WESTFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTCT), a market leader of service assurance solutions, today announced that its Heart of Giving community program became the first partner of the Greater Lowell Community Foundation, Center for Business Philanthropy, for the purpose of building relationships with nonprofits and engaging employees in learning about issues and opportunities in their own community of Greater Lowell and Lawrence.
“Since the mission of Greater Lowell Community Foundation is to connect businesses and individuals to the needs of their communities, we worked on an innovative grant process where NetScout employees would identify, listen to, and select a nonprofit partner,” said Susan Winship, executive director, Greater Lowell Community Foundation. “We encourage businesses and their employees to initiate projects and build volunteer teams to create positive change in their own communities, and Gaining Ground, an organic farm in Concord MA that supplies local food pantries and soup kitchens with fresh produce, is the first grant recipient of NetScout’s entry into this process with us.”
“Through Heart of Giving we have been able to support and encourage our employees to build strong relationships with organizations in our community,” said Michael Szabados, chief operating officer of NetScout. “With corporate philanthropy at the heart of the culture at NetScout, we strive to grow our local community presence, leverage our technology resources and encourage our talented employees to join new programs to serve and maintain our communities.”
The Grant Process
The grant process was a learning experience for employees; from reading a grant proposal to learning about the organizations in the community and filtering through the worthy applications in order to select the finalists. Three finalists were selected and invited to NetScout to share how their organizations would best serve the community, how they would use the grant funds, and their ideas for employee community service projects. The grant of $10K awarded by NetScout attracted 16 grant proposals, and the partner organization was selected from a vote made by over 100 employees. Award recipient Gaining Ground will put those funds to good use making some much needed greenhouse repairs as well as partnering with NetScout employees on other projects during the year.
The NetScout Heart of Giving efforts include disaster relief, community service projects, non-profit board service, employee matching gifts and corporate charitable contributions.
About Greater Lowell Community Foundation
The Greater Lowell Community Foundation fosters community growth and development through funding, leadership, and collaboration to transform the lives of the individuals and organizations we serve. We fulfill this mission in the following ways: grant giving to nonprofit organizations, high-school scholarships, and special funding initiatives; working in partnership with our donors and other funders to achieve high impact philanthropy; and serving as a convener and center of information where ideas are shared, to leverage common agendas and resources in the future.
The Foundation leverages the philanthropic spirit of citizens, families, corporations and nonprofits to best meet the challenges of changing times. The generosity of our donors has enabled the Community Foundation to award more than $7.5 million to the Greater Lowell Community since 1999.
About Gaining Ground
Gaining Ground grows organic produce for hunger relief with help from volunteers of all ages and abilities. By giving all of the food away – for free – Gaining Ground can focus on meeting the needs of volunteers and the emergency food programs supported. In 2014, 3 farmers on 7 acres worked with 2200 volunteers to grow over 57,000 pounds of organic produce distributed to 10 hunger relief partner organizations within 20 miles of the farm.
About NetScout Systems, Inc.
NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTCT) is the market leader in service assurance solutions that enable enterprise and service provider organizations to assure the quality of the user experience for business and mobile services. NetScout technology helps these organizations proactively manage service delivery and identify emerging performance problems, helping to quickly resolve issues that cause business disruptions or negatively impact users of information technology.
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