August Member Spotlight with Apparo
Founded in 2012, Apparo bridges Charlotte's corporate and nonprofit communities, enabling corporations to fulfill their corporate social responsibility priorities by delivering affordable, sustainable technology solutions to nonprofits. As a result, lives in Charlotte are improved, as nonprofits can do more towards fulfilling their missions.
How many locations does your company have? What is the NC presence like? Through one location in Charlotte's Midtown, we serve more than 100 nonprofits and work with more than 100 corporate partners annually.
What do you love most about doing business in NC? Our corporate partners show incredibly strong commitment to community service and corporate social responsibility. They truly care about making Charlotte a better place to live for all of its residents.
If you could describe your corporate culture in just 3 words, what would you say?
Respect, kindness, support.
Can you share some unique or fun facts about your company? What makes your business stand out? We have a very unique model because we bridge the corporate and nonprofit worlds. As such, we often act as the translator in the room, making sure every one is one the same page and not getting stuck in corporate or nonprofit-speak. Because of our ability to leverage corporate volunteer teams, we deliver nearly $3MM in value to nonprofits on a budget of only $1MM.
What kind of technology trends have affected your company, and how has your company dealt with those trends? The coronavirus pandemic has put huge pressure on our nonprofit partners to prioritize their ability to work from the cloud. We have been able to put our knowledge and skills, and that of our corporate volunteers, to help them make this a reality so that they can continue to work and serve their constituents remotely. We have not missed a moment of work, shifting to delivering our services remotely.
Has your business won any recent awards or other achievements you'd like to share? We are most proud of two of our recent awards. We won Charlotte Business Journal Best Places to Work for small sized companies and our very own, Lavonne McLean (Director of Programs and Pro Bono Partnerships) won the Mecklenburg Times Most Influential Woman.
Is there anything on your website you want to highlight or any special events you want to promote?
We are accepting nominations for our TechExec Community Impact Award through August 11, 2020, honoring a Charlotte-area technology leader's commitment to philanthropy and community service. To learn more, please visit apparo.org/techexec.