WP Engine Raises $30K for Central Texas Food Bank

WP Engine employees are rarely hungry. Our office kitchens are fully stocked with cereal and snacks, and lunch is catered Monday through Thursday, every week, for the entire team. Unlike the 46,000 people who rely on Central Texas Food Bank for food assistance every week, our employees don’t have to worry about where to find their next meal. That contrast is not lost on us.   

Based in part on our core value of Aspiring to Lead, Committed to Give Back, we have partnered with Central Texas Food Bank since 2014, volunteering nearly 700 hours and donating more than $20,000 to help fight hunger in our community.

In an effort to rally the WP Engine family to donate even more in 2019, our Founder and CTO, Jason Cohen, challenged us with an offer to match up to $5,000 in donations to Central Texas Food Bank. We decided to make our donations during Amplify Austin, an annual day dedicated to supporting Austin’s local nonprofits, with a goal of raising $10,000 ($5,000 from employees and $5,000 matched by Jason).

Then things got interesting!  

As employee donations began to flood in, Jason announced our fundraiser to his network on Twitter, leading to two incredible offers to match his $5,000. Employees, friends, and family continued to donate for two weeks in amounts ranging from $5 to $3,000.

At the end of Amplify Austin, we had crushed our initial $10,000 goal and donated nearly $30,000 to Central Texas Food Bank!  

We are overwhelmed by the internal and external support we received, and we are incredibly thankful for substantial support from our partners and friends Josh and Amy Baer, Dharmesh Shah, Tony Perez, Eugene Sepulveda, Lee Wittlinger, and Mark Gillette for going above and beyond by joining us in living our values.

We’re also thrilled that the company-wide culture at WP Engine is one that supports and fosters causes like these, and that our individual employees approach giving back with such an enthusiastic amount of energy.

In addition to the numerous causes WP Engine supports throughout the year, our Give Back Committee, made up entirely of WP Engine employee-volunteers, meets regularly to discuss ways we can boost and improve our culture of giving. Aspiring to Lead, Committed to Give Back isn’t just a phrase, it’s a part of our company fabric and a key theme that will always inform the way we reach out to our wider community.