BrightTree Studios Makes a Difference Close to Its Pittsburgh Home

Veteran-owned BrightTree Studios supports local program for homeless veterans, offering that helps local teachers and other organizations in and around Pittsburgh.

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BrightTree Studios was looking for a way to give back to the community that meant something more than rallying the ownership team to write a big check and send it to the biggest non-profit organization. Veterans Place of Washington Boulevard checked all the boxes for the veteran-owned firm.

The technology design and consulting company has been working with Veterans Place for a little more than a year now, with its largest contribution being spending several hours clearing a room that was intended to house one of the area’s homeless veterans of supplies and other storage materials.

Employees are likely to deepen their relationship with Veterans Place this year, says BrightTree Studios marketing coordinator Christian Na.

“As a veteran-owned firm (co-founder and CEO Greg Carpenter was in the U.S. Army), we found this to be a cause that’s near and dear to our hearts,” says Na. “We feel honored to work with an organization that understands the sacrifice of military service and is dedicated to finding resources for those who’ve served.”

Veterans Place temporarily houses homeless Pittsburgh-area veterans and provide resources to help them find jobs and enroll in rehabilitation programs and more.

“We’ve been looking for practical, resourceful ways we can get hands-on work done with the community,” says Na. “We connected instantly with their executive director and a couple of their volunteers, some of the workers and the veterans, which has been the most meaningful part of it all.

“As the partnership grows, we’ll explore larger corporate donations and different ways we can assist with their many needs. It’s been an incredible process just getting to see the work they do, the impact of the small projects we’ve done for them and mostly the work they’re doing to better the lives of veterans in and around Pittsburgh,” he says.

Veterans Place is building some tiny homes for local veterans in the area and BrightTree is looking into ways to help with their development, says Na.

BrightTree Studios has also worked closely with The Education Partnership, which provides resources for local teachers, and could teach coding to some of the teachers and their students as part of that deal, says Na.

“That’ll allow us to use what we know and are experts at in a philanthropic way,” he says.

BrightTree Studios has also collected canned goods and food for Jubilee Soup Kitchen, helped The Little Fox: Toby’s Foundation in handing out resources to parents of children who suffered from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and collected toys for Play It Forward Pittsburgh’s annual toy drive.

The company may also get involved in local sustainability efforts such as a river cleanup, in part because of co-founder/president Bill McIntosh’s affinity for outdoor activities.

Keeping It Local

It’s important that BrightTree’s philanthropy is done with local charities, says Na.

“One thing we knew is we wanted to be able to visit, be with them in person,” he says. “We’ve come out of a community that’s given so much to us. It made sense to give back to that community.”

BrightTree’s monthly Friday Fun Day—the last Friday of every month—is monthly dedicated to employee service projects, says Na.

“It’s nice to take a breath, do something fun with the company and meet new people, getting out there and serving,” he says. “A lot of the causes we’ve aligned ourselves with wrap around the philosophy of the company. We’re entering those worlds from a different door.

“Any organization should be doing its part to be a good steward of its city, of its community, of its world. We try to do that in very small ways. The little that we can do, that matters to us,” says Na.

Philanthropy is about what you do for others, not what you can get out of it from them, he says.

“You’re not doing it so you can tweet about it or for a photo op,” says Na. “You’re doing it so you can leave someone’s life a little better. When you hear from someone you’ve helped, it’s humbling, it’s touching, it’s moving, It inspires you to keep going.

“If it were all about writing checks, couldn’t call it community engagement. There’s more than that that’s important. We just love getting out of the office and into the field, getting to know people and their stories—their mission and their values,” he says.

Coming next Monday: The next installment in our Connected to the Community series. If you know about an AV or IT company doing something good, email executive editor Craig MacCormack at [email protected].

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