Giving Back: Investing Today in a Better Tomorrow

Megan Wilson, Global Client Lead and ANZ Corporate Responsibility Lead

The Australia New Zealand team has doubled down on volunteer activities at each of our office locations and to date we have volunteered 586 hours of our time – and that doesn't include what our employees do outside of organized work activities!

With the tremendous support of our Regional Vice President Steve Manley, we expect to ramp up through 2022 with some exciting things in the works in New Zealand, Adelaide, and Canberra, as well as at the regional level. I can't wait to expand our reach and partner with some of our customers and other organizations to continue growing our impact.

The Palo Alto Networks ANZ CR team has organized activities for our region and I've been fortunate enough to participate with the Brisbane team. The Brisbane team has committed to volunteering with FareShare every quarter to help prepare meals for vulnerable Queenslanders. Our Melbourne team has also been supporting FareShare and is continuing involvement through 2022.

A group from our Sydney team most recently supported Ronald McDonald House Charities by preparing breakfast for families staying in their facilities and, with COVID restrictions hopefully behind us, we plan on continuing to support this fantastic organization. 

We have a small but powerful team in Perth that gave its time to Dismantle, an organization who provide push bikes for disadvantaged youth. The team got handy on the tools for the morning and made a big difference.

In October, 53 of our ANZ team signed up for One Foot Forward - an initiative run by Black Dog Institute, which supports research into mental health and provides critical resources to our community to address mental health challenges.

My own activities outside the company include volunteering once a week before work with YMCA's Breakfast Club to provide free breakfast at schools in low-socioeconomic areas. 

My once-a-month shift with The Coffee Brigade in Brisbane allows me to spend time with people sleeping rough by making coffee and handing out sandwiches. This organization isn’t big but the impact they have on the community is wonderful. 

I also recently completed a donation drive for Every Little Bit Helps, which provides care packages with toiletries for women escaping domestic violence and other hardships. My posts on my local community pages on Facebook have attracted over 60 people in my area to offer donations!

I love that Palo Alto Networks supports my passion for giving back. It is so great having a wonderful team at headquarters as well as local support. The ability to track volunteer time in MySmile so not-for-profit groups receive even more support is awesome. I’m proud to work for such a community focused organization.