Testimonials

Here’s what participants say about THINKSGIVING

“Thinksgiving helped our staff come together on a mission-oriented project. We got to know each other in different roles and working closely helped us strengthen our team's relationships. We also had a great time with our partner helping them better tell their story.”

Beth D'Agostino Letscher, Vice President of Strategic Communications at Cortex Innovation Community

“It's minimal time investment with an incredible feeling of community pride and self-accomplishment and a great way to leverage the strengths of our top companies to give back to the community. It needs to grow beyond STL!”

Stephen Wurth, Director, Category Experience Design (CXD) at Nestlé Purina North America

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to interact with a major company and not ask for money but ask for strategic help to solve a problem our agency continues to experience.”

David Weber, Executive Director Room at the Inn

“Thinksgiving was a very insightful experience. The toolkit took us through a very thoughtful process and it was so useful and needed. Not only did it make you think deeper into what we were solutioning for, but it also inspired us to include some of those same changes permanently in how we do meetings which saves time.”

— Najah Adams, Training Program Manager at U.S. Bank CDC

“This experience was invaluable. Not only did we work on a problem we hadn’t had time or energy to solve on our own, but we also were re-energized by meeting new people, working at a new location, and collaborating in new and different ways! I am looking forward to next year and would highly recommend it!”

— Cassandra Sissom, Executive Director at Boys Hope Girls Hope of St. Louis

“Bringing together the power of a business and nonprofit to collaborate on how we can better serve our communities is Thinksgiving at its best! We each brought our strengths and passions to the table and had an exponential human-focused return for the business, the nonprofit, and certainly the St. Louis Region that we all serve!”

— John Regan, Vice President, Learning & Professional Development at keeley companies

“Thinksgiving was beyond what I expected! in addition to helping work through our partner's challenge, my team had takeaways as well. The toolkit was super helpful as a guide for the day and to get us thinking in a different way, and something both teams plan to take back to our respective organizations.”

— Allison Kieffer, Associate Marketing Manager at Elsevier at Elsevier

“If you care, then you should be involved. I believe Thinksgiving to be an incredibly innovative and altruistic event. To help those who can use help; to offer thoughts on how to grow and sustain their initiative is unselfish and remarkable. Kudos, kudos.”

— Bob Kerch, President Accretive Global Consulting

“Really impressed with the Filament team and the thoughtfulness of the kits, materials, etc. Immensely helpful to be (gently) forced to articulate our challenges & dedicate time to think. Thank you for guiding us toward progress within a fun & engaging framework!!”

— Emma Klues, VP of Communications & Outreach at Great Rivers Greenway

“Good collaboration with the nonprofit. A fun day of strategic problem solving”

— Fredrik Engelhardt, Regional Vice President, Enterprise Innovation and Partnerships at Centene Corporation

“It was really cool to be invited to help someone else think through their challenges. Our team loved it and amazing how quickly you can bond with total strangers.”

— Kristin Ebert, Vice President, Experience Design & Product Development at Mercy

“Positive and energizing. Great opportunity to share our mission and get new insights.”

— Thomas Casey, Executive Director at Criminal Justice Ministry

“Thinksgiving is a way to join hundreds of others across St. Louis and around the country on one focused day to help lift up non-profits and solve their biggest problems. This is what making an impact at scale feels like.”

— Jeff Barry, Chief Innovation Officer at Dot Foods

“Our team was able to step away from the busy day-to-day of a residential nonprofit (literally & figuratively) and think with new minds on how to improve our recruitment process. Hunter Engineering provided an incredible resource to us, which was and will continue to be utilized and improve our organization.”

— Lauren Wiser, Marketing and Development Manager at Springboard to Learning

“I found the Thinksgiving experience inspiring and motivating because it gave me a tangible opportunity to connect and ideate on an important local initiative that benefits us individually and at a collective level. What has had ongoing impact is the reminder of the importance of this approach for continually invigorating our collaborations and thinking with new ways of looking at our objectives, strategies, insights, and outcomes.”

— Carla Schaeffer, Director - Portfolio Communications Planning and Programming at Nestlé Purina North America

“Thinksgiving allows nonprofits to get the assistance that they may not otherwise have access to while allowing corporations to give back in ways other than financial. I love the idea and am excited to see the impact that it makes.”

— Rosemary Britts, Founder & Executive Director at Sickle Cell Association

“Thinksgiving was such a fun experience for our team! Working with the St. Louis Area Foodbank to solve a real challenge was very rewarding. In a short amount of time, we generated great ideas together and are confident the recommendations offer realistic solutions.”

— Jenny Hoelzer, Vice President, Manager of Community Relations & Special Events Grants Manager, Charitable Contributions

“Thinksgiving is the perfect opportunity to give energy to something that has been on your mind...something you know could be done better. The project has encouraged deeper internal conversations related to building relationships in a virtual world. I am excited to leave the conversation with new, actionable ideas. It has been well-organized and collaborative.”

— Mary Kitley, VP of Philanthropy and Marketing at St. Louis Area Foodbank

“I’m energized by the idea of partnering with a for-profit company to get their take on our plans, to collaborate in what feels like an increasingly isolated work environment, and spread the word about what we do — because I’m so proud of the work we are doing!”

— Kelly Edwards, Special Projects Coordinator at The Novel Neighbor

“I am super excited to partner with Cortex! We would have never been able to do this on our own.”

— Sonja Goen, Board President & Chapter Director at TransParent USA

“Very excited and think that this concept is fantastic! Feeling great about the progress we are making and have loved getting to know the team and work that Wings of Hope does!”

— Eli Gerson, Manager of Innovation at Ameren

“It's a great way to get involved and give back to the STL community in a way that leverages collective intellectual resources.”

— Kelly Annis, Owner at Branch Communications LLC - Marketing Strategy & Communications

“I am thrilled to be participating!! I am really excited about our non-profits goal and how I can contribute to their success!”

— Katie Kennedy, Sales Manager at DocsCorp

“Thinksgiving was a great way for us to identify critical opportunities to optimize our processes. It’s helped us really chart our path for the next quarter and year, by challenging us to think outside our comfort zones.”

— Christine Nguyen, Founder & CEO at Limitless Foundation

“Nonprofits work on the edges. We fill hobbies, interests, free time, with our mission. ThinksGiving gave us the opportunity to mesh our passion with the skills, expertise and knowledge of a for-profit organization. The employees of that organization had creative, technical, and physical resources that we lacked in our organization. The intersection of passion and knowledge will ultimately propel our organization forward. We can't thank the team at Filament enough for allowing us to participate, pairing us with the right for-profit organization for our current issues and providing the necessary support to make this relationship successful.”

— Chris McGee, Executive Director of Academic and Student Services at Affton School District

“It was a true pleasure working with the dedicated leadership team at LFCS. The passion and dedication they bring to their mission everyday is inspiring. I am also so proud of Spire and the team that stepped up to ensure that LFCS had access to the help and resources they need. Both the Communications and Marketing team, as well as my colleagues in Strategy & Corporate Development, worked to make a lasting positive impact on the LFCS organization. It’s yet another great example of Spire employees advancing the communities we serve.”

— Dan Soucy, Director, Strategy & Corporate Development at Spire

“The staff was so energized after meeting with Cannonball!"

— Sheila Suderwalla, Executive Director at Artists First STL

“Thinksgiving helped point out inefficiencies and provided various solutions to solve them. This allowed our nonprofit to continue to grow!”

— Megan Wong, Vice President of External Affairs at Limitless Foundation

“This has been a great opportunity to pick the brains of experts in different fields and access resources that a small non-profit didn't have before. It has been great to see the impact other organizations have also had as a result and to build new connections.”

— Sherry Nelson, (formerly with) Pianos for People

“Thinksgiving day was so rewarding. For most of the day you are working together to overcome a challenge that is unlike what what we experience day to day. There gets to be point where the group breaks through and starts to piece solutions together. Looking forward to next year!”

— Amanda Dominguez, Senior Specialist Program Management at Nestlé Purina

“Thinksgiving helped our organization step out of our comfort zone and think more broadly about what is possible for us. We made great connections, were given solid help, and had a fun time!”

— Ashley Allen, HealthWorks! Kids’ Museum St. Louis

“It was invigorating to have the freedom to think creatively and to be encouraged to be unreasonable and "crazy." Our nonprofit was so open and on-board, which made the possibilities boundless. I am so proud of the ideas we created together and hope to stay in touch and help bring them to life!”

— Chrissy Wilmes, Weber Shandwick

“We loved our experience with Thinksgiving. Our innovative partners were great to work with on our challenge. We benefited from the ideas, resources, and connections. We have already begun rolling out our solutions and are excited to see our efforts make an impact at Camp Rainbow. Thank for the opportunity to be part of this experience!”

— Heather Bachman, Executive Director at Camp Rainbow Foundation

“It was really fun and interesting! We definitely got a lot of value out of it.”

— Wolf Smith, Executive Director at Conflict Resolution Center - St. Louis

“Thinksgiving has always been valuable for our org; the opportunity to connect, learn from, and work with others is rejuvenating. It’s also great to have others from outside the org share their ideas; it’s hard to see things when you’re so close to it.”

— Drew Crismon, CONNECTED LEARNING

“Thinksgiving allowed us to create a collaborative environment between a non-profit and our consulting organization, leading to a great solution.”

— Timo Billmann, Financial Quantitative Analyst at UNCOMN

“It is always great to have someone hold space to allow for new conversations. [Thinksgiving] was a chance to refresh when the stress of the urgent rarely allows for this and a breath of fresh air for our organization in a time when we were in a rut.”

— Robert Dillon, Director of Innovative Learning at School District of University City

“Organizations like Consuming Kinetics Dance Company are so critical to the fabric of St. Louis, and it is our hope we were able to support and provide Arica with some creative ideas that will help them weather this storm.”

— Kelly Malone, Vice President of Corporate Communications at Caleres, Inc.

“Incredible doesn't cut it! Such a flow of creative, constructive, doable ideas. Our clients at Room at the Inn will benefit greatly from this work. Many thanks to Clayco & Filament!”

— Valerie Tripi, Strategic Communications/Content Development at the heartwood group llc

“Working with the Purina Thinksgiving team was great. Purina had the knowledge and the talent to quickly walk us through some exercises that put Gateway Greening in a great position to rebrand and reimagine the organization in 2021.”

— Matt Schindler, Chief Executive Officer at Seed St. Louis

“This is an exciting new way to engage with and learn about all of the great organizations serving the STL area.”

— Tommy Maitz, Director of Marketing at Hunter Engineering Company

“Thinksgiving provided an opportunity to bounce ideas off business professionals outside of our organization. We gained diverse ideas and insight from the business community with a passion for our work! Very worthwhile experience!”

— Cynthia Danley, Interim Chief Executive Officer at Safe Connections

“Well received by entire team. Great to hear people who had mostly just met jump right into ideating. The team members created big ideas throughout the session and I feel like they could have kept on collaborating beyond our time together. We will definitely stay in touch and continue to support our MA partner.”

— Dan Iadevito, VP, Business Banker Team Lead at Enterprise Bank & Trust

“It was terrific! Our nonprofit partner was inspiring and the collaboration was excellent.”

— Richard Payton, (former) Assistant Vice Chancellor and Chief of Staff AT Washington University