Time for Giving Gratitude

A message from Laura Grannemann, VP of Strategic Investments at Rocket Community Fund.

It’s hard to believe we are approaching the end of 2020. As I reflect on the extraordinary year that we have experienced together, one overarching feeling continues to surface: gratitude. I am grateful to our community partners for their dedication in driving the programs and initiatives that support the communities we all serve.

I’m also incredibly grateful to our more than 22,000 Rocket Companies^® team members, for their dedication to supporting our communities and each other. One of our ISMs (the core values that drive our culture) is “obsessed with finding a better way.” I’m proud do say that during these unprecedented times both our partners and our team members have been focused on finding new and innovative ways to support our communities.

It was with that same spirit of innovation and dedication to our communities that we reimagined how to bring back one of our most popular and impactful giving campaigns of the year: our Holiday Drives.

Historically, the Rocket Community Fund has held two donation drives during the holidays: a Food Drive supporting communities in each of our markets, and a toy drive. Each year, team members in each of our markets donated thousands of nonperishable food items and new toys for children in need.

With regards to the holiday drives this year, our priority was to ensure that our team members would be able to safely support the communities we call home. We introduced our Holiday Giving campaign – a three-week, all-virtual giving event where team members were able to safely make an impact in our communities by donating non-perishable food items and necessities through the websites of our nonprofit partners. Additionally, we added a variety of additional giving opportunities with our team members’ health and safety top of mind.

We also partnered with several community organizations to bring our team members new virtual volunteer opportunities that they are able to participate in from the comfort of their own homes. The best part is that we’ve been very intentional in sourcing a wide variety of experiences to appeal to everyone – regardless of the amount of time they’re able to commit to volunteering. 

These targeted virtual volunteer opportunities have empowered our team members to make a direct impact on people in our communities, on their own terms. Some examples of these experiences include letter writing to new Habitat for Humanity homeowners, virtual literacy tutoring, calling high-risk Detroit residents to ensure they are aware of COVID-19 resources or creating gratitude cards for our frontline workers.

This year has forced us to be more flexible than ever before. We’ve had to think outside the box and reimagine many of our programs and events. But as always in the Family of Companies, we saw these not as challenges but as opportunities to make an even bigger impact.  

Above all else, we learned that when it comes to finding new ways to support our communities, our team members are our biggest advocates. I’m continually impressed by how all of our team members have rallied together to do the right thing – especially during times of crisis.

We have celebrated many highs and persevered through many obstacles this year – as people, as community partners, as team members and as an organization. But I want to highlight how proud I am to be a part this organization, working alongside individuals who impact the outcome every day by their actions. 

I’m grateful for everything our community partners and team members do in support the Rocket Community Fund’s mission, which was created to harness the incredible power of our organization and find innovative ways to drive impact in each of our communities. Thanks to you, we’re doing that every day.