Adding to Ruly’s roster of charitable corporations this holiday season is Dominion Virginia Power.  With our power bill this month came the above note.

I love that Dominion Virginia Power is accomplishing all of the following with this initiative:

• Reducing environmental waste by promoting e-billing
• Reducing business expenses by promoting e-billing
• Passing on some of the savings from e-billing to customers in the form of donations to their EnergyShare charitable subsidiary that provides heating and cooling assistance to those most in need.  ($4 million is a sizeable payout indeed)

The EnergyShare program is a great example of how a charity run by a corporation can accomplish a lot of good.  Sure, the program also earns money for the corporation but it also has a lot of charitable efficiencies in its design.  It is particularly notable that the donation process is integrated with the billing system.  It is easy to add an extra dollar to your power bill so that Dominion can pass that on to someone in need.  It is very cool (and unusual) that they can claim, “[E]very cent donated goes to benefit those in need because Dominion and social service agencies pay for the program’s administrative expenses.”  Below is a short video the company produced celebrating the 30^th anniversary of this program.

I also have a soft spot for Dominion Virginia Power because they are such strong supporters of the Richmond Ballet and have allowed the Richmond arts scene to flourish.

Dominion Virginia Power is a great example of how corporate charity can work and serve both business interests and community needs.

*Note: I am just an interested customer and not affiliated in any way with Dominion Virginia Power.