This article was originally published by Campaign.
The decision is now turning into a charitable tradition for the agency network.
Omnicom Media Group is putting its money where its mouth is this month with its Holiday Hope Charity Program.
For the second year, Omnicom Media Group’s US arm will abandon the concept of a traditional holiday party and donate money to charity.
OMG will allow employees to submit charities near and dear to their hearts and then hold a voting session to select ten charities that the staff feels is most deserving of the funds. The winning charities will be awarded $25,000 directly from OMG.
Employees will have between December 16 and December 18 to make their selections.
“The impetus for the move was pretty straightforward – we thought it would be a much better use of the money, and mean a lot more to our employees than a party,” an OMG spokesperson said.
One of last year’s Holiday of Hope recipient was Community Bots, a program dedicated to providing training for STEM-robotics for middle school girls in underserved communities.
“We spend an inordinate time together as a team and company and so it’s mission-critical to be surrounded by people and an environment that shares some of the same values that you have,” said Tracy Quitasol, Managing Director, OMD who submitted Community Bots last year.