Voting has closed for the Apparo Volunteer Appreciation & Impact Award 2022.
The award will be granted to the Apparo volunteer whose support of their nonprofit partner is most inspirational to the community. The winner will be announced and honored at the end of the month and may gift a Charlotte area nonprofit of their choice with a free Apparo Team Training (valued at approximately $3,000) to address a staff technology educational need.
Please read the nominations that follow and vote via the form below the nominees. One vote per person only.
AND THE NOMINEES ARE:
Matthew Burke – Senior Consultant, Hylaine
Matthew has had a huge impact as we are updating our tech plan. He assures that I am understanding every single step along the way and ways to navigate what works best with our mission and vision. Matthew is so detailed oriented yet makes sure it fits the “big picture”. Our organization has never ran more efficient because of the work he has put into this tech plan. – Taylor Justice, A Better World
Elizabeth Davis – Marketing Manager at Opkalla
Elizabeth leveraged her marketing experience to help LHCC navigate our way through a premium subscription to our mail marketing software. She remained interested in helping throughout the volunteer process and was kind enough to do a follow up call and respond to our feedback and questions. Our marketing emails have improved, our open rates increased and we have innovative ideas to drive traffic to our website. Thank you. – Brent Morris, Learning Help Centers of Charlotte
Ross Feldman – Chief Technology Office at Better Call I.T.
Ross would qualify for an award if our organization was giving one out because of the over and above assistance he provides. We were put in touch with him through our Apparo Project, but he has become continued support to us! He goes above and beyond to help! – Zach Smith, Beds For Kids
Ross came on board to help us set up and migrate to SharePoint as part of the G.A.I.N. grant objectives AND HE NEVER LEFT! He has been there for us far beyond what was asked for, training staff, offering counsel, helping us see around corners and look under the hood on everything we do in IT. He’s been an indispensable and selfless part of our IT team. – Kris Cole, Carolina Raptor Center
Matthew Galimi – Founder/CEO at Divergent IT
Matthew went over and above his volunteer work, including providing SharePoint training to the JazzArts staff, which was not an official ‘procedure’ of the G.A.I.N. program. In addition, Matthew’s expertise in internet security has pointed out some significant deficiencies in JazzArts’ technology security. We are extremely grateful for is recommendations. – Ron Baldwin, JazzArts Charlotte
Bill Hammelman – President at Carolina Computer Partners
Bill Hammelman stands out among volunteers because he not only goes the extra mile, he foresees the miles we’ll need and travels them before we even know enough to ask! Bill served as the volunteer project/change manager as part of our G.A.I.N. grant, leading the effort to build a strategic technology plan for our small non-profit and implementing our transition to SharePoint. He has become a trusted advisor, helping our team consider solutions outside our experience and making those solutions accessible. He’s a natural teacher, with an ability to move even the most technology-timid in our office to recognize the value and efficiency of our new tools. Bill personally identifies with our organization’s mission and now that the G.A.I.N. project is in its final stages of completion, he’s remained engaged, offering time- and money-saving advice on software upgrades, telephone and technology purchases for our new facility. – Melanie Baron, Memory and Movement Charlotte
Markus Hill – Chief Information Officer, Rodgers Builders
Markus came to us to help us upgrade our overall network stability and efficiency. He bought in a team of not only his own IT team mates from Rodgers builders, but was able to get some of his vendors to donate time and materials. Without Markus and this amazing team a lot of the upgrades needed just wouldn’t have been possible. They spent an entire Saturday getting everything up and running, donating new equipment along the way to make it happen. Markus was able to not only get fiber optic wiring installed by a vendor but also helped in getting Hope Haven upgraded to Microsoft 365 through another vendor. An absolutely amazing effort by Markus and his team. – Rohan Gibbs, Hope Haven
Eric Hoffman – Practice Director, Data & Analytics at Moran Technology Consulting
Meeting Eric was an answer to prayers that we prayed and those that we didn’t even know we needed to pray. He has generously given his time, expertise, resources, connections above and beyond what I would have expected and could have ever hoped for. He is thoughtful, he advocates for us on things we don’t even know we need to advocate for, he is organized, kind, easy to work with, he is an absolute dream come true. Because of him, our organization will have everything we need and more to articulate the life changing work we are doing. He is ensuring that we will have the most cutting edge and effective program management technology to meet our needs now and in the future. And because of him, we will be able to articulate our impact to drive further funding to our cause so that we can impact even more people. I am SO grateful to Apparo for bringing him into the Freedom Communities family. Thank you!! – Hannah Beavers, Freedom Communities
Matt Mahood – Senior Media Sales Trainer at Spectrum Reach
Matt Mahood’s involvement with our organization began with what was to be a somewhat short project — by helping us use Mailchimp more effectively. Over the course of 2021 he was incredibly helpful and dedicated. When I told him that we were looking into hiring a Google Ad Grant Manager he didn’t hesitate to step up again to further his volunteerism because of his vast experience in this area. Matt attended all of the interview sessions with management candidates and worked side-by-side with me to make the ultimate selection. Matt has asked to continue to help us because he is dedicated and invested in us, as such he attends the once-per-month meetings to review monthly Google Ad performance with the Manager and make suggestions. Matt doesn’t just volunteer for a project – he dives in full throttle and clearly invests in the MISSION. We are so grateful to Apparo and to their volunteer, Matt Mahood. – Susan Udelson, The Paula Takacs Foundation for Sarcoma Research
Rajan Merchant – Director at Perficient
Rajan has been a tremendous asset to our organization. The Independence Fund has undergone a significant technology transformation through a thorough IT assessment, CRM transition, and Apparo’s G.A.I.N. program. Rajan’s expertise and sage guidance allowed us to become a more technologically sound organization. Always on time and willing to assist at a moment’s notice, Rajan was always ready to work. Our staff was able to get to know Rajan so well that he felt like a part of our family. Rajan is most highly recommended for the Apparo Volunteer Appreciation and Impact Award! – Jeremy Davis, The Independence Fund
Brad Richmond – Senior Prototype Analyst at Duke Energy
Brad Richmond was a member of the volunteer team from Duke Energy, who Apparo enlisted to assist our agency in selecting a new client resource management (CRM) program. While we appreciated everyone who assisted, Brad gave us invaluable insight into the best options for our agency. He took time to fully understand our needs and really explained things we needed to consider to make the best choice. In fact, he was so supportive of us, he chose to start the next phase, volunteering with another group to assist in implementing the program. We cannot adequately express how much his assistance will impact our organization for years to come! – Kim Wheeler, Crisis Assistance Ministry Gastonia
Allison Stunja – Director at Jabian Consulting
Allison Stunja provided outstanding guidance to move our newly merged organization, Loaves & Fishes/Friendship Trays, from two gift entry processes to one and to choosing a new CRM. Allison was easy to work with, asked questions that made us think, and kept us on task. Prior to meeting with her, we were a bit wary of the process. Allison and her colleague, Allen Jeffers, made it interesting and kept us engaged. They were supportive and positive, true professionals. They even recruited a volunteer group of Jabian employees to come pack food boxes. How cool is that! Tina Postel, CEO, always says DREAM BIG, so we did! Our dream of a more efficient gift entry process and new CRM is now becoming a reality. We anticipate saving over 1,000 staff hours that will be used to recruit, steward, and retain donors! We are so grateful to Allison for helping us achieve this dream which will most importantly, allow us to feed our neighbors in need!” – Lucy Mitchell, Loaves and Fishes/Friendship Trays
Derik Timmerman – Founder at Sparrow Nonprofit Solutions
We were incredibly grateful to have had Derik’s coaching style that ultimately allowed us to be in the driver’s seat with implementation but with active support. He really sought to understand Foster Village Charlotte as a whole before beginning to explore our specific technological needs. Having that deeper understanding as to what FVC does and who we are allowed him to be an integral part of our team. He asked great questions and prompted great internal dialogue of a people-first solution instead of just jumping right into technology needs. Derik brought an out of the box solution to our need for a client focused tracking system. His extensive knowledge of the product allowed us to move forward quickly and have the advantages of real time usage and integration. He then jumped right into helping us migrate data and work through applications vs. stopping when we had chosen the tech solution. He was such an encourager and energy-giver and we loved every minute of our time with him! – Becky Santoro, Foster Village Charlotte
Alexandra Williams, Senior Account Executive at Optomi
Alexandra served as Apparo’s Auction and Raffle Committee Chair in 2021. She helped the Development team create and lead a new committee after a two-year auction/raffle hiatus. With Alex’s hard work and commitment to her role, the Auction Committee was able to double our fundraising goal through the sale of raffle tickets and auction items at our ConnectivIT Bash. The Development team is thrilled that Alex has agreed to stay on board as the committee Chair for the 2022 ConnectivIT Ball. With all the lessons learned in 2021, we are looking forward to even more success in 2022. – Cerys Humphreys, Apparo
TIMELINE
- Two-week nomination period: Monday March 14th at 9am through Friday March 25th at 11:59pm
- Nominees announced: Thursday March 31st
- Two-week voting period: Thursday March 31st at 9am through Wednesday April 13th at 11:59pm.
- Winner announced: Wednesday April 26th at Volunteer Appreciation Event and on social media after announcing to attendees.
Eligibility/rules:
- Nominations must come from nonprofits who received Apparo volunteer support through an Apparo program in 2021.
- Nonprofits may only nominate a volunteer who worked with them in 2021 through an Apparo program. If the work began before 2021 and/or continues into 2022, you may nominate them. However, if the work ended before 2021 or did not begin until 2022, you may not nominate them this year.
- One nomination per nonprofit organization.
- Anyone may vote for one winner from the nominations.
- Any individual can only vote once.