{"id":4252,"date":"2024-07-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/familyhouseinc.org\/article\/sf-business-times-interview-with-katherine-thompson-corporate-philanthropy\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T16:49:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T23:49:35","slug":"sf-business-times-interview-with-katherine-thompson-corporate-philanthropy","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/familyhouseinc.org\/tl\/article\/sf-business-times-interview-with-katherine-thompson-corporate-philanthropy\/","title":{"rendered":"SF Business Times Interview with Katherine Thompson – Corporate Philanthropy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\tFamily House CEO Katherine Thompson was recently interviewed by the San Francisco Business Times for their Corporate Volunteering issue. Read her Q&A below!\"\"<\/p>\n

1) Since the rise of remote work, some charities are having trouble getting corporate volunteers. This might be because they are no longer as centrally located or not showing up to the office. What has your experience been in this regard? Do you think this holds true?<\/p>\n

“Family House has been responding to the new normal of hybrid work \u2013 with all of its opportunities and challenges. Thankfully, the volunteer spirit deep is in our DNA, having been founded in 1981 by Dr. Art Ablin, a compassionate oncologist, and other dedicated volunteers.
\nFamily House is a pediatric guest house located in the Mission Bay neighborhood, serving families who travel 50 miles and more to San Francisco to receive world-class, life-saving treatment at UCSF for their children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. We sustain a nearly 100% occupancy rate in our five-story, 80-guestroom building, hosting over 250 people a night and 4000 people a year. We\u2019re fortunate to be in Mission Bay \u2013 a connection point to not only our UCSF hospital partners, and also convenient to the Warriors, Giants, and businesses within our neighborhood who support our families in essential ways.
\nWe can\u2019t operate Family House without a volunteer community and we are still growing it back from the pandemic. We value our life-long relationships with corporate volunteer leaders who have a passion for making our mission possible. Our small staff with expertise in volunteer management can engage over 4000 volunteers a year. Corporate volunteers host meals, activities for kids and decorate for the holidays \u2013 softening the edges for our families as they navigate the most difficult times in their lives. The strength of our community helps to make Family House a home away from home for every family in crisis who walks through our doors, inspiring many of our past patients and their families to return as volunteers.
\nThe curiosity, creativity and dedication in our staff culture, together with our community\u2019s commitment to our mission, are all putting us on track to achieve pre-pandemic levels of volunteerism. We have an active, innovative Family Services and Young Professionals committee that helps make volunteerism easier and more visible. Volunteers help everything come together \u2013 from direct service to fundraising and the growth of our community events. By working together, we are breaking through the challenges of the last few years, returning to that magical energy of having steady streams of volunteers serving our families at Family House.”<\/p>\n

2) Do you have any specific statistics on this phenomenon? National? Bay Area specific?<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re staying up to date on the trends of hybrid work in San Francisco, finding success in connecting the passion and interests of corporate partners to the compassionate mission of Family House. The community\u2019s need for meaning and connection is meeting the moment in helping our families in crisis. I know that we\u2019ll keep working together to find the resources that our families need when they\u2019re with us.”<\/p>\n

3) Previously, and still currently to a certain extent, companies would organize group volunteering efforts at local charities, but that has become more difficult due to distributed workforces. What tips do you have for corporations looking to increase their volunteer efforts for both remote and in-office workers?<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m heartened by the way that corporate leaders are listening to their employees to develop volunteer experiences that will be meaningful to them in building their corporate cultures. I\u2019m seeing a lot of energy around this, and a lot of creativity in our corporate partnerships. Corporate leaders themselves are engaging in volunteering more, which is inspiring their teams to participate in Family House programs, and making their experiences more enriching. Offering different opportunities for volunteering has strengthened our partnerships. For example, we have groups that find meaning in hosting holiday events for families, groups that lead toy drives, and groups that sign up for service days to keep Family House organized and clean. When it\u2019s not possible to send employees to Family House, our amazing staff will collaborate in volunteer events offsite, and host work parties at our corporate partners\u2019 offices.”<\/p>\n

4) What are the benefits of corporate volunteering in the workplace?<\/p>\n

“Community is human nature, and it\u2019s a core value of Family House. It\u2019s wonderful to be partnered with so many companies aligned with our values, because corporate volunteering has a huge impact on our families.
\nWe\u2019re hearing from corporate leaders that volunteering continues to be a way to build culture, team connection, leadership and engagement at work. Serving meals, hosting events and donating toys are a few of the opportunities at Family House. These generous acts of service tell families in crisis that they are not alone, creating an often-unexpected sense of joy and connection bigger than any one of us.
\nCorporate volunteering is an empathy-builder for every team serving our families. We see it as part of our broader mission in the community, providing ways for everyone in our community to participate in a life of service to others. We are all impacted by the decline in the participation in the organizations that once held our communities together more closely, and by the rise of technology that can isolate us. Volunteering in San Francisco creates a better place to live and work as we meet the needs of our complex future.”<\/p>\n

5) While in-person volunteering might have decreased since the pandemic, what have been some other ways companies\/corporations are encouraging employees to engage & get involved in volunteering?<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m really energized by the corporate volunteers who are engaged in skills-based volunteering in growing our mission \u2013 complementing our strong board leadership. An incredible chef team from Salesforce just revamped our volunteer meal planning, paving the way for more volunteering. Experts from Deloitte are teaching new team-building skills to our senior leaders. Together with employees from Google, Pixar\u2019s illustrators are about to make a family movie party even more joyful. We love it when our incredible Giants players visit to play wiffle ball with our kids every summer, too. These are just a few examples. Corporate generosity has always made the Bay Area an awesome place to call home.”<\/p>\n

6) What other information about this topic could you provide that wasn’t covered above?<\/p>\n

“Family House is humbled by the recommitment of companies that we\u2019re seeing in giving back to others. When it comes to serving families in crisis, we need the full support of the community, and we\u2019re honored to have so many good people making an impact in our mission.”\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"parent":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-4252","article","type-article","status-publish","hentry","article-type-news","article-category-corporate-support","article-category-partners","article-category-staff","article-category-volunteers","article-tag-cancer","article-tag-children-in-need","article-tag-community","article-tag-family-house","article-tag-future-of-family-house","article-tag-giving-back","article-tag-home-away-from-home","article-tag-san-francisco","article-tag-ucsf-benioff-childrens-hospital","article-tag-volunteer-spotlight","article-tag-volunteers"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyhouseinc.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/4252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyhouseinc.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyhouseinc.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/familyhouseinc.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/4252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5102,"href":"https:\/\/familyhouseinc.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/4252\/revisions\/5102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyhouseinc.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}