News
Our Promise Launches New Website
Popular State of California giving campaign revamps site as part of its 60th anniversary
California’s Our Promise organization unveiled its new website today – showcasing a modern, user friendly design aimed at making charitable giving even easier. Since 1957, Our Promise: California State Employees Giving at Work has offered California State employees the opportunity to utilize payroll deductions to support charitable organizations they feel passionate about. The redesigned website is part of the organization’s 60th anniversary celebration, featuring new functionalities such as enhanced navigation and more streamlined search capabilities.
Brightening the day one petal at a time
The Petal Connection
Our Promise Loaned Executive and long time supporter of the campaign, Danielle Gist, was recently reminded of the good in our community.
Our Promise Campaign Names New Co Vice-Chairs
Batjer and Frost to provide guidance for annual fundraiser
As part of its 60th anniversary celebration, Our Promise has announced two new Co Vice-Chairs for its 2017 fundraising program. In their respective roles, Marybel Batjer, Secretary of the California Government Operations Agency and Marcie Frost, CEO of CalPERS will play an integral part in the advancement efforts of the Our Promise annual giving campaign. Our Promise: California State Employees Giving at Work, has provided a single charitable fund-raising drive in the State community since its inception in 1957. To celebrate its decades-long track record of giving, the organization plans to rally its current and retired employee community to secure $6.4 million during its upcoming campaign.
Our Promise Campaign Celebrates 60 Years
Popular State of California employee giving program aims to raise $6.4 million
To mark a diamond jubilee of charitable giving, California’s Our Promise organization announced today its plans for a multimillion-dollar fundraising campaign as part of an annual commitment to its network of non-profits. Our Promise: California State Employees Giving at Work, has provided a single charitable fund-raising drive in the State community since its inception in 1957. To celebrate its 60th anniversary, the organization plans to rally its current and retired employee community to raise $6.4 million in its upcoming campaign.
Help welcome our 2017 Leadership Team
This year, we have 40 leadership team members, and counting, joining the Our Promise campaign, some veterans and some new! We are excited to get started on the upcoming campaign.
2017 Our Promise Loaned Executives Needed
Are you passionate about giving back to your community and raising funds for the many nonprofits in need? If so, we need you!
Our Promise Loaned Executives act as full-time account managers during this state-mandated charitable drive. There are many benefits to your department/division for loaning an executive including strengthening external relations with other state departments/divisions and increasing leadership skills. Not to mention all the benefits to you the employee who is able to create networking opportunities, increase leadership ability, and have a deeper insight into the community’s needs.
2016 Campaign Results
Here you will find information for 2016 that includes the total number of employees, how many of those participated in the campaign, and how much money those employees raised.
Our Promise Thank You Breakfast & Awards 2016
Thank you for attending the 2016 Our Promise Thank You Breakfast! We appreciate everything you do to make the Our Promise campaign a huge success.
The event honored our committed and hard-working department and agency Chairs, Vice Chairs and other campaign volunteers, who worked to spread the word about the opportunity to give back, and the 32,000 state employees who contributed to Our Promise: California State Employees Giving at Work.
Secretary Marybel Batjer receives the Augustus Freeman Hawkins Award
Secretary Marybel Batjer, Government Operations Agency, was awarded the Augustus Freeman Hawkins Award of Distinguished Merit in Community Service at the Our Promise Thank You Breakfast event on March 1, 2017.
The award was presented by Tabitha Angel, Director of Our Promise. The award celebrates the vision of the man who created Our Promise, Augustus Freeman Hawkins.
Making Strides and Warming Lives
Bari and Service Dog Axel III
Bari Schlesinger was once unable to pick up items that she dropped on the floor. She once relied on others to open doors. She once feared going places alone.
Thanks to the help of Canine Companions for Independence, Bari no longer strains herself to retrieve dropped items, she doesn’t need to wait for strangers to come along and open doors, and gone are the days of anxiety and doubt. Bari is now a self-assured and independent individual with her wonderful Canine Companions assistance dog, Axel III, provided to her free of charge.
Handing Out Hope
Steve Abrams, Office of Legislative Counsel
Growing up without many basic resources can be a burden to children who come from impoverished families. This struggle has always been close to my heart since I myself grew up in a single parent household where we struggled to get by on just the basic necessities. When I became an adult I realized that I had the power to do something good that could help make a child’s life a little easier. As an 18 year youth sports coach I realized that I had collected so much baseball gear, and I knew that I could put it to good use.
Senior Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor Shares The Gift Of A Guide Dog
When John Albarran lost his sight to glaucoma, he quickly figured out how to move forward in his life. By the age of 17, before he had graduated from high school, Albarran was a Guide Dogs of America graduate. He is currently partnered with his fourth dog from the school, a female yellow Labrador Retriever named Julep.
Giving to Nonprofits Makes Me Feel Good
We all like to think that we are safe and secure, but one incident or accident can surprise and shock us. In 1980, my father had a massive stroke, and my mother was instantly transformed into a 24-hour caregiver for a person who had severe speech and mobility issues.
Beating the Odds
Our Promise: California State Employees Giving at Work is a campaign that allows employees to give to a variety of charitable organizations that are vitally important to the community. I am a member and in great support of Our Promise because I have had five kidney transplants.
Survivors of Torture, International
I have worked as an attorney for the State of California my entire professional career, beginning at the Department of Justice, then at the Office of the Inspector General, and currently at the Board of Parole Hearings. But long before that, I spent a year as an exchange student in Argentina at a time when the country was still ruled by a military junta.
Autism Speaks
And Can Sign Too
I am Ken Roberts Sr., a Lieutenant with the California Highway Patrol Commercial Vehicle Section; I have been with the Department for over 17 years. When he was 2 months old, my son Ken Roberts Jr. had emergency surgery for pyloric stenosis.
A Father’s Love
My name is Armando and I am a Hearing Officer at the San Bernardino Driver Safety office. I have been a Hearing Officer for over 2 years, and have been a state employee for close to 10 years.