YYC Tech Gives Sees Calgary Companies Come Together for Community

Calgary’s companies are showing gratitude for the community that has allowed them to thrive by giving back.

YYC Tech Gives is the collective effort of Calgary tech companies ranging from small startups to big multinational corporations. This year, 24 organizations came together to donate $184,310 to the Calgary Food Bank via CBC Calgary’s annual million-dollar fundraiser for the charity on Thursday, December 18.

It started in 2010 when Arcurve, a software development company, identified the Calgary Food Bank as their charity of choice to make a corporate donation when they heard about the CBC fundraiser.

“A lot of people were approaching them with funds that they had raised and then challenging other people to match or exceed that amount,” said Kim McNabb, Arcurve’s HR Manager. “One of the things we had always wanted to do is find a way of bringing technology companies together to work together in a corporate social responsibility front on a common ground and give that to the local community.

Arcurve partnered with Peloton in the first year. Now YYC Tech Gives has grown to a year-round initiative.

Participating companies have come up with creative ways to raise funds and food donations throughout the rest of the year, all of which are added up towards the yearly amount. This year’s participants include: aclaro softworks inc., Calgary Scientific, Dissolve, Material Insight and Solium Capital.

“Being part of YYC Tech Gives is about the tech community of Calgary coming together and instilling a level of social responsibility within our organizations by giving back to the local community in a meaningful way,” said Gary Jacques of Peloton.

YYC Tech Gives has also hosted other events such as a Magic: The Gathering tournament, a craft beer social and the much-awaited SPAM Cup where this year, 19 companies helped sort 13,000 pounds of food sorted for Christmas hampers within an hour.

After breaking their 2014 goal of $150,000 in donations, YYC Tech Gives is looking to expand to 40 participating companies next year. Thus far, they have raised $471,310. The Calgary Food Bank is able to convert every $1 of donations to $5 of food, making YYC Tech Gives’ contributions equal to over $2 million dollars for the charity.