Stark's Journey To Giving Back

Many of our blogs serve to educate our community on health and fitness.   But I want to take moment to share with you a highly impactful pivot we made as a company four years ago that will hopefully inspire other businesses to do the same.

 Four years ago, I started hearing about the concept of “corporate social responsibility.”  A friend and fellow business owner kept mentioning that charitable work was transforming his business. I was curious, and frankly, slightly skeptical. But at the same time, I couldn't shake this feeling of responsibility that I have always felt because of the opportunities I have been given throughout my life.

I decided it was time for Stark to step up and start giving back. Once we started giving back it led to a boost in our employee engagement, and I even found myself changing.  Our referrals increased, our student and employee retention improved, all of which resulted in a very vibrant small business. I never expected to see those benefits for our company; we only sought to give.  But these positive changes only inspired us to give more.

Currently, I serve on the board of CASA of Orange County, and our coaches and other employees are involved in various methods of volunteering and fundraising efforts to support this organization, as well as a handful of others. Also, every year Stark holds the Stark Naked Competition, where competitors raise money for a variety of charities.  And lastly, in an attempt to use our skills and resources to have the biggest impact possible, we have invested heavily in the health and fitness of nonprofit leaders in our community.  We believe that healthy, high-performing individuals will lead healthy, high-performing organizations, which will result in far more lives being impacted by our work.

Since making the decision to invest in our community and give back, we are a different company than we were four years ago.

But the organization we have partnered with most recently, and one that we are extremely proud to be a part of, is 100 Companies That Care.  This organization was started by Tyler Mounce, and Stark is grateful to have been one of the founding members. 100 Companies That Care exists to foster a culture of philanthropy within the business community in Orange County.  And we hope our participation and success with giving back to the community will inspire other small businesses to join.