For LexisNexis Canada, Caring is Year-Round

When kindness and charity are needed, LexisNexis employees are there to help. For many years, the LexisNexis Cares program has partnered with charities around the United States and beyond to give back in our communities.

For World Kindness Day, we thought it appropriate to highlight one of the teams that has consistently delivered good works through fun and creative activities for employees to engage in. Based in Toronto, LexisNexis Canada offers lawyers powerful tools and analytical insights specifically for Canadian law. But the employees there don’t stop at innovating ways to help lawyers succeed, they’re also innovating ways to give back to their community there and abroad.

For example, over the last few years, the Canada team has held virtual Name That Tune events. Originally growing out of an employee talent show, Name That Tune has morphed into an event that benefits local charities as employees donated about $1,000 in 2021 and is on track to beat $1,500 for 2022.

In these virtual events, employees with musical talents play a portion of a song and others try to guess the song and artist.

Jay Brecher, director of analytical content, says the event is the result of participation between the Cares program and the team’s social committee. “LexisNexis’ Got Talent was an event that happened five years in a row,” Brecher said, “and we thought, maybe we can turn this into a fun fundraising event.”

Brecher also says the events have expanded to include LexisNexis colleagues from the United States. The team also organized a 30-day meditation challenge benefiting Amnesty International that drew in support from LexisNexis teams all across the globe.

And just this past week, LexisNexis Canada team members joined with Global Medic for a food sorting event at Global Medic’s Cloverdale packing location. The team helped weigh, seal and pack more than 1,140 packages of rice and lentils that Global Medic will distribute to Toronto-area food banks.

“In three hours, we boxed 1,148 bags, whereas our shift supervisor was us to do closer to 1,000,” Brecher said. “We exemplified core values such as a passion for winning and valuing our people.”

Coming up in the future, the team will hear from a special guest speaker Daniel Chapman-Smith, co-founder and executive director of Project Humanity, which works to expose youth in Toronto’s shelter system to the arts.

How does the team select which charities to partner with? Brecher says for him it started during his time with the Ontario Bar, when he formed a number of relationships with local charities that he continues to support today. But now the team has been so successful that other team members come to him with their own ideas for charities they want to support.

That’s how LexisNexis Canada gives back with its participation in Cares. But when it comes to the why, Brecher says it best: “For me, it’s something that I’m really passionate about. It’s something that makes me proud to work for LexisNexis and be part of RELX that they support our interest in supporting the community and supporting amazing charitable organizations that need help. It’s really something that energies and motivates me and it’s not just with the volunteer hours but with corporate matching funds. Every dollar that can be matched by the company will be, to the extent that I can. I think it’s fun, it promotes camaraderie, so it’s great for team building.”

“And,” he adds, “it just feels good to know that you’re helping others.”