Back to News

Groupon Employees Volunteered a Record-Setting 14,000 Hours in Their Local Communities Last Month

July 22, 2019

Sixth annual employee volunteer-a-thon resulted in more than 2,500 employees volunteering in 90 communities around the world

Groupon today unveiled the results of its sixth annual global employee volunteer-a-thon, a company-wide initiative that encourages employees during the month of June to get involved in their local communities and connects them with the causes they care about the most. This year’s event resulted in more than 2,500 employees volunteering a record-setting 14,000 hours with more than 100 nonprofit partners, serving 90 communities around the world.

“Once again, we continue to be blown away by the bar-raising levels of volunteer engagement and leadership shown by Groupon employees in their local communities,” said Groupon’s President of North America and Groupon Volunteers executive sponsor Aaron Cooper. “Our annual employee volunteer-a-thon has grown into a true celebration of our year-long commitment to local communities.”

Highlights of the 2019 Groupon employee volunteer-a-thon’s nearly 200 events included: 

• Greater Chicago Food Depository: A team of 100 Grouponers took over the warehouse at Greater Chicago Food Depository and sorted more than 11,000 pounds of sweet potatoes and rice to be distributed to local food banks across the Chicagoland area. The day prior, another 200 volunteers assembled 40,000 meals onsite at our headquarters office that were also donated to GCFD.

• Seattle Discovery Park: Seattle-based volunteers spent the day at the beautiful Discovery Park with Mountain to Sound Greenway participating in some natural habitat restoration. Volunteers moved 30 yards of mulch in under an hour, covering a large area in preparation for tree planting this fall. 

• Students Visit Groupon Warsaw: Groupon’s Warsaw office welcomed children from Stowarzyszenie Serduszko dla Dzieci. Teens had a packed agenda attending panel discussions put on by Grouponers, an office tour, lunch and resume writing workshops. 

• Dublin’s My Lovely Horse Rescue: Grouponers went in the fields outside of Dublin to support My Lovely Horse Rescue charity. My Lovely Horse gives abandoned horses a second home. Volunteers spent the day tidying up and cleaning the stables. 

Throughout the month, Groupon teams competed to be the most involved in their local community, with the winners getting the opportunity to award $10,000 to the charity of their choice, as well as sport this one-of-kind Groupon Volunteer-a-thon jacket. 

With more than 70 percent of team members participating in June alone, the 2019 volunteer-a-thon winner is the Groupon Asia Pacific Shared Service Centers in Bangalore and Chennai, India. Some of the volunteer projects completed by these teams included:

• Bangalore Seedball Creation: Groupon volunteers in Bangalore came together with SayTrees to create 100,000 seed balls (seeds native to the state) which will be spread throughout India to increase the green cover. 

• Chennai Walk-a-thon to Save Water: Groupon’s Engineering team in Chennai participated in a walk-a-thon to create awareness around the current water shortage. During the event, volunteers spoke to the public about how locals can make a positive impact by saving water.

Since 2011, Groupon employees have volunteered more than 126,000 hours in their local communities.