Rise Private Wealth Management

Employees: 62
Location: Bedford, NH
Primary Broker-Dealer: Ameriprise Financial Services
Custodian: Self-Clearing

Philanthropic Stats:

• $6,400 amount matched/employee/year
• $154,311 total cash contributions
• Participated in 10philanthropic events

How do you motivate your employees to participate in the firm’s philanthropic programs?
We take pride in the fact that as a team, we are given 4 hours a month of paid volunteer time along with a match donation program. This is not something that Ameriprise offers, but rather our firm individually decided that as part of their values this was important to encourage and promote employee community involvement. The philanthropy coordinator and committee also work very hard to find opportunities that are “plug and play”. This team members can just sign up to join us to volunteer, and all of the logistics are handled. We try to remove any and all obstacles that may be in the way for people to participation. The philanthropy coordinator is also a personal “in-house ambassador” meaning she will talk about upcoming events to the team in passing in the office to help spread the word and encourage group conversation about the programs. We also have group initiatives that encourage some friendly competition, have prizes, and bragging rights! Playing to the strengths of our team has lent itself to a better participation year over year. It’s not just about what the committee wants, but rather what the whole team wants.

How do you define and measure the success of your overall philanthropic program?
Each fall the philanthropy coordinator and leadership set goals for the upcoming calendar year to measure our successes but also to identify areas that we need to strengthen. Some of the goals that we have set for this year and years past have been brining more awareness to certain organizations by having events at their space or inviting them to ours, hosting 3 item drives in our office in that calendar year, bring 10 outside philanthropic guest speakers to our weekly team meetings, hosting our own team charity cornhole tournament to raise funds, enhance our methods of tracking participation, etc. The goal is to have an even balance of time, treasure, and talent being provided from a philanthropy front while not being too overbearing. Each year we try to work smarter not harder, while still aiming to achieve more participation than the year before.

What sets your program apart from others?
Our philanthropy program is special. Our philanthropy coordinator takes everything that we do so seriously, and since she’s taken over the position in late 2019 the team engagement has substantially increased, goals were actually set and met, and a yearly plan was built. Her and the committee work together to really take into consideration the wants and needs of the team, not just in our primary office but across all office locations. Individuals from each location are a part of the committee or well connected so that they are focusing on organizations in their respective communities as they live there – they know best. When new members join the team they sit down with the philanthropy coordinator and talk about their passions and what they care about, and when we can we take action right then and there. We find an event, a program, a cause to get behind and work it into our schedule. All team members have a say, not just leadership or the more tenured staff. Rise has six core values, one of which is philanthropy and it’s embodied by our philanthropy coordinator and committee every day.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted your firm’s philanthropic efforts? In what ways have you pivoted as a result?
COVID-19 required us to re-evaluate and shift our entire plan as we knew it. We had been attending a lot of in person events and all of that just stopped. The committee continued to meet virtually on a regular basis to look at what were we able to do, what the greatest needs in our communities were, and what would the team support. New organizations made our list of support that hadn’t before in addition to the groups we already commit to. We decided to use those same dollars that were allocated for in person events and sponsorships, but instead provided supplies and in some cases just simply made a donation to fund their missions and help them keep going. We held more item drives in our office than ever and invited all of our clients to join us by dropping off high need items to support different groups. The committee also worked with marketing worked to build a strong social media presence to help highlight these organization to a different audience. We filmed several videos with different non-profits to shed light on how COVID impacted them, and what the public could do to help in this time of need.

Programs offered by Rise Private Wealth Management

• Adopt a Family – Boys & Girls Club Christmas
• Families in Transition Item Collection Drive
• Jeans Fridays
• Marine Corps Toys for Tots
• Mt. Hope Item Collection Drive
• Red Cross Blood Donation Buddies