Honored and beyond excited to share with you all our latest guest on Changemakers from Within, Chad Kilpatrick! Chad is the Head of Talent Community and Social Impact at Spreetail!
Spreetail is an e-commerce company based in Lincoln, Nebraska, dedicated to making customers’ lives better and easier through high-quality shopping experiences; great home, garden, & backyard products; and best in class service. On top of this, Spreetail places a heavy focus on their social impact programming, and is working everyday to make our communities a better place.
Grounded? Volunteer.
As our culture and the ability to make a real dent in companies has transformed and evolved over the past 4-5 years, Chad decided to make a career pivot that would incorporate the “doing good” mentality that has been instilled in him for years. Spreetail has been doing a lot in the tech community for a long time, and when they reached out Chad to lead recruitment to Nebraska, it was an easy decision for him to make the move.
Chad's Impact
“You probably have already bought from us and didn’t even know it,” Chad tells us. When describing the kind of work Spreetail does, Chad explained that the company has warehouses throughout the country where they buy products from vendors and store in our warehouses and can ship very quickly. (AKA, if you buy something from Amazon and it comes in Fedex packaging, it could have come from Spreetail!) Ultimately, Spreetail helps brands get on multiple marketplaces at once and helps grow their presence online.
Chad’s role specifically is unique in that he wears many different hats. When he joined the company, he led the talent acquisition team. After a strategic change to pursue marketplace selling over direct B2C selling, Chad was offered to bring along community impact, social impact and employee branding to the company.
Spreetail for Good
One of the initiatives, called New Beginnings, was built in 2016 and is committed to providing over 500 mattresses this year for families transitioning from homelessness to stable living. This staple Spreetail program finds needs in communities that aren’t being met and truly makes tangible impacts for people in need.
Strategic programming doesn’t nearly stop there for Spreetail. Recognition is an important part of the company; every quarter employees pick a community leader of the quarter, and allow them to pick a nonprofit or two to donate $1500 to. Donation matching, paid time off to volunteer for both hourly and salary employees, and a celebratory yearly volunteer week, are also core parts of Spreetail as a company.
Makin Big Moves
Last month, Spreetail made a big announcement. The company is giving over $400,000 dollars to nonprofits in Nebraska. The largest donation, over $100,000, is going to Visionary Youth, a Lincoln organization which provides free haircuts, backpacks, clothing and other supplies to low-income children. Other organizations Spreetail will donate to include the Malone Center, I Be Black Girl Collective, and the Lincoln Children’s Museum.
What a perfect example of the kind of amazing work Spreetail does!
As for what’s next for Spreetail, Chad tells us he wants to find that next “New Beginnings” – a need not being met that Spreetail can help with. “We want to continue to hire great individuals that want to be a part of the community.
Millie provides workplace giving programs of all kinds. Discover simple donation matching, volunteer opportunities, organize your affinity groups, gamify your events and more!
