It’s not too late to offer employee giving at your workplace through Community Shares of Mid Ohio. During workplace giving campaigns, Community Shares collects donations for its coalition of more than 50 nonprofits. Each individual donor selects a charity or group of charities to receive their donation based on which organization is working on the issues and causes they care about most in their community. These donations have been beneficial to many of the member nonprofits of Community Shares. Contributions from employees at workplaces across Columbus and Central Ohio have allowed: NNEMAP Food Pantry and Neighborhood Services to purchase food for local residents in need, Habitat for Humanity – MidOhio to acquire supplies to build homes for families in need and to revitalize neighborhoods, WrightChoice prepare students with a disability for internships and employment and many more services from great local nonprofits. “Employee contributions through our workplace giving campaigns are a great way to connect individuals to their community,” Teresa Trost, Executive Director of Community Shares of Mid Ohio explained. “It really is like a layaway program for giving back. Employees can give a larger donation to a local nonprofit because the payment is broken up over the course of the year making it really affordable for anyone to contribute.” Workplaces can still offer workplace giving campaigns this year or opt in now to begin planning for 2014. Community Shares works one-on-one with each workplace to create a workplace giving program that works best for their culture and employees. For businesses interested in offering Community Shares, information is available on their website at www.communityshares.net.