STACK’s core values are ownership, openness, and optimism. We believe in trust and accountability, but we also believe in giving. Fiercely.
On December 10, 2021, a violent tornado struck Western Kentucky, leaving behind catastrophic damage to communities in its course. This horrific storm hit home for one of STACK’s Customer Success Managers, Matt Hayden, who grew up in the area and had just relocated to Ohio. “It was very depressing news,” Matt said, “And it’s still a very depressing site when you go there. When STACK announced they were raising money to support relief efforts I was uplifted by it.”
Our company’s Slack channel was going wild through December 2021 and January, with generous donations and encouraging words to keep on giving. Our CEO and Founder, Phil Ogilby, along with COO and CFO, Ray DeZenzo, pledged to donate $1,000 each on top of a $2,000 matched gift from STACK if we met a company goal of $2,000 raised by employees. What started out as a $6,000 goal quickly grew with challenges from departments. FUN challenges!
Richard Bannister, STACK’s Vice President of Sales, agreed to shave his head if our employee goal was pushed to $3,000. Team Enterprise chimed in and said they would match anything donated that day up to $1,000. The following day, Matt agreed to shave HIS head as well, upping the ante to $4,000 for STACK’s employee fundraising goals. Days later, Business Development Representative Bob Murdock pushed us all to a $5,000 goal by offering to shave his precious long beard.
What started out as a regular fundraising push turned into friendly competition, morale boosting, and most importantly, bonding. On January 3rd, Phil and Ray announced they would round up the total donations for the relief fund to a whopping $10,000! We doubled our goals for a wonderful cause and had a blast in the process that ended in some proper manscaping.
Richard shared, “My worst day is better than a lot of people’s best day. We’re very blessed here at STACK. To rally people is indicative of STACK’s culture, and it became personal to everyone because it was personal to Matt. I might have lost my hair, but many have lost a lot more.”
Matt was deeply moved by his colleagues and company coming together for this cause. “This personally impacted me,” Matt said, “I shook Ray and Phil’s hand when I saw them. To see everybody else in the company, the way they kind of rallied around it with support, was incredible. Aaron Henderson (Director of Enterprise Sales) and Richard played a huge part in really getting this to what it turned out to be. It was something that made me really happy and proud to work here. It was a great experience and something I was happy to partake in.”
Kentucky still needs your help. Please support and donate to the Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund, organized by Independence Bank of Kentucky.
