Mountain Rose Herbs was built on uncompromising principles of ethical and sustainable sourcing of botanicals, but our purpose extends beyond that in the ways we give back. As many of you already know, we donate extensively to environmental nonprofits. But we’ve also created ways for our employees to support local causes that are important to them. In 2011, we launched a Workplace Giving Program in partnership with EarthShare. This employee-led program has generated thousands of dollars in charitable giving to community groups via donations from our employees, which we helped to facilitate through easy and convenient monthly paycheck deductions.
In 2016, we began matching all employee pledges dollar for dollar. This commitment on the part of Mountain Rose Herbs' leadership motivated more employees to participate and we saw a significant increase in their giving and, therefore, ours! In fact, it led to about a 300% increase in employee contributions from the previous year and strengthened our charitable and environmentally-focused company culture.
"Every little dollar counts," says Wholesale Representative Quinn Wolter, who participates in the program. “I appreciate that our company offers a giving back program and matches our donations. These little amounts add up and really help the nonprofits do their work.”
As we continue to look forward and find ways to improve our sustainability efforts, we decided to create our own in-house giving program. This year, we launched the Mountain Rose Herbs Giving Back Program which is built on the same community-driven principles of our previous program with EarthShare but focuses our contributions to organizations we support in the greater Willamette Valley. We will provide direct funding to nine local organizations that align with our vision for change. The recipients of this year’s contributions will be:
On Earth Day, we hosted a kickoff event so that our employees could hear from folks at three of these organizations: Cascades Raptor Center, Cascadia Wildlands, and Friends of Trees. We have worked with each of these amazing nonprofits for many years, and our staff was excited to hear more about their current projects. We want to share what we learned with you!
The Cascades Raptor Center is a local nature center and wildlife hospital. The center’s hospital provides medical care and rehabilitation to over 300 sick, injured, and orphaned birds of prey each year. They also offer educational programs on and offsite, with nearly 40 resident education raptors, most of which are native to the Pacific Northwest. We love their “Night at the Raptor Center” fundraising event in which people can enjoy the center after hours for meet-and-greets with some of the raptors while noshing on finger foods and sipping at beverages donated by local sponsors. We also got to enjoy Oregon Public Broadcasting’s recent episode on the Center in their Oregon Field Guide series (season 33, episode 3).
Protecting mature and old-growth forests as a climate solution is also something we’re emphasizing this year by supporting Cascadia Wildlands. This organization works on environmental advocacy, education, outreach, and litigation to protect our forests, watersheds, salmon, and wolves in the Cascadia bioregion: the forest zone extending along the Pacific Coast from northern California to south-central Alaska, that is home to carbon-rich old-growth forests. At our learning lunch, Cascadia Wildlands Executive Director, Josh Laughlin, shared how our contributions helped support critical protections for the Elliott State Forest and Devils Staircase Wilderness, and spoke about new illegal logging operations that threaten some of our old growth forests in post-wildfire areas.
We have been partnering with Friends of Trees since 2016 to sponsor employee tree planting days around Eugene and increase the urban tree cover in our community neighborhoods. To offer some perspective, we know trees clean our soil, water, and air, and they make us healthier and happier. Cities around the world are increasingly recognizing the importance of urban tree canopies. Atlanta, Georgia, for instance, has the highest percentage of overall tree canopy in the nation, at almost 50%. Eugene is at approximately 22%. Erik Burke, the Executive Director of Friends of Trees Eugene, spoke at our kickoff event about the organization’s new equity focus to expand beyond Eugene and bring trees to low canopy areas in Springfield and the Bethel-Danebo area.
Our employees have time and again expressed how much they appreciate the opportunities our Giving Back and matching programs offer. Ellis Moore said it perfectly: “What motivated me to start giving right away was my awareness of the obstacles that we face in preserving our natural world. Seeing the hard work of each organization we help inspired me to do my part when I’m not able to physically participate in the work that needs to be done."
You may also enjoy
How We Do Zero Waste
Green Stories: Bike Path Clean Up
Why We Pay Our Employees To Get Out and Volunteer
Topics: Inside Mountain Rose Herbs, Sustainability
Maia was born and raised in Eugene Oregon. An avid nature and animal lover, when she is not snapping blog photos for Mountain Rose; you can find her romping around in the woods with her pup, having impromptu dance parties in her living room, experimenting in the kitchen, and looking for new sci-fi and fantasy stories to dive into.
Mountain Rose Herbs was built on uncompromising principles of ethical and sustainable sourcing of botanicals, but our purpose extends beyond that in the ways we give back. As many of you already know, we donate extensively to environmental nonprofits. But we’ve also created ways for our employees to support local causes that are important to them. In 2011, we launched a Workplace Giving Program in partnership with EarthShare. This employee-led program has generated thousands of dollars in charitable giving to community groups via donations from our employees, which we helped to facilitate through easy and convenient monthly paycheck deductions.
In 2016, we began matching all employee pledges dollar for dollar. This commitment on the part of Mountain Rose Herbs' leadership motivated more employees to participate and we saw a significant increase in their giving and, therefore, ours! In fact, it led to about a 300% increase in employee contributions from the previous year and strengthened our charitable and environmentally-focused company culture.
"Every little dollar counts," says Wholesale Representative Quinn Wolter, who participates in the program. “I appreciate that our company offers a giving back program and matches our donations. These little amounts add up and really help the nonprofits do their work.”
As we continue to look forward and find ways to improve our sustainability efforts, we decided to create our own in-house giving program. This year, we launched the Mountain Rose Herbs Giving Back Program which is built on the same community-driven principles of our previous program with EarthShare but focuses our contributions to organizations we support in the greater Willamette Valley. We will provide direct funding to nine local organizations that align with our vision for change. The recipients of this year’s contributions will be:
On Earth Day, we hosted a kickoff event so that our employees could hear from folks at three of these organizations: Cascades Raptor Center, Cascadia Wildlands, and Friends of Trees. We have worked with each of these amazing nonprofits for many years, and our staff was excited to hear more about their current projects. We want to share what we learned with you!
The Cascades Raptor Center is a local nature center and wildlife hospital. The center’s hospital provides medical care and rehabilitation to over 300 sick, injured, and orphaned birds of prey each year. They also offer educational programs on and offsite, with nearly 40 resident education raptors, most of which are native to the Pacific Northwest. We love their “Night at the Raptor Center” fundraising event in which people can enjoy the center after hours for meet-and-greets with some of the raptors while noshing on finger foods and sipping at beverages donated by local sponsors. We also got to enjoy Oregon Public Broadcasting’s recent episode on the Center in their Oregon Field Guide series (season 33, episode 3).
Protecting mature and old-growth forests as a climate solution is also something we’re emphasizing this year by supporting Cascadia Wildlands. This organization works on environmental advocacy, education, outreach, and litigation to protect our forests, watersheds, salmon, and wolves in the Cascadia bioregion: the forest zone extending along the Pacific Coast from northern California to south-central Alaska, that is home to carbon-rich old-growth forests. At our learning lunch, Cascadia Wildlands Executive Director, Josh Laughlin, shared how our contributions helped support critical protections for the Elliott State Forest and Devils Staircase Wilderness, and spoke about new illegal logging operations that threaten some of our old growth forests in post-wildfire areas.
We have been partnering with Friends of Trees since 2016 to sponsor employee tree planting days around Eugene and increase the urban tree cover in our community neighborhoods. To offer some perspective, we know trees clean our soil, water, and air, and they make us healthier and happier. Cities around the world are increasingly recognizing the importance of urban tree canopies. Atlanta, Georgia, for instance, has the highest percentage of overall tree canopy in the nation, at almost 50%. Eugene is at approximately 22%. Erik Burke, the Executive Director of Friends of Trees Eugene, spoke at our kickoff event about the organization’s new equity focus to expand beyond Eugene and bring trees to low canopy areas in Springfield and the Bethel-Danebo area.
Our employees have time and again expressed how much they appreciate the opportunities our Giving Back and matching programs offer. Ellis Moore said it perfectly: “What motivated me to start giving right away was my awareness of the obstacles that we face in preserving our natural world. Seeing the hard work of each organization we help inspired me to do my part when I’m not able to physically participate in the work that needs to be done."
You may also enjoy
How We Do Zero Waste
Green Stories: Bike Path Clean Up
Why We Pay Our Employees To Get Out and Volunteer
Topics: Inside Mountain Rose Herbs, Sustainability
Maia was born and raised in Eugene Oregon. An avid nature and animal lover, when she is not snapping blog photos for Mountain Rose; you can find her romping around in the woods with her pup, having impromptu dance parties in her living room, experimenting in the kitchen, and looking for new sci-fi and fantasy stories to dive into.
