Avalere Health Gives Back

Learn about our philanthropy and community engagement program, Avalere Health Gives Back, which supports charitable causes within healthcare and beyond throughout the year, and find out how our teams are spreading warmth and cheer this season.

At Avalere Health, our global teams are united by a common vision of imagining a healthier world by creating the connections that make it happen.

Since the introduction of our Avalere Health Gives Back program last year, our teams mobilized to bring our vision to life, supporting a charitable cause each quarter and driving community engagement efforts locally and globally. From proposing organizations that are close to their heart to going above and beyond to support those with the greatest unmet need, the past year has seen an outpouring of generosity at Avalere Health.

The seasonal calendar provides our team with opportunities to support a breadth of charities and initiatives year-round with space for collaboration, creativity, community engagement, and excellence as we make a genuine impact to better each cause.

Alison Walline, Head of Global Office Operations and Philanthropy Lead, says: “It’s imperative that our local offices have the freedom to support local charities that matter to them. Many of us are so blessed in life, and so it is important for us to recognize that and step in when change is needed.”

Read on to learn about the many charitable efforts of our teams over the past year.

Preventing the transmission of waterborne diseases

Inspired by Earth Day, our teams kicked off the Wishing Well campaign in April 2022, supporting charities and initiatives dedicated to protecting water sources and improving equitable access to clean water. From picking up beach litter to donating over $1,750 collectively to charities, including the Sussex Wildlife Trust, San Diego Surfrider Foundation, and Schuylkill River Greenways, our teams helped to make better health a reality by helping prevent transmission of waterborne diseases for our local communities and around the world.

This work toward greater environmental sustainability and protection of natural ecosystems also complements our efforts to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. While this is only one of many initiatives, every step taken to preserve our natural resources helps to build a healthier world.

Supporting local communities to address the rising cost of living

Across Europe and the USA, the cost of living has increased, which has had a detrimental impact across communities. In the USA, 1 in 10 households struggles to afford food, and, in the UK, 1 million adults reported that someone in their household had to go without food for an entire day. From July to September, dedicated events sprung up across office locations to focus on relieving food insecurity. Activities ranged from shopping for and packing sack lunches for schoolchildren with H.A.T. Packs to volunteering weekly at the St Louis Area Foodbank. These efforts helped local communities and shelters in need by donating over $2,000 collectively, as well as building camaraderie and community among our teams.

Our Manchester team also donated to FareShare to support its goal of providing meals for children out of school for the summer. Many families rely on free or subsidized school lunches, so losing this over the summer months can be a significant burden. Our £350 donation to the charity supported the overarching goal of combatting rising costs of food and aiding communities in need.

Helping children in need

This season, the Avalere Health Gives Back team has launched the Helping Hands initiative, supporting underrepresented groups such as those facing homelessness and low-income families and children. Our teams are donating to The Joshua Tree to support families affected by childhood cancer, Signpost for Carers to assist those who help their loved ones dealing with an illness, addiction, or disability, and many other charities, with more than $2,000 donated collectively so far.

In collaboration with a local nonprofit, Sweet Celebrations, the St Louis team came together to make Halloween feel special for a group of foster children, who often are unable to celebrate the holiday. Morgan Pisoni, Office Operations Manager and the Avalere Health Gives Back representative for St Louis, says, “It was such an incredible feeling to know that we were able to support an entire foster home, providing almost 20 foster kids ranging from 6 months to 13 years old with a Halloween costume as well as Halloween bags, glow sticks, candy, and paint supplies for painting pumpkins.”

Grassroots philanthropy

Outside of our seasonal and quarterly campaigns, each office hub also donates to causes that are close to their community. For example, our teams working in cardiovascular health donated to the American Heart Association around Valentine’s Day. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, teams donated over $9,000 to communities and charities in need of additional aid, including Off the Fence in Brighton, United Way of Southwestern Indiana, the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust, and multiple hospitals in St Louis. Additionally, the outbreak of crisis in Ukraine prompted a collaborative effort to fundraise and donate to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Following a haircut, Emily Singletary, Career Experience Manager, donated several inches of her hair to the Little Princess Trust, which provides wigs for children who lost their hair due to cancer treatments or other conditions. She split the sum of her fundraising efforts between the Little Princess Trust and Project Front-Line Support, a veterans organization, and served as a reminder to all our teams of the countless ways to get involved in giving back.

Lucy Bee, Medical Writer Training Director, says, “Building in a local activity to support each donation also helps teams feel more involved and invested—people are more motivated if they have personal experience or engagement with the cause and are creating a tangible impact.”

Digging deeper this holiday season

This year saw many crises, from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine to hurricanes in the United States, floods in Pakistan, and the continued effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With a global and cooperative outlook at the core of our offerings, the organization is intensely committed to the provision of international aid. As a result, we will be supplementing our local and seasonal philanthropic initiatives with a donation to Doctors Without Borders.

While our teams are hard at work supporting our clients and their commercialization challenges day to day, we are proud to support a humanitarian organization that offers aid and medical care to populations affected by crises around the globe, making better health happen at the front lines every day.

The best is yet to come

As the colder weather creeps in, we are moved to share our upcoming seasonal focus: the Share the Warmth drive. Our teams around the world will collect winter garments such as socks, coats, blankets, and other in-demand items and donate them to shelters and other organizations that support outreach to local homeless populations.

With the new year in sight, we look forward to see our passionate and collaborative teams bring their philanthropic projects to life.