In the spirit of National Volunteer Week, celebrated on April 20th to 26th, 2025, Newrez held its second annual Volunteer Challenge with a goal of logging a collective 2,500 volunteer hours. We are thrilled to report that Newrezers surpassed this goal and logged over 2,700 volunteer hours!
For the second year in a row, we challenged our five core office sites with a friendly volunteer competition. The rules are simple: each site strives to out-volunteer the other. Our Houston office took the title of Volunteer of the Year for the second year in a row, with 150 employees logging over 600 hours. Our individual competition also resulted in a two-time champ: Enterprise Analytics Analyst Joseph Risi, who logged 136 volunteer hours primarily with his regular mentorship of a local youth program.
In addition to the month-long volunteer competition, the Community Investment team organized a week of bicycle building events at our major office sites. Newrezers assembled 80 children’s bikes on behalf of local nonprofit organizations across the country to promote outdoor play and exercise.
Newrez is proud to offer two employee benefits that incentivize volunteer participation, Volunteer Time Off (VTO) and Dollars for Doers.
Volunteer Time Off
Full-time employees enjoy 8 hours of paid VTO per year, with part-time employees receiving four hours of paid VTO. In 2024, over 1,100 employees utilized this community-minded benefit. This policy enables flexibility in our program for passionate employees to get engaged with beloved organizations around the country.
Dollars for Doers
Our Dollars for Doers program offers $10 worth of rewards for every volunteer hour logged up to a $1,000 annual cap. These rewards may be donated to eligible nonprofits in our employee donation platform, the Giving Portal. In 2024, this popular program contributed to 29% of annual rewards donated, supporting a positive cycle of giving back.
Another Volunteer Challenge in the books! While our employees Care Fiercely through their year-round volunteering, we are already excited to see what next year’s Volunteer Challenge has in store!
