December 2022: Giving Back Month at SUSE

This blog is the first part of a series showcasing our people who are passionate about collaborating and engaging in projects, events, and activities outside of their traditional job scope. The SUSE Global Engagement Calendar is a company-wide communication channel that allows employees to participate in high-impact events and activities aligned to a specific theme each month.  

December’s theme was ‘Giving Back,’ and we celebrated our people who came together, reflected, and gave back to others. As theme sponsor and SUSE’s lead for Corporate Social Responsibility, I try to give back when possible and leverage our collective resources to scale impact.  

The Global Engagement Calendar kicked off early, with ‘SUSE Giving Tuesday’ taking place in the last week of November. Employees were asked to participate by expressing their support for #GivingTuesday on social media, and for each participant, SUSEcares pledged a donation to Scratch Foundation. SUSEcares, our philanthropic giving program, empowers our people to volunteer their time and direct corporate donations to non-profit organizations and charities of choice. Our people voted for this charity, and it is particularly meaningful because this organization allows kids to learn about and express themselves and their ideas through coding. Scratch Foundation operates in 196 countries in over 70 languages. The unique block-based programming language and online community mean students around the globe are creating and collaborating with their peers daily. We are excited to see how we can further support Scratch in 2023.  

We followed the kick-off event with a month-long volunteering challenge. Volunteering time and skills is one of the most actionable and productive ways to improve our local communities. SUSE employees embraced the challenge, with 105 employees volunteering for over 840 collective volunteering hours through November and December alone. Enrico Candino, Senior Software Engineer at SUSE, shared his volunteering experience with Salvamamme, by packing goods and presents in aid of those affected by the Ukrainian crisis, and Tuttoblue, by serving breakfast for the homeless and poor.  “Working from home is great from the work-life balance perspective, but we need to remember that outside there is an entire world of people that need help.” – Enrico Candino. 

Our early career program, SUSE Camp, provided an education series on reducing, reusing, and recycling during the holidays. They asked employees to share their ‘green’ giving actions on social media, getting our people even more involved. Through SUSEcares, our philanthropic initiative, we pledged a donation to the World Food Programme for each participant. You can watch the first part of this education series on YouTube.  

The year’s end is often recognized as a time of reflection, rest, and spreading gratitude while looking forward to setting goals for the new year. We encouraged our people to set “Citizenship” goals focused on giving back and positively impacting their community. Many have considered organizing a volunteering event, taking a more active role in our employee networks, or proposing a SUSEcares event in 2023. 

We look forward to sharing more about our people, their passions, and their unique talents in this blog series.  

Photos courtesy of Enrico Candino.