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Scott Branham, chief financial officer of ORNL, manned the dunking booth for the Facilities and Operations Directorate’s ORNL Gives campaign. All ORNL directorates sponsored fundraisers in 2022. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
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ORNL’s Energy Science and Technology Directorate donated to the Love Kitchen, one of several area nonprofits supported by 2022’s ORNL Gives campaign. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
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Scott Branham, chief financial officer of ORNL, manned the dunking booth for the Facilities and Operations Directorate’s ORNL Gives campaign. All ORNL directorates sponsored fundraisers in 2022. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
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ORNL’s Energy Science and Technology Directorate donated to the Love Kitchen, one of several area nonprofits supported by 2022’s ORNL Gives campaign. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Employees of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory gave nearly $786,000 to local nonprofits through the lab’s employee giving programs in 2022. ORNL’s managing contractor, UT-Battelle, provided an additional $151,000 in corporate contributions.
The contributions support the efforts of 128 different nonprofit organizations in the region, including Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, United Way, Isaiah 117 House, CASA of the Tennessee Heartland, Ronald McDonald House Charities, YoSTEM, Oak Ridge Computer Science Girls and the Boys and Girls Club of Oak Ridge.
“To be part of a community means to support and to serve your neighbors, and ORNL employees did that in 2022,” said interim ORNL Director Jeff Smith. “I’m proud of our staff’s commitment to give back to the community through giving and volunteering.”
The lab’s workplace giving program, ORNL Gives, emphasizes flexibility so that employees can donate or volunteer to support as many nonprofits as they prefer. Last year’s campaign took advantage of on-site fundraisers, tailgates and tours as more employees returned to the lab’s campus.
Steve Ventura, associate general counsel, served as co-chair of ORNL Gives, alongside Kate Evans, division director for computational sciences and engineering. The pair helped coordinate campaign activities and educate employees about opportunities to engage and give back to the East Tennessee community.
“The community we live in supports us, and so we want to support them, not just with our science but by helping those who need it,” Ventura said. “It’s been a privilege to connect with colleagues across the laboratory and witness their spirit of generosity.”
The other contributing programs include:
Matching Gifts Fund — ORNL matches employee contributions to 501(c)(3)s up to $500 with a $1,000 cap for each organization each year.
Team UT-Battelle — This volunteer service program connects ORNL employees with outreach and enrichment opportunities to benefit Oak Ridge and communities across East Tennessee.
Disaster Relief — Employees can contribute to specific disaster aid projects through the East Tennessee Foundation. Employees raised more than $4,300 and UT-Battelle donated $9,500 for hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.
