Employees Giving Back
The Discovery Impact corporate citizenship initiatives leverage the power of Discovery’s brands, businesses and employees to give back and make a direct impact on the communities in which we live and work.
Discover Your Impact Day
Discover Your Impact Day is Discovery’s global day of employee volunteerism taking place each year. Started in 2010 to celebrate Discovery’s 25th anniversary, Impact Day brings the Discovery family into their local communities to give back to organizations that support land, water, and people, and underscores our commitment to the people and places of the world that inspire our on-air stories.
Discover Your Impact Day 2017 took place on June 16 and featured:
- Over 4,000 employees from 60 offices and in 37 countries.
- Nearly 200 different projects including a BBQ for veterans, maintenance of animal exhibits at a zoo, and a field day with deserving youth.
- Staff who could not leave the office participated in a variety of on-site projects, including making lunches for homeless shelters and making dog and cat toys for a local shelter.
Say Yes to the Prom
In 2011, Discovery Communications created Say Yes to the Prom, a prom dress donation drive and outreach event aimed at outfitting high school students with prom attire. Initially held at our global headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., that program has since evolved into a nationwide initiative to remove the financial burden of prom for deserving high school students and prepare them as they look ahead towards college and careers. In 2017, Say Yes to the Prom hosted events in five U.S. cities to impact nearly 1,000 academically high-achieving and underserved high school girls and boys with a day of prom dress shopping, tuxedo rentals, and one-on-one style sessions with TLC’s Monte Durham of Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta. Educational extensions including scholarship, mentorship and internship opportunities extend the impact of the program for participants long beyond prom night.
Discovery Impact: Creating Change
Discovery Impact: Creating Change is Discovery Communications’ pro bono creative initiative, utilizing the power of our employee workforce to fulfill design, marketing, communications and operational work on behalf of local nonprofit organizations.
Creating Change took place last year in the Silver Spring, New York and LA offices from November 2016 – February 2017. Over the course of three months, Discovery employees fulfilled work that included business planning, event conception, promotional materials, websites, pamphlets, logos, and PSAs. The event featured more than 125 Discovery employees donating over 2,200 hours of work to fulfill creative requests from 20 selected organizations. Additionally, 50 nonprofit representatives participated in the Creating Change Conference, a companion event to the pro bono initiative, featuring one-on-one sessions and seminars with Discovery executives.
Please email: Impact@discovery.com if you are interested in being added to our distribution list for information about upcoming Creating Change events.
Dollars for Doers
Dollars for Doers is the latest program to join Discovery’s Impact portfolio. Launched in celebration of Discovery’s 30th Anniversary in 2015, Dollars for Doers is a unique opportunity to make a significant contribution to employees’ personal causes, bring their talent and passion to organizations around the world and continue the company’s purpose-driven approach. Through this initiative, qualified nonprofits are eligible to receive a $3,000 donation after an employee completes 30 hours of their personal time towards community service with that organization.
Disaster Relief
As a purpose-driven company, Discovery is committed to helping fellow communities in times of greatest need. Through a partnership with GlobalGiving, Discovery responds to natural disasters around the world, matching employee donations to many disaster relief efforts throughout the year. In 2017, Discovery launched 10 employee matching campaigns to help victims of flooding in Texas and South Asia, the earthquake in Mexico, mudslides in Sierra Leone, and more.
Discovery Impact: Rebuilding Atlantic City
In May 2013, more than 125 Discovery Communications’ employees and on-air talent, including Buddy Valastro of TLC’s CAKE BOSS and Animal Planet’s Dave Salmoni, traveled to a suburb of Atlantic City, New Jersey to rebuild homes devastated by Superstorm Sandy. By partnering with the local Habitat for Humanity affiliate, employees and on-air talent were able to rebuild and rehabilitate 10 homes for families displaced by the storm’s flooding. To view the photos from our trip, click here to visit our Facebook page album.
Discovery Impact: Rebuilding Alabama
In September 2011, More than 125 Discovery Communications’ employees and on-air talent from across the U.S. traveled to tornado-ravaged communities in Alabama to work with Greater Birmingham Habitat for Humanity on major home rebuilds and rehabilitations for affected residents of the Pleasant Grove, Jasper and Center Point suburbs. To view photos from our trip click here.
Discovery Networks Northern Europe
Discovery Networks Northern Europe partners with a number of local charities in the countries in which it operates.
In Norway, Discovery Networks promotes UNICEF, a charity that provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries, by dedicating one evening of programming to the charity to raise awareness and attract supporters to the cause.
In the UK, Discovery Networks are proud supporters of ChildLine, a confidential helpline dedicated to supporting children in the UK, as well as Media Trust, the UK’s leading communications charity that works with the media industry to empower hundreds of charities and communities to have a voice and be heard.
Discovery Networks UK & Ireland also supports a number of children’s organizations, such as ‘Get Packing’ – a drive to donate backpacks containing stationery to a local school in need, and a ‘Reading Scheme’ where a number of employees visit the school on a weekly basis to listen to children read.
Discovery Networks Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa
Discovery Networks Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) is active in supporting various social initiatives across its 109 countries.
Discovery Russia goes pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month
In Russia and Ukraine, TLC helps bring attention to Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Past awareness initiatives include an on-air and online “Go Pink with TLC” campaign, which was supported by Russian and Ukrainian celebrities and editors-in-chief of key female glossies like Glamour and Women’s Health. Discovery Networks Russia has also engaged in anti-smoking initiatives with an on-air, anti-nicotine campaign on Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet.
Discovery Networks Romania is one of the patrons of the Bucharest Science Festival, which includes exhibitions, conferences, debates and experiments for all science fans. In the past, Discovery Channel, along with the Romanian Association for Artificial Intelligence, organized the event “Career in Science?” – a debate meant to explore what it means to devote your career to the pursuit of knowledge.
In Germany, Discovery has partnered with Balu und Du, a non-profit organization and child mentor program, as well as ArtNations e.V., an international arts association based in Munich, to launch “Discovery LifeStories.” The project endeavors to connect people of all ages and backgrounds to produce creative art pieces and provide them with a great, cooperative art, experience.
In 2014, TLC Poland joined forces with the Polish Foundation, an NGO committed to helping children in need, and a number of media patrons, to launch the “TLC Bridal Run,” an annual charity run collecting funds for the disabled.
Discovery Networks Southern Europe
Discovery Networks Southern Europe is proud to support CAF Onlus. CAF is a non-profit based in Italy dedicated to helping victims of child abuse. CAF offers a safe home and environment for children rescued from disruptive households.
Discovery Celebrando Mexico
“Discovery Celebrando Mexico” (Discovery Celebrating Mexico) is an annual initiative that promotes local outstanding personalities and success stories in conjunction with Mexico’s Independence Day, which is observed in the month of September.
The program aims to inspire Mexicans through the work and efforts of fellow citizens who are making a difference in society, both in Mexico and abroad, and is comprised of several activities including an annual event to officially recognize said personalities, and an on-air campaign showcasing the work of the awardees, which is cross-promoted for one year across Discovery’s portfolio of networks in Mexico. In addition, these personalities make the commitment to further the positive message of this program by becoming “Discovery Ambassadors” for one year, participating in speaking engagements and other activities secured by Discovery Networks Mexico.