Chevron employees prompt volunteerism with nonprofit fair

Seventy nonprofits recently attended a unique fair at Chevron’s Midland campus.

The Nonprofit Fair allowed area nonprofits the opportunity to showcase the services they offer and ways that Chevron employees can get involved.

The fair was hosted by Somos, one of eight employee networks at Chevron’s Midland campus. Employee networks are initiated by employees and formally structured and aligned with Chevron’s diversity objectives, values, vision and strategy. The networks offer opportunities for Chevron employees to engage with and give back to its communities.

“When I learned that members of Somos were interested in organizing a nonprofit fair, I knew it was going to be quite an undertaking,” said Valerie Acosta, public and government affairs advisor for Chevron. “With more than 900 nonprofits in the area, communication alone was going to be a large task.”

Somos partnered with the United Way of Midland and Nonprofit Management Center of the Permian Basin to invite nonprofits to attend. Attendees ranged from animal rescue to veteran services. Many organizations took time to visit each other’s tables and learn more about one another’s community efforts.

“The Nonprofit Fair provided a much-needed opportunity for engagement with potential volunteers and to connect with fellow non-profit peers. Our community needs more of these events,” said Alayne Paulson, development director of Spectrum of Solutions. “The more our community members work together, the better we become as a whole. Thank you, Chevron, for recognizing the need!”

Some nonprofits engaged employees with hands-on activities. Museum of the Southwest, as an example, encouraged attendees to create art at their information table.

“The Museum of the Southwest was delighted to participate in the nonprofit fair at Chevron—what a great way to educate employees,” said Mary Katherine Marshall, senior director of development and communications for the Museum of the Southwest. “It was exciting to engage employees in a quick art project and share the immediate impact that Chevron has made on the Museum’s mission and programming. We look forward to future events of this sort and seeing Chevron faces on the Museum’s campus.”

Seeing more Chevron faces at many different nonprofit organizations is the true driver for the event. Event organizer, Omar Cruz, said that his involvement with the United Way of Midland inspired the fair.

“Somos has continuously helped with the Casa de Amigos organization,” said Cruz. “I always wanted to expand our efforts and I got involved with the United Way. I realized there is so much out there that isn’t being communicated as much as it should’ve. I thought of hosting a fair and use our team (Somos) to help organize it so that other Chevron employees and networks could see what Midland has to offer.”

And that they did.