AWARDS NOMINEE: DANIELLE MOODY HEAD OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT MOODY’S COLLISION CENTERS MAINE
Danielle Moody’s to-do lists are usually lengthy.
She’s responsible for finance, payables, receivables, and human resources for Moody’s Collision and its 13 locations in Maine. Moody is also the company’s treasurer. Additionally, she helps manage Maine’s Blue Collar Scholarship program, and serves as a state board member for the Junior Achievement organization.
Yet, she largely embraces the heavy workload.
“Email is my savior. I mean, my Outlook calendar is everything to me,” Moody jokes.
Though her workdays can be hectic at times, Moody’s job leaves her fulfilled—especially the charitable work she helps spearhead for a 13-shop MSO founded by her father, Shawn Moody.
“I’m very passionate about it,” she says of charity work. “I’m proud that Moody’s supports our company’s involvement, too.
“We want young, innovative and creative workers, to keep pace with this rapidly changing
Industry; The scholarship foundation helps us market our company and the collision repair trade. And, Junior Achievement allows us to get in the classroom and plant the seed at the middle school level.”
Of course, it takes careful planning to produce charitable work that benefits both a business and its community. Below, Moody outlines some of the key steps to accomplishing that.
Start small, think big.
When Moody’s created what became Maine’s Blue Collar Scholarship program in 2014, the company focused on growing it incrementally. The program, which provides youths hoping to enter trade industries with scholarship money, began when the MSO started reaching out to area schools, providing application forms, and speaking with academic counselors to note students in financial need.
These days, the collision repair company will occasionally give out as much as $50,000 in scholarship funds.
“We’re really now trying to focus some of our energy on the mainstream schools,” Danielle Moody explains, “because we want to show them that the trade schools are a viable option [for students]. It’s just trying to raise awareness of this opportunity.”
Sing your brand’s praises.
In order for a charitable endeavor to resonate with a community, of course, they need to be made aware of it. That’s why staff members from Moody’s often update their website with information about Maine’s Blue Collar Scholarship. It’s why staff members do interviews about charities with local media outlets, and spend time posting promotional photos on social media—“to show what the charity’s all about, and what we’re looking to achieve,” Moody notes.
When Moody’s staff members make appearances at charitable events in their hometowns, they’re not only wearing shirts featuring the MSO’s branding, but they also mix in messages about their company and how it has enriched their lives.
“Weave in who you are and how you got to where you are,” Moody suggests. “Because everybody has a path. … And, I don’t know if it’s generational, but [young] consumers care about what companies are doing for their communities. So, we definitely want to get that out there.
“Presenting the scholarships helps,” she adds, “because you have a captive audience that
could be 1,000 people—parents, students, faculty, administrators. So, you have the audience to speak for a couple minutes about your company. That’s really helped a lot, and it has gotten the buzz going.”
Get all employees involved.
While Moody spearheads much of the charitable work that her employer does, she certainly gets assistance. And, she knows endeavors like Maine’s Blue Collar Scholarship program couldn’t be successful without buy-in from an entire staff. Fortunately for her, that’s not an issue at Moody’s.
“Everybody at Moody’s does more, and goes above and beyond the typical 9-to-5 day,” Danielle Moody notes, adding that she often delegates charity-related tasks to coworkers so that her business work doesn’t suffer.
“The more my coworkers know, understand, and have a better grasp, it’s only going to help” the charitable efforts, she explains. “It doesn’t matter what we’re working on. If we’re working with the Blue Collar Scholarship, or if it’s with Junior Achievement, it’s [important to] bring people into the loop, sell them the big picture, macro vision.”
“We try to get our name out there and, especially with our young coworkers, present a scholarship and share that story, and say, ‘This is the career path I took, it’s working for me, and I’m happy.’ … We try to have our young coworkers highlight the opportunities they’ve had at Moody’s.”
While charity work occasionally lengthens Danielle Moody’s workdays, she’s proud to be doing work that makes an impact for a company that boasts a 98 percent CSI score.
“I’m proud that Moody’s supports our company’s involvement,” she says. “Because not all companies allow coworkers to spend that much time working in other areas.”
