunteer so that everyone felt there was still a way to get involved and give back – creating a sense of community that was just as critical for us as it was for those we sought to serve.

Specific organizations and/or areas of focus for funds:
Global Poverty and Access to Education, Support for Ukraine, Racial Justice, PNW Environment, and Women’s Equity. We’ll continue to expand into additional areas organically as we find additional ways to support the impact goals of groups of individuals and families with shared concerns.

Programs offered by Brighton Jones:

• Brown-bag meal preparation for New Horizons
• Smart CHOICES with CHOICES Education Group
• Money CHOICES with CHOICES Education Group