After working for Visit Orlando in senior sales positions for more than 11 years, and plying her trade in the Orlando hospitality community before that, Tammi Runzler made a change for the better—the betterment of humankind, that is.
“Over the past three years, I was working with groups of all sizes, incorporating CSR activities in their programs,” Runzler said of her work with Visit Orlando, adding that her contacts in the hospitality and CSR communities, along with speaking and teaching on the subject of CSR for a number of years, gave her the professional credibility to help launch a new company specializing in giving back through the business community.
A for-profit endeavor she launched with Tim Lamont, CEO of full-service meeting and event planning firm Lamont Associates, CSRConnections helps meeting planners and suppliers develop and execute scalable CSR activities as well as offer logistical management and support.
“It’s an effort for us to formalize a company where we can almost be a one-stop shop for meeting planners to either introduce CSR events into their programming, are looking for new ideas, or just want to know what the trends are, and what does work and what doesn’t work,” she said. “[The goal of CSRConnections] is to make it very easy and very simple for meeting and event planners to incorporate CSR into their programming. I find that most planners want to, but it’s just a matter of the time and resources.”
Aside from her professional dedication to CSR, Runzler has walked the walk in her personal life, currently working with eight orphanages in Haiti and having custody of eight boys with special needs in a staffed house she owns in the impoverished country that was devastated by a massive earthquake in 2010.
Her work in Haiti started when she was employed at Visit Orlando and decided to dedicate her vacation days for a year to travel to the Caribbean nation in her efforts as a member of an advisory board that was sending relief products. Runzler estimates she currently spends about a quarter of her time on the ground in Haiti, a nation that continues to suffer greatly from the massive temblor.
“The latest statistic I pulled said that about 84 percent of the people that live in Haiti do not have access to basic health or medical care,” she said. “Haiti is still considered to be the poorest country in the Western and Northern hemispheres. It has a population of more than 10 million people, with needs for healthcare, basic nutrition, hygiene and shelter.”
According to Runzler, the blessings of a robust CSR effort are a boon not only to the organizations that incorporate them, but also to her on a very personal level.
“The benefits are astronomical. It becomes part of your culture and lets people know what you stand for as an organization,” she said of what organizations receive. “I’ve often felt that I won some sort of lottery in my life. I’ve had a very wonderful career and now I get to do a lot of philanthropic work in my life.”
Paying it Forward
Here are some organizations making a difference:
- San Antonio Marriott Northwest partnered with The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio’s Culinary Health Education for Families (CHEF) program. Hotel chef Jesse Vasquez has created a CHEF-approved kids menu at the recently opened Asado Urban Grill. www.marriott.com
- Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center recently received the 2016 Colorado Hotel and Lodging Association Community Service Award. Hyatt hotels in downtown Denver are gearing up for the 2017 Colorado Bike MS Ride June 24-25 to benefit the National MS Society. www.hyatt.com
- VisitDallas President and CEO Phillip Jones was awarded the Human Relations Award by the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance. www.visitdallas.com
