LaVon Colhour, Manager of Corporate Services at the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, helps businesses of all sizes create and expand corporate giving programs. She knows that maintaining a culture of giving back is important, and the Community Foundation’s custom corporate giving programs help businesses do just that. 
LaVon and her team help companies set up corporate foundations, make grants to 501(c)(3) public charities, set up scholarship funds, facilitate employee matching gift programs, establish disaster relief programs, provide strategic planning, and much more.
“I’m very customer-service oriented, and I love helping people,” says LaVon. “The best part of my job is jumping in with our corporate donors and helping them implement giving programs that fit within their company’s culture. I also love walking alongside companies as they expand their giving programs as their business grows or changes.”
In 2017 alone, LaVon’s team helped more than 2,500 employees use a matching gift program to donate $4.4 million to nonprofit organizations across the country. Povaddo’s 2017 Corporate America’s Point of View Survey found that 82 percent of employees say that it’s important to them that their employers provide them with matching gift opportunities.
“Establishing a corporate giving program is the right thing for a company to do,” says LaVon. “Including a charitable component in a company’s benefits package is important for recruiting and retaining employees. It not only shows that they care about the community’s well-being, but it also shows they care about the causes important to its employees and customers.”
As more generations enter the workforce, more employees and consumers expect businesses to make a difference in the community. The 2017 Cone Communications Corporate Social Responsibility Study found that 87 percent of Americans will buy a product or use a service based on the company’s values and that 80 percent of Millennials believe companies have the obligation to take action to improve issues in the community.
LaVon and her team are ready to help your company create a custom giving program. Visit the corporate services section of our website, contact LaVon by email or call 816.627.3400.
Authored by: Ashley Hawkins, Content Specialist