Cummings Properties Employees Choose Local Charities

The start of the holiday season is especially festive for Cummings Properties’ employees, who are each invited annually to select a local charity to receive $1,000 through the company’s Employee Directed Giving program. Twenty-five Beverly, Danvers, and Salem nonprofit organizations received a total of $41,000 this year.

With the completion of the 2015 cycle, the three-year-old annual program has resulted in $1,068,000 in donations to organizations that are making a difference in the communities where Cummings Properties’ employees live and work.

The Beverly organizations that benefitted are: Beverly Bootstraps, Beverly Female Charitable Society, Beverly High School Football Boosters, Beverly High School Hockey, Beverly High School Marine Jr. R.O.T.C., Beverly Little League, Beverly Youth Lacrosse, Centerville Elementary School, Change is Simple, Express Yourself, Greater Beverly YMCA, River House Shelter, and YMCA of the North Shore.

The Danvers recipients are: Boy Scouts Pack 16, Care Dimensions, Danvers Community YMCA, Danvers National Little League, Hospice of the North Shore, Kaplan Family Hospice House, Northeast Arc, and People to People Food Pantry.

The Salem recipients are: Homeland Heroes Foundation, Northeast Animal Shelter, Salem Academy Charter School, and Salem Fire Department.

Cummings Properties account manager and Beverly resident Jessica Palm is one of two staff members who selected Change is Simple to receive their 2015 Employee Directed Giving donations. The group provides environmental education, helping children to make connections between the environment and their health through interactive lessons.

Palm recently met Patrick and Lauren Belmonte, the founders of Change is Simple, through mutual friends. After hearing about their work, she visited their website.

“I was really impressed with what I saw,” said Palm. “I feel strongly about donating to an organization that directly impacts my community. It feels great to be able to see this donation put to work, educating the next generation right in my hometown,” she said.

Each eligible organization can receive as much as $5,000 per program cycle, if multiple staff members choose the same nonprofit. This year several North Shore nonprofits received multiple donations. Northeast Animal Shelter received $5,000; Beverly High School’s R.O.T.C. program received $4,000; and Salem Academy Charter School received $3,000.

“Our colleagues feel good about being able to support local charities that mean something to them and their families,” said Dennis Clarke, Cummings Properties’ president and CEO. “And we feel good about honoring staff members in this unique way for their hard work and dedication.”

Employee Directed Giving is open to all full-time employees of the Woburn-based commercial real estate firm as well as its affiliated retirement communities, New Horizons at Choate in Woburn and New Horizons at Marlborough. Selected nonprofits must meet a few eligibility requirements and must be based in and serve Middlesex, Essex, or Suffolk County, or the city or town in which the employee lives.

Staff members and their families often take photographs while making their check deliveries. This year, they have been invited to share them on social media, using #CummingsEDG.

Cummings Properties has a presence in 10 Greater Boston communities, including Beverly, which is home to one of its flagship properties, Cummings Center, as well as its Dunham Road campus, and Elliott Landing–a new 73-unit luxury condominium scheduled for completion in 2016.

More information, including the 2015 Employee Directed Giving recipient list, is available here.

PHOTO 1: Danvers Community YMCA Dolfins swim team

PHOTO 2: Front from left to right: Change is Simple co-founder Lauren Belmonte, Kendra Berry (Northeastern University co-op student), Haven Hatch, Kelly Driscoll, and Erika Mercieri (Endicott College intern)

Back from left to right: Cummings Properties communications specialist Julie DeSilva, Change is Simple co-founder Patrick Belmonte, Cummings Properties account manager Jessica Palm, Jillian Conner, Dominic Martinelli (Endicott College intern), and Nicole Peckham (Northeastern University co-op student)