The Business of Giving Back: Making philanthropy a part of corporate identity

Generosity is on the rise, and here’s the proof. Companies large and small, business owners, industry leaders and friends are finding ways to make the world a better place while earning a living.

Disrupting for Good: Oklahoma Realtors and Activists Sarah Bytyqi and Peter Fulmer

On an unseasonably warm autumn afternoon, over strong coffee and chocolate chip cookies on the wide veranda at Bradford House, Verbode founder Sarah Bytyqi and Parasol Real Estate founder/broker Peter Fulmer are charming their way through a serious conversation about homelessness and sharing their plans to eliminate it in Oklahoma City.

Bytyqi has, for years, advocated, volunteered and fundraised

to house, clothe and nourish the unhoused, even raising more than $22,000 in a blockbuster one-woman winter-gear drive a couple of years ago. She serves on the board of Homeless Alliance, and as she puts it, “If we as realtors — so-called housing experts — can’t do this, who can?” Fulmer served as board president for Pivot and is a regular volunteer at City Care Night Shelter, where he recently led an initiative to secure individual bins for each man to store possessions. He decided years ago that you’ve got to solve a person’s homelessness before you can solve any other challenges.

The Oklahoma City Metropolitan Association of Realtors (OKCMAR) just appointed Bytyqi and Fulmer as co-chairs of a newly minted committee, which started as a mere task force, thanks to an offhand question asked by Bytyqi in another professional organization’s meeting: “So how come we don’t

have an ongoing effort as it relates to homelessness in this organization or any organization of professional Realtors, like it seems to be critical that this is not a topic of conversation anywhere ever. What are we doing as a professional membership?” The fellow she said this to, Gary Jones, happens to be the government affairs director at OKCMAR. One thing led to another, a task force turned into a full-fledged sub-committee of the government affairs committee, secured some funding … and here we are.

“We are developing an interior and an exterior educational and awareness campaign focused on the unhoused,” Fulmer says. Bytyqi explains that the task force polled the 6,000+ person membership of OKCMAR and 67 percent of respondents said that the number one issue facing our community is

homelessness. “We had 23 people sign up to be on our committee,” she says. “That’s unheard of.” Fulmer and Bytyqi are quick to credit OKCMAR for being forward-thinking and supportive, embracing the sub-committee’s mission and offering staff assistance.

Now the committee is working with Candor, an OKC public relations firm, to develop messaging designed to dispel misconceptions about homelessness and its root causes. For example, 85 percent of all homelessness is created by a catastrophic loss of family. Not laziness, not poor choices. A person earning the federal minimum wage ($7.25 per hour) would have to work 70 hours a week in order to

afford an apartment. “That’s where homelessness comes from,” Bytyqi says.

Fulmer sums it all up. “My goal for this thing is to humanize the unhoused. That’s my first goal. And the other thing I want to achieve is to try to increase proximity between our general membership and the unhoused, because I believe that proximity is the key to everything that ails us. Being around people that you don’t understand creates understanding, and understanding is the key to acceptance and helping people.”

The OG: Kendra Scott

In Oklahoma, Kendra Scott has contributed more than $567,000 to organizations, charities, causes and individuals since 2017 through its multi-faceted philanthropic strategy. In fact, Kendra Scott’s personal and corporate philanthropy philosophy has been integral to her mission since her namesake company was founded.

“Philanthropy is part of our DNA, and since day one, Kendra Scott the brand has been guided by our core values of family, fashion and philanthropy. As a company made up of 96 percent females, we are passionate about supporting organizations that serve women and youth across the nation. Our philanthropy and regional marketing teams work year-round to build relationships with local, national and international philanthropic organizations, and I am immensely proud to see the impact our Oklahoma team has been able to make,” Scott says.  

Alexandra Urice, the company’s regional marketing and philanthropic manager, explains that there are virtually no limits to the company’s largesse, much of which is very much locally driven. “Essentially, we invite nonprofits or local community groups into our store where they can host a Kendra Gives Back event. It can be really whatever our staff employees, our customers find important to them. And 20 percent of the proceeds will directly go back to the organization,” she says.

Other components of the Kendra Scott philanthropy strategy include its Shop For Good Collection benefiting nonprofits including Girls, Inc., Folds of Honor, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and others; the Color Bar, which travels to pediatric hospitals and hosts complimentary custom jewelry events to patients and caregivers; and the Kendra Scott Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, which empowers hundreds of female founders and entrepreneurs each year.

Kendra Scott the company does try to stick to its official corporate giving priority areas — health and wellness, education and empowerment and entrepreneurship — but, as Urice says, “Kendra Scott, as a whole, really empowers our employees to feel empowered to really reach out and connect with the community.”

To get a sense of the sheer scale of Kendra Scott’s Kendra Gives Back program, Urice pulled a partial list of participating Oklahoma organizations, and it’s a whopping nine pages long. This is a company that walks its talk. What we’ve shared here is just the tip of the iceberg. Way to sparkle, Kendra Scott!

Learn more about the remarkable efforts of this thoughtful company at www.kendrascott.com/philanthropy

The Local Newcomer: PGato — Sportswear for a Cause

Dr. Castel Santana’s grandmother, Martha Alaniz, was a cool, feisty, well-traveled, adventurous, compassionate lady. She performed on a soap opera, attended bullfights and was unrelentingly generous to those in need. Her passion was feeding the hungry. Alaniz, to the amusement of her grandson, also actively disliked cats, especially when they were in her yard — often yelling obscenities at them. “She would often be heard around her house yelling ‘Aye P#!che Gato!’ one of her favorite phrases, that made me laugh since I was a young kid,” Santana says. (The P-word, which will not appear here in its entirety, packs about the same punch as the F-bomb.) “But then late, when nobody was watching, she would feed the cats, too,” Santana says.

Upon her death in January 2022, Santana knew he had to do something to celebrate her memory, and the clothing line PGato was born. Santana, whose thriving medical practice would be enough to keep most folks busy, decided to launch a line of golf-inspired clothing. A capsule collection right now, executed primarily in classic black and white, the brand will launch seasonal collections, limited edition wearables and even NFTs.

PGato operates under a business model similar to Toms shoes, which is to say that giving back is baked into the company’s DNA. “I love golf. I wear golf shirts and golf wear all the time. And … golf is a great way to raise money … We’re giving back 10 percent of all proceeds to the community. That’s going to be feeding the homeless, clothing the homeless, working on housing, those sorts of things.”

Learn more about Dr. Santana and PGato at www.pgato.com