The Flammario Organization Blog

As you probably know, volunteering can help build stronger communities as well as aiding those in need. Of course, adjusting your workload so that you’re free to volunteer can squander some of that very same free time. It hardly needs pointing out, if volunteering becomes a group effort with co-workers, it’s likely to be more enjoyable.

Companies like Adaptive Marketing LLC, a firm from Connecticut that developed financial benefits programs such as Shopping Essentials Plus, are making themselves points of organization enabling their employees to find the time to pitch in.

If you were asked for examples of company-backed volunteer work, you’d most likely talk in terms of blood drives, maybe an annual call for donations, nothing more, but that’s no longer the case in today’s world. Looking at just one company, Adaptive Marketing has offered staff a chance to participate in everything from running shoe recycling campaigns to tree-planting events. By centralizing the organization individual initiatives became events, with specific dates, locations and times posted early to make time management easy for those signing up.

Naturally, it’s essential to let volunteers choose activities in line with their own interests. Staffers from Adaptive Marketing can choose from a selection of local drives. When looking for things to do you see so many; working with young adults, lending a hand to environmental activities, or supporting local theater among others. Adaptive Marketing’s staff are certain to choose a project they’ll enjoy taking part in, ensuring they’ll spend their time happily as well as effectively. A regularly scheduled day or a big one-off event – this is how a business usually arranges volunteer initiatives like these, maybe at a local school or the homeless shelter in town. Staffers may well say that they have no time to give, but usually even they can often find the hours to help at an event taking up just a single day. It’s common practice for businesses to assist the people living around their premises. The activities of those who work at businesses such as Adaptive Marketing spread valuable goodwill in their hometown. The real bonus is, one of the benefits of helping others is feeling better about yourself – an upbeat feeling that leaves not just the worker but the whole firm more upbeat. Encouraging your staff members to find the time to volunteer becomes its own reward.

Veteran private equity firm Kravis Kohlberg and Roberts (KKR) has spawned an internship program for promising minority students. Partnering with the Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), KKR kicked off the Alternative Investment Fellowship Program last April.

Under the program, four or six aspiring financial analysts of color would go through training and mentoring for 18 months. After this period, students may graduate to take on associate jobs at KKR.

In an industry still dominated by whites, the Alternative Investment Fellowship Program tries to create a more racially diverse workforce. William Goodloe, CEO of SEO, said, “Focusing on the private equity industry is a natural next step in SEO’s evolution…in creating successful workplace diversity programs.”

Founded in 1963, SEO has long sponsored internship programs that sign up talented minority students. Its flagship program, SEO Career, has produced more than 5,000 graduates, a fount of talent for investment banks, corporate law firms, and world-class companies.

Joseph Bae, a KKR executive in Asia, is an alumnus of SEO’s Career Program. “A diverse workplace is a proven competitive advantage and a business imperative. We recognize that we – and the private equity industry overall – can do more to engage with talented professionals of color when hiring young executives,” he said. Indeed, KKR has pledged its commitment to the fellowship for three years.

Henry Kravis, his cousin George Roberts, and Jerome Kohlberg built their eponymous private equity firm in 1976. Pioneers in the industry, the trio instigated some of the most storied leveraged buyouts in history, including the takeover of RJR Nabisco in 1988.

Prior to launching this world-renowned alternative asset manager, Henry Kravis and company worked at Bear Stearns & Co. Today, Henry Kravis and George Roberts share KKR’s reins as CEO. Kohlberg had resigned in 1987.

Malignant mesothelioma is a unusual and aggressive tumor for which no successful therapy exists in spite of the breakthrough of several potential molecular targets. The final stages of MPM diagnosis and the long time that exists connects some exposures and diagnosis have made it difficult to completely evaluate the role of risk factors and the insuing molecular effects.

Many health centres are now seeing an increasing amount of people that have peritoneal mesothelioma. Because of this, pathologists studying the case are given a number of problems, that are divided into those discovered in making the distinction between malignant mesothelioma and benign changes and those seen in separating malignant mesotheliomas from additional types of epithelial and connecting tissue tumors. Immunohistochemistry is a major factor in diagnosis, nevertheless it should be understood with due regard to the clinical setting and radiological features, and with an understanding of the vast morphological variations existing in malignant mesothelioma.

Malignant mesothelioma is a cancer affecting the serosal cavities, an anatomical site that is frequently affected by mets, largely from primary cancers of the breast, ovary and lung. Developments in immunohistochemistry have caused an enhanced diagnostic sensitivity and exactness in the differential diagnosis regarding cytological and histological material. Recently, the authors group employed high throughput technology to the classification of new signs that might assist in being able to tell the difference between mesothelioma from ovarian and peritoneal cancer, tumors with closely related histogenesis and antigenic profile. Together with the improved tools obtainable for cancer of the serosa diagnosis, knowing the biology of mesothelioma has increased recently.

Oxford and Cambridge, the two leading universities in Britain, recently received significant donations as a result of the schools’ respective campaigns to raise funds for education and outreach.

One of the philanthropists, Michael Moritz, is a partner at Sequoia Capital, a US-based venture capital firm. In addition, former New York Times journalist Harriet Heyman donated a total of $50-million to the University of Oxford in response to the university’s recent announcement of a campaign to raise $2.5-billion.

Cambridge University has also received generous amounts from generous philanthropists. Software businessmen Ros and Steve Edwards made a substantial amount of money through the sale of their company. To celebrate their success, they donated $60 million of the sale to Cambridge university. Similar to Oxford, the University of Cambridge also launched a campaign to help raise $2-billion to further its educational programs and compete as one of the top schools in the world.

Both Oxford and Cambridge universities are aiming to raise funds in order to be able to contend with the wealth of United States-based Ivy League universities to allow them to remain competitive. The universities are also aiming to expand their admittance policies to allow more qualified but underprivileged students to become members of the university. These reforms will come to fruition as a result of the donations made by the aforementioned British philanthropists.

Learn more about philanthropists such as Stephen Schwarzman on Faces of Philanthropy.

Stephen Schwarzman was recently honored by Phoenix House, the nation’s leading non-profit drug treatment and education organization.

Stephen Schwarzman is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Kennedy Center.