A Generous Impact
Generous Benefits was a Partner of this year’s Run For the Water. They were the Official Race Bib Partner and host of the Official Shake Out Run. We asked their founder Bret Brummitt, who is also a member of Gilbert’s Gazelle’s running group, to describe how his mission to provide better employee benefits is aligned with the Gazelle Foundation’s mission to transform lives in Burundi with clean water. Big impact starts with building community.
By Special Contributor, Bret Brummitt, member of Gilbert’s Gazelles and
Founder of Generous Benefits
Impact occurs when we act, but action alone may not have the outcomes we desire. To make sure we have the lasting improvement we desire, it helps to focus on all perspectives of the community for whom your efforts are intended.
Gilbert Tuhabonye (right) smiles as he walks across the Congress Bridge as part of his Walk Toward Forgiveness, An Anniversary of Life, Love, and Clean Water.
We at Generous Benefits strive to improve the communities we serve through employee benefits. This is a very privileged concern in comparison to water and food insecurity, but the core tenets are similar because ultimately a person, a cherished human being has a need either present or in the future that we have the opportunity and means to provide.
For this reason, creating space to share the success is critical. All the silent successes need to be acknowledged whether they are big or small. — Bret Brummitt
The End-User
We start with the employee or team member’s perspective first. In our world of healthcare-related needs, the objectives we plan for and solve are typically focused on removing a barrier to care. These barriers often exist in the form of access or education barriers. We think through the different access barriers first. Financial barriers are the most common, but time, transportation, and physical ability barriers also exist. By placing ourselves in the perspective of the different employees and their family members, we start to imagine how they can access or receive a benefit from their company benefits.
When we start to consider areas for improvement, or we customize new solutions for a company, we once again return to the employee and their families. Because any solution has to be not only accessible, it has to be understood first to be utilized.
Education around a solution must first take place. But education before introducing a solution is just a starting point. To truly empower our employees and their families, they must become well-equipped end-users of our solutions.
To realize this, we have learned that we must plan for both ongoing education as well as establishing a pathway to an advocate or product champion that can be an ongoing trusted resource
The Community
Once we think through the desired outcomes and improvements for the end user, we have a robust idea of the solutions that need to be implemented. Regardless of any initial successful improvements, the community at large has a variety of different dynamics and changing needs.
Again, we often think in terms of employer groups as communities, but the perspectives are similar to other communities that aren’t based on the employee/employer relationship. And, often the top-tier issue we are asked to address in the employer community is the cost of the resource. If we again think on a much larger scale, the issue is really about the sustainability of a solution.
Here we look at the upstream conditions and start to work on solutions that will create cost savings for the community. These solutions are both broad scale for everyone, as well as target specific groups within the community where we can add additional support today to circumvent more costly interventions later.
In any community solution, we must share how the long-term success of the community occurs only when the community is a cherished resource by the individuals and the shared outcomes are an understood symbiotic relationship.
Hope Perpetuates Itself
Each improvement, either for the individual or the community fosters hope. Each failure amplifies despair.
Working to improve communities requires an understanding of the lopsided impact of failure. Successes are more often silent, but failures are more often unpleasantly noisy. Because every solution has setbacks, unforeseen outcomes, and often a changing environment, nothing is ever complete. Each solution has to be continuously monitored and improved. When failures occur, they present themselves as dead-ends instead of improvement opportunities. Thus, all solutions require continuous improvement.
For this reason, creating space to share the success is critical. All the silent successes need to be acknowledged whether they are big or small. All the failures that have led to improvements need to be acknowledged as well as the efforts of those who contributed to the improvements should be honored. And once the framework of understanding is established, we find that both the individual and the community start to dream a little bigger and hope perpetuates into new areas of impact.
Gazelle Foundation thanks Generous Benefits for their involvement in our mission to expand the communities that support our work in Burundi to transform lives with clean water. Gazelle Foundation Co-Founder Gilbert Tuhabonye reflects on the partnership, “Joy has to be put into action, and that action is service and generosity. We each have time, talent, and creativity, all of which can be powerful forces for positive change. We are thankful to each of our sponsors who make it possible to carry our mission forward .” Run For The Water 2025 will open for registration in Spring 2025.
About the Author
Bret Brummitt’s mission is to transform communities through innovative benefits solutions. Bret envisions benefits beyond traditional offerings, aiming for a lasting impact by stretching, tailoring, and curating packages. Based in Austin, he balances his professional pursuits with running alongside Gilbert's Gazelles and playing baseball with the Austin Blue Jays. Listen to the conversation he had with Gilbert and with Gazelle Foundation Board Member Andi Gillentine on two recent podcast episodes.