Culture Spotlight: Giving Back to the Community Through Sift Cares

Sift Science is making the internet a safer place, but that doesn’t mean we can’t also contribute to bettering the lives of people in the communities where we live and work.

We Sifties are all very lucky to work at Sift Science and to call San Francisco and Seattle “home.” Knowing that, we wanted to find a way to shut down our laptops, leave our desks, and get involved in our local communities. In 2016, a group of Sifties organized our first community event – a holiday gift drive. The drive wound up being a resounding success, with participation across departments, leading to a group coming together to spearhead the philanthropic arm of the company: Sift Cares.

The main goal of Sift Cares is to bring Sifties together in a variety of passive and active volunteer events. The former includes activities such as gift drives, while the latter involves getting out into the community to participate in a wide range of work, from beach cleanups to serving food in a shelter. With Sifties spread out between San Francisco and Seattle, organizing a mix of passive and active volunteer work allows us to come together in spirit, even if the geographic divide prevents us from doing so literally.

Sifties organize events independently and have worked with groups that provide aid to people, animals, and the environment through a variety of means. Working together to make a positive impact in our communities creates a sense of both camaraderie and fulfillment.

2017 was a prolific year for Sift Cares, with 75 Sifties participating in 15 events ranging from offsite group events to gift drives. Some of the organizations we worked with included SF-Marin Food Bank to pack boxes of food for low-income families, Family Dog Rescue to help socialize homeless dogs to prep them for adoption, and 1951 Coffee to provide job training for refugees and asylees.

The future looks bright for Sift Cares! We look forward to working with many of the organizations we teamed up with last year, as well as with new organizations that will provide even more fulfilling volunteer experiences – whether they’re in San Francisco or Seattle!