Did you know that 48 percent of California’s seniors lack sufficient income to cover housing and meals? That means two out of every five seniors have to choose between paying rent and having enough money for food. Serving Seniors is a 501c3 nonprofit that minimizes the financial burden faced by thousands of San Diego seniors. Since 1970, Serving Seniors has offered vital services including food, health care, housing, social and educational opportunities. It is the only organization of its kind in the county, and one of few in the country, to provide for the fundamental needs of seniors. Food and housing top the organization’s list of priorities. Seniors ages 60 and older are eligible for congregate meals and physical, mental, and social health services. Seniors 62 and older are eligible for those services as well as permanent affordable housing at the organization’s communities in East Village and City Heights. There is also a transitional housing program for seniors facing housing insecurity. “Meals and affordable housing are the most-needed services we offer,” says Shannon Fogg, Communications and Special Events Manager at Serving Seniors. “San Diegans can always volunteer to help serve meals or lead classes. Any kind of class is typically interesting to our curious seniors.” Serving Seniors understands that clients have needs beyond the necessities. Learning and socialization opportunities give seniors a chance to make new friends, learn new skills and develop existing abilities. To maintain mental and physical agility, seniors participate in classes for low or no costs. Yoga, Tai Chi, interactive games, art, crafts, and health education classes are just of few opportunities for mature adult learners. The Civic Engagement league empowers low-income seniors to address challenges that impact their community. They participate in volunteer opportunities, brainstorm and execute solutions to community issues....

Atlanta summers are known for their sweltering heat and ruthless humidity. Those conditions were no match for Yardi Atlanta. The team of eight braved the heat to show their support for babies during the March of Dimes March for Babies. Supported by donations from fellow team members, their efforts helped to give hope and support to babies and their families. March of Dimes was born as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, a response to President Franklin Roosevelt’s personal struggle with polio and his desire to see the disease eradicated. The organization fought and achieved its mission to end polio in the United States before turning its attention to broader services. The nonprofit now supports March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center in its fight for healthy babies. The center leads in groundbreaking research on the genetic causes of birth defects, screening methods, as well as pregnancy education for medical professionals and the general public. March of Dimes and the Prematurity Research Center have experienced major breakthroughs. The teams created and improved surfactant therapy to treat respiratory distress. The new Folic Acid Campaign successfully reduces incidences of neural tube defects and birth defects of the brain and spine. The organizations also founded a system of regional neonatal intensive care centers for premature and sick babies. To continue the good work, March of Dimes relies on March for Babies as its primary fundraiser. There are thousands of marches across the United States each year, each one uniting teams of family members, coworkers, and friends on a journey towards a future for healthy babies. Yardi Atlanta team members Heather Humrich, Monique Benson, Ken Romero, Kami Reid, Wendy Caffrey, Shana Winbush, Charity Williams, and Elizabeth Daniels participated in the march. They represented Yardi on the walk of the...

The Corporate Training Team recently convened for its annual conference. Participants dedicated one morning of the event to volunteering at the Raleigh branch of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina (Food Bank CENC). “For my team, since we’re spread through the U.S., we only get together once a year,” says Debbie Lamberson, Team Leader, Corporate Training at Yardi. “We spend much of that time learning but this year we wanted to do team building. Everybody wants to do it again next year! It was hard work but it was exciting to know how much what we were doing was going to help seniors.” Yardi Employees Lamberson, Jamie Hall, Jon Hodgkin, Julie Taylor, Lacey Petch, Laura Guerrero, Lina Castanon, Marcus Rutherford, Patty Evans, and Steve Harris participated in the event. Cary Middle School Future Business Leaders joined Yardi employees that morning, adding a fun dynamic to the group. The team of 25 sorted and assembled packages that would be distributed to smaller food banks in the area. With their efforts combined, the volunteers completed 484 boxes for seniors in three hours, beating the organization’s record average of 450 boxes per shift. The boxes contained about 14,360 lbs of food. “The Food Bank figures 19 ounces for an average senior meal, so we created 12,101 meals,” says Lamberson. The Raleigh branch of Food Bank CENC provides relief for the vulnerable populations of 13 counties. In this region, the United States Census Bureau reports that 27.9 percent of the local population earns an income that falls below the poverty level. Food Bank CENC estimates that more than 45,500 seniors in its region live in poverty, and thousands more struggle to survive on a fixed income. Food donation packaging is just one of the many...

What do you remember most about your summers as a child? Many of us enjoyed camps and retreats during our breaks from school. For others, those activities were not an option. United Way Santa Barbara (UWSB) is working to level the playing field for a new generation of local students by providing summer enrichment for ask-risk youth. Members of the local Yardi Voyager Client Success Residential SB 2 Team recently volunteered at the UWSB Fun in the Sun (FITS) Lunch Bunch event. Volunteers included Evan Hamilton, Brandon Paul, Luke Smith, Sonia Acuna, Ryan Daley, Baron Wei, Richard Ngoy, Dan Maliniak and Jomel Esleta, Team Leader, CSD. FITS is a six-week learning program geared towards children who are academically and financially at-risk. Esleta explains, “FITS is an important program for the community because these students’ parents spend much of their time working. The children are often unsupervised during the summer and are exposed to behavioral risks. FITS provides students and their families with unique and engaging experiences to reduce and reverse ‘summer learning loss’ and narrow the achievement gap between lower-income students and their middle or upper class peers.” Summer learning loss is a condition examined and analyzed through a 20-year study at Johns Hopkins University. When students lack access to enrichment activities over the summer, they lose academic skills gained during the previous year. They are also less prepared for the upcoming school year. The affects of summer learning loss accumulate year after year, pushing the students farther behind their peers who are able to continue learning during the summer. “By ninth grade, summer learning loss can be blamed for roughly two-thirds of the achievement gap separating income groups,” says TIME Magazine. To prevent summer learning loss, volunteers help students with hands-on assignments, arts and...

Jeff Bischoff and Michael Grimaud were classmates and friends at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. But that’s not all they have in common. After graduation, both built rewarding careers on the Yardi sales team. Sales at Yardi, an industry-leading real estate technology company with offices around the world, offers many exciting opportunities for professionals of wide-ranging skill and experience. Bischoff and Grimaud entered the company out of college and quickly ascended. Other positions are suitable for experienced sales executives and customer care professionals. Both Bischoff and Grimaud began their careers in Yardi’s client services division and then moved to sales. You can learn more about available Yardi sales roles on yardi.com/careers. We recently caught up with Bischoff and Grimaud to learn more about their experience. Both have been with Yardi for about five years. Bischoff currently works as Regional Manager for Public and Affordable Housing sales, while Grimaud is a Senior Account Executive focusing on the multifamily sector. Both employees say that Yardi’s prestigious position in the real estate industry, as well as the chance to truly make an impact for the clients they work with, are among the most rewarding parts of the job. “I truly enjoy visiting clients face to face on a regular basis. To build strong relationships, it is important the client trusts you and there is no better way to do so than by sitting down and interacting, whether it be through a meeting, a presentation, or a meal.  I also enjoy providing clients with a real solution to solve their business issues. When you show a new product to a client for the first time and you can see their eyes light up – that is a great moment,” said Grimaud, who works out of the Yardi Santa...

A Texan who now makes her home in Toronto, Brittney Dolinger has an exceptional outlook on life – and a great perspective on her Yardi journey. Currently working as a team lead supporting Yardi’s Genesis2 clients, Dolinger started with Yardi more than seven years ago, when the company had an office in Dallas. “I was just in one year remission from cervical cancer,” said Dolinger, who learned about Yardi from her sister, Laci Ortiz, a 10-year Yardi employee. “My sister told me about a new vision Yardi had and was looking for exceptional customer service oriented people to help build their new call center.” After diving into her new job, she began learning the ropes of a new industry and was part of the team who helped build the Yardi Call Center in Irving, Texas. “When we moved from the Dallas office to the Irving office, I took the opportunity to step up my game. We started to have more and more clients and that comes with more responsibility. We were making a name for ourselves and working on delivering top quality customer service to the industry,” she recalled. The call center team, known among Yardi’s global offices for its camaraderie and rapport, quickly expanded and became a valued part of the Yardi Marketing Suite, where multifamily clients use RentCafe Connect to meet their after-hours customer service needs. While use of the product grew, so did the families of many of the call center employees, including Dolinger’s. “Nine of us were pregnant at the same time in the call center. We like to call them our Yardi babies,” she laughed. Her son Finn is now three and a half. After he was born, she went back to college to finish her bachelor’s degree, which...

Team Yardi Toronto recently spent time at The Scott Mission in Toronto, giving back by preparing food for those in need. The Scott Mission has been serving homeless and impoverished Toronto residents since 1941, and has played a major role in helping thousands of people return to safety and stability after living on the street. In addition to meal services, the mission provides nightly shelter for up to 50 homeless men, groceries and clothing for the impoverished, summer camps and childcare, and worship services. The mission’s 100 staff members are joined by 2,500 Toronto community members each year to make these good works possible. On June 20, that included a group of employees from Yardi Canada. “This was a team building experience as well as a very humbling way to give back to the community,” said Lee Anne Lippa, an application solutions consultant from the Toronto office. “It left us with added appreciation for our surroundings of health, family, friends, colleagues, our place to work, home to live in and the food on our table.” The Yardi team, led by senior account executive Shirleen Vieira, participated in food and dessert preparation, setting tables for two lunch servings, and a final clean up. “They serve balanced meals,” Lippa noted. “We had chicken wings, baked potato, hard-boiled egg and salad.  Others that were vegetarian with baked potato, salad, hard-boiled egg, salad and grilled eggplant and zucchini.” They served lunch to the shelter guests – which included people of all ages – with courtesy and respect for those coming to eat, which is a focus of the organization’s Christian values. Drawing from the Yardi corporate values, which include giving back to the community, the Toronto offices encourages other Yardi colleagues globally to give back in similar fashion....

The Voyager Front Line Residential Santa Barbara teams joined forces to volunteer at PATH Santa Barbara last week in the tradition of Yardi’s commitment to the community. PATH is a non-profit organization which addresses homelessness for individuals and the community. It provides services to improve their health, increase their income, and transition to stable housing. “We had a great time sorting vegetables, fruits, breads and desserts. We also helped clean the tables and set up the food. Most especially, we enjoyed serving great food to our less fortunate brothers and sisters,” said Jomel Esleta, Team Leader, CSD. “We can see the happiness in their faces when they saw the team helping out and received non-stop ‘thank yous’ from all of them,” Esleta said. “It always feels great to help other people,” said team member Evan Hamilton. In addition to Esleta and Hamilton, Yardi employees Brandon Paul, Ryan Daley, Baron Wei, Richard Ngoy and Allen Shelledy spent four hours on a Saturday at PATH. The PATH community kitchen is open 365 days a year and serves other local agencies that assist the homeless, including Common Ground, Giving Tree, Presbyterian Church, Rescue Mission, Salvation Army, Stalwart House, WillBridge, and Unity Shoppe. For information iabout volunteering at PATH in Santa Barbara, visit this...

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. As a company, one of our core values is community service. Participating in nonprofit work and giving back is a shared part of the culture at Yardi. Many of our employees give back regularly through local and global charities, volunteerism, and raising awareness. Yardi is honored to support organizations doing work to further research, prevention and education efforts in the fight against cancer. American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society (ACS) has been working to raise public awareness about cancer for over 100 years. Founded in 1913, the ACS started as a small group of committed doctors and civilians with one mission: to fight back against the disease.  In the late 1930’s, the organization created a legion of volunteers to educate the public and fundraise. Later in 1946, the ACS expanded their programming to include cancer research, raising more than $4 million to fund the Society’s groundbreaking research and educational initiatives. The ACS has been involved in almost every major cancer research breakthrough in the last 70 years. This also includes the strategic fundraising of cancer-fighting medications, the passage of the National Cancer Act in 1971, as well as advocacy in legislation and preventative medicine. Their annual events, including Relay for Life and Making Strides, encourage community members to get involved, promotes awareness and early detection, and raises millions of dollars for cancer research and prevention education. Thanks in part to the American Cancer Society (ACS), there are nearly 14.5 million people in the United States who have survived cancer. Cancer Care for Hope CancerCare was founded in 1944 with the goal of providing free, professional support services and information to people managing the different challenges of cancer. In the past year, CancerCare has provided nearly $13 million...

In 2004, Yardi opened its doors in Glen Head, New York as part of the BJ Murray acquisition. The team of 16 employees set out to define a course for the fledgling office. “We faced the challenge of merging functionality, converting client platforms and creating a shared culture,” recalls Richard Malpica, Vice President and General Manager, Eastern US, Sales at Yardi. “I don’t know if there was an official strategy for [merging cultures]. I think we made it clear, from a Yardi perspective, that the company was committed to integrating the group and growing together,” says Malpica. “It was really a matter of understanding people’s skills and desires and plugging them into our framework. They can create a new trajectory for a long-term career with the company.” Over a span of several years, the New York office steadily found its way. Employees discovered new applications for their talents and practical ways of supporting one another along the journey. In addition to merging corporate cultures, Yardi found itself adapting to the collective New York culture. The market proved to be rich with opportunity but difficult to conquer. For the Santa Barbara-based company, the challenge of the New York market was three-fold: First, the company had to establish a local presence and reputation. “There is a New York thing, like anything from anywhere else is kind of irrelevant, right?” said the New York native. “New York clients like to know that you can jump on a train, get in a car, and be there in the afternoon or tomorrow morning. Why do you have to get anything from anywhere else? Why isn’t it here?” Once a local flavor is established, Yardi strived to form relationships in a market where loyalties are strong and tough to penetrate....