Building a Global Employee-Driven Social Impact Program
WORKPLACE SOCIAL IMPACT
Movember Foundation
Founder of Slalom’s global Movember program, growing a Seattle grassroots team into a global multi-office initiative that raised $466K for men’s health programs
A Movement Built on Mustaches & Mission
PROJECT SUMMARY
In October 2011, four months into my career at Slalom, I launched the company's first Movember fundraising team in Seattle. Over the next decade, I grew that single-office effort into a global initiative spanning 36 offices — building community, normalizing conversations around men's health, and raising $466,000 along the way.
It was a global movement with humble beginnings, and I learned so much about community building, fundraising, and communications in my eleven years of leadership.
Role
Slalom Global Movember Lead: Seattle Team Captain, Creative Director, Marketing & Communications Manager, Chief Recruiter
Type
Employee-led internal social impact program
Duration
2011-2022
Outcome
One of Slalom's most visible grassroots social-impact programs: $466K raised, 36 offices engaged, men's health conversations normalized companywide.
The Opportunity
Transform a Movember awareness campaign into a community-driven movement, sparking authentic conversations about men's health and giving Slalom employees something creative, meaningful, and fun to rally around.
What Made It Work
Organic, employee-led growth. Local team captains. Toolkits, event ideas, and shared creative assets. Retrospectives that improved the program every year. Humor, creativity, and real purpose in equal measure.
The Legacy
Iterated year over year based on participant feedback — growing from 1 office to 36, and leaving a lasting mark on how Slalom thinks about employee-led social impact programs.
Impact at a Glance
“Gary’s most enduring professional legacy is the launch of the Slalom Movember campaign. He didn’t just join a team; he built the infrastructure for one of the most successful workplace campaigns in our charity’s history.”
I was honored to be featured in the December 2, 2014 issue of the Bainbridge Island Review after readers voted me as the top Movember Man from a collection of user submitted photos. Read the story.
Press
Full Case Study
Movember at Slalom
Founded in 2003 in Australia, the Movember Foundation is a global charity focused on improving men’s health, including prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health, and suicide prevention. Each November, participants grow mustaches and rally their communities to spark conversation and raise funds for programs that support men around the world.
Roles:
Slalom Global Movember Lead
Captain of Seattle’s Team Mo Mojo
Chief Recruiter
Creative Director
Marketing & Communications Manager
Responsibilities:
Community Building & Nurturing
Program Leadership
Seattle Team & Volunteer Management
Event Programming
Employee Engagement
Promotional Design and Delivery
Recruiting
Fundraising
Social Impact Strategy
Hype ‘n marketing
Duration: 2011 - 2022
Impact
I grew the yearly Movember fundraising program from one office and 12 members to 36 offices with over 200 members. We raised $466,000 raised for the Movember Foundation during my time as leader.
The BINGMO Challenge was in partnership with our Health & Wellness employee group — we encouraged people to get outside, try a new sport or hobby, visit a museum, do some yoga, donate old clothing, support a local business, etc.
“When I talk about the work the Movember Foundation is doing...the mental health work is something I am very excited to have [as] part of the conversation.
I feel we, as a nation, have lots to do here to unpack the complexities of mental illness.”
Overview
In October of 2011, four months into my career at Slalom, I launched Slalom’s first Movember fundraising team in the Seattle office. What began as a small grassroots effort grew into a global employee-led initiative spanning dozens of Slalom markets worldwide.
Over the next decade, I helped grow participation across offices and built a culture of creativity, philanthropy, and community engagement around men’s health awareness. By identifying and recruiting team leaders in different markets, I encouraged them to grow their teams by supplying messaging, communication templates, event ideas, and by creating a community of support and camaraderie. We enjoyed competing for donations and shared our various ideas to encourage active participation and maximum fun.
By 2022, the program had helped Slalom employees raise $466,000 for the Movember Foundation, funding programs that address prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health, and suicide prevention.
Opportunity for impact
Movember is known for encouraging men to grow mustaches during November to spark conversations around men’s health.
I saw an opportunity to transform the campaign into something bigger inside the company:
Create a community-driven movement inside Slalom
Encourage open conversations around men’s health
Build cross-office collaboration through philanthropy
Create fun, creative events that people actually wanted to join
Encourage women to participate to raise their voices for men they know affected by health issues
Create inclusive campaigns anyone could join, no mustaches necessary!
Improve program year after year via retrospectives and surveys
“Gary doesn’t just ask you to donate; he invites you to be part of a solution. His energy and creativity are infectious, making the daunting task of tackling men’s health feel like a collective, achievable mission.”
To grow and sustain the program, I created a framework that allowed local teams to participate while keeping the campaign unified globally.
I utilized Office365 to create communities in Teams and SharePoint to discuss, share resources, and monitor campaign goals and activities.
Key elements of our success included:
Global Participation Model
Helped establish Movember teams across dozens of Slalom offices
Encouraged local team captains and volunteer leaders to participate
Shared toolkits, messaging templates, and ideas to help teams run events
Partnered with the Movember Foundation to leverage their expertise and resources
Hosted post-campaign retrospectives to learn from the past and prepare for next year's campaign
Impactful Events
Online and IRL auctions
Poker tournaments
Movie nights
Happy hours
Fitness challenges
Fun runs
Breakout workplace Yoga sessions
Mustache competitions
Lunchtime ‘get out of the office’ walks to connect and move
Community Building
Encouraged participation from both “Mo Bros” and “Mo Sisters”
Created opportunities for employees to connect locally and across markets
Used humor, creativity, facts, and personal stories to reduce stigma around men’s health conversations
Encouraged friendly market competition to get people moving, talking, and raising funds
Results
$466,000 raised for the Movember Foundation
Participation across dozens of Slalom offices worldwide
Thousands of employee participants over a decade
Built one of the company’s most visible grassroots social-impact programs to date
Got men talking about their physical and mental health
Grew and improved the program year after year based on user feedback
Why it worked
The program succeeded because it blended culture, creativity, and purpose.
Rather than being a top-down corporate initiative, Movember at Slalom grew organically through employees who wanted to participate and support each other.
Mustaches made people smile—but the conversations they sparked helped raise awareness about serious issues affecting millions of men worldwide.
Press
I was honored to be featured in the December 2, 2014 issue of the Bainbridge Island Review after readers voted me as the top Movember Man from a collection of user submitted photos.
“When I talk about the work the Movember Foundation is doing...the mental health work is something I am very excited to have [as] part of the conversation.
I feel we, as a nation, have lots to do here to unpack the complexities of mental illness, acknowledge the lack of support for the millions of people suffering from mental illness and work to create affordable, accessible solutions and treatments for people in need of care.”
Read more here, on the Bainbridge Island Review site.