Neighbors Helping Neighbors team gets ready for work at Camp Sunrise, a camp that helps children and siblings affected by cancer. Photo courtesy of Jim Palmer.

Samsung Electronics America is making it easier than ever for employees to support the charities and causes most important to them.

Through the company’s new Community Impact Grant initiative, employees nominate a charity of their choice for a grant of up to $5,000, chosen and awarded on a monthly basis. The grants aim to amplify contributions employees already make to their favorite organizations through community service and monetary donations.

The new program dovetails with Samsung’s commitment to align its corporate citizenship efforts with some of the issues that employees hold dear.

“When I heard about the Community Impact Grants, I was so happy to have a chance to make a bigger impact with my contributions,” said James McCarthy, a Field Service Operations Assistant Manager with Samsung Electronics America, who nominated Jersey Battered Women’s Services (JBWS), a domestic violence and abuse prevention agency in Morristown, NJ.

Samsung’s latest charitable-giving initiative joins the company’s ongoing employee giving programs, work around veteran issues and an array of STEM-education programs, like Samsung Solve for Tomorrow.

The grants are offered through rolling applications to eligible employee-sponsored charitable organizations. A selection committee comprised of employees from various Samsung U.S. offices work together to determine the grantees each month. Four organizations shared the $5,000 in inaugural July grants, thanks to the Samsung Electronics America employees who nominated them.

Employee James McCarthy has volunteered for years with JBWS, which offers a suite of services to women, children and families dealing with domestic abuse, including a 24-hour hotline, counseling, safe house, transitional living, children’s services, vocational counseling, professional training, youth prevention programs, batterers’ intervention and legal assistance.

“Samsung’s grant will help these kids, who have seen the very worst, with their physical safety and their emotional development, to learn, achieve and get the tools they need so that they can pursue anything,” McCarthy said. JBWS’s encouragement and services can be a catalyst for positive, meaningful change in the lives of children of domestic violence, who have witnessed what no child should have to, he said.

Heather Flock, center, helped to build a school in a Nepal village through the nonprofit Build On, and raised additional funds for the organization through Samsung’s inaugural Community Impact Grant. Photo courtesy of buildOn.

Heather Flock, a member of Samsung’s marketing team in New York City, successfully nominated buildOn, a national and global non-profit that empowers underserved youth through intensive, local community service and builds schools in some of the world’s most economically challenged countries. With buildOn, Flock raised funds for and helped build a primary school with villagers in Nepal. Her next project with buildOn will be to build a school in Senegal.

“They don’t simply throw up buildings for a photo op,” Flock wrote in her Community Impact Grant application nominating Build On. “They are looking for concrete, lasting, and sustainable ways to provide services to communities that will help end the cycle of low expectations and poverty.”

Stephen Martin, left, is pictured with a class at the Buxton Basic School in Jamaica that benefited from the Hands Forgiving Foundation’s assistance with backpacks, school supplies and school lunches.

The Hands Forgiving Foundation, an organization founded and nominated by Stephen Martin, a financial operations employee with Samsung Electronics America, provides children in need with backpacks, school supplies and assistance with school lunches and uniforms. The East Orange, NJ-based organization also shared in the July grant.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors children and counselors at Camp Sunrise circle up for a group activity. Neighbors Helping Neighbors is a recipient of one of Samsung’s inaugural Community Impact Grants, thanks to a nomination from Samsung employee James MacKellar. Photo courtesy Neighbors Helping Neighbors and Jim Palmer.

And Neighbors Helping Neighbors, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based organization that assists veterans and at-risk children, rounded out the first four grant recipients, thanks to a nomination from Samsung sales professional James MacKellar.

“We know how active our employees are in their local communities, and we appreciate everything they do to help,” said Ann Woo, director of corporate citizenship for Samsung Electronics America. “The Community Impact Grant is Samsung’s way of showing that appreciation by supporting the charities our employees care about. These first four organizations align beautifully with Samsung’s commitment to co-prosperity.”

Learn more about Samsung’s corporate citizenship initiatives and community service.