ETHOS Event Collective Founder and Principal Joe Fijol has launched a passion project that puts giving back to the local communities at the heart of his company’s work.
ETHOS Event Collective just launched a passion project to not only connect its meeting and event clients with charitable organizations in the communities they serve, but also makes a commitment to give back 1% of program profits to those charities. The company serves several destinations, including Amelia Island, Orlando, Palm Beach, Miami, Naples, Savannah, Las Vegas, Napa/Sonoma, Monterey Peninsula, San Francisco and Grand Cayman.
As part of the new passion project, ETHOS connects clients with four local nonprofits and four national organizations to provide a wide range of corporate social responsibility activities to choose from. The company also commits to giving back 1% of its annual profits to those organizations, which were vetted through ETHOS’ philanthropy department, spearheaded by Lexi Matias and Raquel Santo. The idea is to foster deeper connections between client organizations and the local communities that host their events.
This passion project is a natural extension for the company, says Joe Fijol, who founded destination management company, ETHOS Event Collective, three and a half years ago to not only deliver memorable events, but to also make them meaningful catalysts for change. The company’s core philosophy is summed up in two words — Purposeful Planning — which states that successful event design and execution depend on understanding and integrating clients’ and communities’ unique characteristics and goals, fostering meaningful connections and positive change. Each ETHOS team member also participates in quarterly volunteering projects — which already add up to more than 226 hours of time donated to making a meaningful difference to the various organizations.
Prevue recently caught up with Fijol — who was honored to receive the Incentive Research Foundation Volunteer of the Year award this year — to learn more.
Prevue: What got you started on this journey to make meetings and events more purposeful through giving back to the local community?
Fijol: I left a big company during COVID to start ETHOS because I realized that we need to give back more, that connecting with local communities is the lifeblood of what we do. That’s why people travel to cool places, not just to experience the destination but to forge a connection to that place and those communities. A lot of people do CSR activities, but they don’t commit financially. Our 1% giveback of our profits annually was inspired by what Delta Airlines does.
Prevue: How did you start to implement this giving back passion project?
Fijol: The vetting project ended up being way more robust than we thought it was going to be, but you really need to know all about them if you’re going to put your company’s name behind them. Some may be nonprofits, but what they give back may be minimal compared to what they spend on overhead. So we vetted their financials to make sure they’re in good standing, and also what percentages of donations go to overhead or a national organization beyond the local community to ensure they’re impacting the local community in a meaningful way, not just their marketing efforts. And we had to ensure that they aligned with our core values, and the core values of our clients.
We chose four nonprofits for each market, and our local team members volunteer with those nonprofits for a full day four times a year so they really get to know how they operate. We present those ideas to clients without their having to ask — it just makes it easier for them to get involved in those local communities.
We chose to include four national charities as well because some clients do multiple meetings in multiple destinations and want to keep it consistent. For example, Wounded Warriors is one of the national charities we vetted, so if someone works with us in, say, Savannah, Las Vegas and Orlando, they can contribute to Wounded Warriors across all their events.
To be clear, we’re not using this as a profit center — there’s no markup on anything related to the passion project. Any cost associated with the project is the bare minimum cost needed to execute the activity. That 1% of profit we’re donating annually is our actual program profit — there’s no profit associated with the passion project itself.
Of course, some clients have their own charities they want to support, which of course we also can do. But if they don’t, we can provide them with options that align with their core values without them having to do the vetting. And every client that works with us is going to be benefitting local charities, whether they choose to do a CSR activity or not. With our 1% giveback program, we’ll be donating somewhere in the six figures to these 20 charities.
Prevue: What has the reaction been from clients so far?
Fijol: We had one Fortune 50 company we did a big event for earlier this year who, when they found out we were giving 1%, they matched it, and then also did a CSR event with the local charity. Clients also like that, even if they don’t do a CSR activity with one of the charities, 1% of our annual profits are still going to benefit those charities.
Some of the accounts we work with spend millions of dollars a year advertising what makes them different. But when they come on site, it’s usually down to just a logo, with no real connecting the dots to the core values. We take the time to dive into the goals and objectives of the client, and how they connect to the company’s core values, and then match those to the local opportunities that are a good fit for those goals and values. Then we weave those connections through the entire event narrative. That way, we can hit that sweet spot of the audience you’re there to celebrate or recognize or educate.
You May Also Be Interested In…
Kind Traveler Program Reaps CSR Benefits for Groups
The Above and Beyond Foundation Honors Hospitality Heroes
Exclusive: Green Gifting a Growing Trend
