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Silvacom’s intranet powers corporate social responsibility communication

Since 1983, The Silvacom Group (Silvacom) has been providing consulting, software, survey, land management, and data solutions to a broad range of sectors. They’re headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, and have over 90 employees working from three offices. They currently have an impressive 91% monthly employee engagement rate with the Jostle^® intranet.

For nine years, Silvacom has been supporting Classrooms for Africa—a volunteer-driven, nonprofit organization that provides assistance to communities and schools in Africa who provide education to disadvantaged children.

Since rolling out the Jostle intranet in 2014, Silvacom has been using the platform to keep their entire organization up-to-date with company news and events. One of these being the progress of Classrooms for Africa. Elva Kennedy, Marketing and Communications Coordinator at Silvacom, spoke to us about how the Jostle intranet has proved invaluable in communicating their charitable efforts to the Silvacom workforce.

Silvacom and Classrooms for Africa

“Part of Silvacom’s social responsibility mission is to make a meaningful contribution to the betterment of the world,” Elva told us. “Our philanthropic efforts are guided by three core objectives: help the poorest of the poor; focus on children; and promote educational opportunities.”

Classrooms for Africa is a fitting charity for Silvacom. They vet schools in dire need of development and match these to donor funds, ensuring that 95% of project donations go directly to project construction—bricks and mortar, not overhead or salaries. The work they do to support the empowerment of children in Africa through education brings Silvacom’s social responsibility goals to life.

“We’re closely involved with Classrooms for Africa; our CEO leads their African donor trips initiative, our CSO is a voluntary board member, we’re a corporate sponsor, and employees from within our group of companies also visit Classrooms for Africa projects on an annual basis,” Elva shared.

“We also try to play a role in fundraising and collaborating with other like-minded businesses to extend Classrooms for Africa’s reach and effectiveness throughout sub-Saharan Africa,” Elva explained. “We hold an annual staff fundraising event and use this opportunity to update employees and their families on the previous year’s effort in Africa, speak to future projects, and raise money.”

How the Jostle intranet is supporting Silvacom’s efforts

“Before we had the Jostle intranet, there was no real communication about Classrooms for Africa other than our annual staff fundraiser. Getting the information was far more ad hoc. If you caught our founding partners, Bob Morton or Tom Grabowski, in the corridor and engaged one of them in conversation, only then would you really find out about what had been going on.”

Since adopting the Jostle intranet, Silvacom has used the platform to share updates and progress on Classrooms for Africa. Each year, they’ve shared more and more, using the platform to its maximum potential for raising awareness and keeping everyone informed.

They use the Jostle platform’s NEWS section to share news of ongoing projects, photo albums, and even provide live video updates whilst in Africa. They keep people in the know with Activity (a live-feed of short personalized messages), and use the EVENTS feature for their annual fundraiser.

“It’s really powerful to be able to provide live updates,” Elva told us. “They seem more real when they’re written and shared in the moment, and I think it feels that way for the reader.

“The messages didn’t get to fade over time like they would’ve if I got back to the office and tried to recreate what we saw in Africa. They had their full impact because I could share them over the Jostle intranet immediately.”

Conclusion

Silvacom’s work with Classrooms for Africa is commendable—they’ve chosen a charity that’s close to their heart and remained dedicated to it for almost a decade. Their passion for the cause is palpable.

We’re extremely proud to be able to provide Silvacom with a communication platform that makes it easy to share important messaging that keeps Classrooms for Africa a vibrant topic throughout their organization.