Volunteering your company's lawn and landscape services boosts employee morale

Updated Mar 26, 2024
Nicky Atansio cutting grass with a push mower
Nicky Atansio from Montvale, NJ is paying it forward and honoring her late father's legacy (a landscape business owner for 28 years) by volunteering her time using his equipment (including his pickup truck).
I Want To Mow Your Lawn

Volunteering seems to be another chore on an already busy schedule. And it’s known that many employees can’t volunteer during the workday because, well, they’re at work. Plus, many people don’t want to volunteer on a Saturday or Sunday after they’ve been working out in the sun for 50-70 hours a week. 

So, why volunteer your landscape company’s services to your local community? Because it can boost your employees’ morale—crews and back office workers alike—and motivate them to work harder for you during the workweek.

It also benefits the communities you already serve with your lawn or landscape maintenance company. 

Imagine if you’re elderly, you have heart problems, and you shouldn’t be mowing your lawn. However, the neighbors are breathing down your neck to get out there and mow your lawn. 

Wouldn’t it be better if a landscaping company offered you a helping hand?

Why community service is important

Paul Rubacky cutting grass with a walk behind mowerPaul Rubacky from Ringwood, NJ just turned 65 years old and was gifted this like-new Ferris Mower from his wife. He is a CFO by day for a financial firm out of NYC and volunteers in his free time.I Want To Mow Your Lawn

 There are many reasons why community service is essential. It helps homeowners who are unable to help themselves, such as someone who’s having treatment for cancer or the elderly who don’t do well in hot weather.

It also helps your employees. If your workers—from the back office to the crews—get together once a month to mow lawns, tend landscaped beds, and make exterior repairs, it builds teamwork and gives purpose to each person.

And volunteering improves your company’s image. Your customers will want to hire you over the competition because people want to do business with companies that have integrity and purpose.

There have been studies to back up the above assertions. For example, the Deloitte Volunteer Impact Research surveyed the outcomes of corporate community engagement in 2017.

The study found that 80% of employees think that organizations that sponsor volunteer activities are more likely to have an improved work environment. Seventy percent of respondents believed that volunteering as a company boosts employee morale more than a happy hour.

Finally, three-fourths of the participants said that volunteering is vital to worker well-being. And you know that happy employees make more productive workers.

As a business leader, suppose you make serving your community a priority, and your management team comes out to help the community one day a month. The company’s leadership will speak volumes to your workers and encourage them to lend a happy hand.

Your ROI comes with happier employees, better teamwork, and improved worker well-being.

7 benefits for volunteering as a landscaping company


  1. You’ll create company goodwill, and that feeling includes the community that you’re serving.
  2. It reinforces the benefits of regular lawn care and landscape maintenance.
  3. You can network with other volunteers. Join forces with other local organizations to improve your town’s curb appeal.
  4. Your company gets free advertising, public relations, and marketing rolled up into one.  When your volunteers wear company tee shirts, and you drive up in your business’s trucks, your logos are on display. Some volunteers believe it’s better than traditional word of mouth.
  5. Your employees have a chance to make new friends and learn new skills. For example, teach your office manager how to use a ZTR mower.  Not only will they have fun learning a new skill, but they’ll also develop empathy for the crews who mow lawns full-time in all kinds of weather.
  6. Covid-19 has been hard on everyone—from society’s marginalized to your employees’ mental health. Encouraging everyone to get involved in helping mow their neighbor’s lawn or weed a garden gives purpose back to folks who’ve lost their meaning in the past year.
  7. It boosts your company’s brand in the community, especially since there’s so much competition in every town’s lawn and landscape industry.

Get involved with "I Want to Mow Your Lawn"

I Want to Mow Your Lawn started in 2020 when Brian Schwartz was laid off from his job during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the past year, Brian has been on The Dad, CBS, CNN, Fox & Friends, Southern Living, The Washington Post, among other news outlets.

You can learn more about Brian, and I Want to Mow Your Lawn in this video. If you and your lawn care team want to get involved: signup to volunteer, call 862-66-MOWER -or- fill out their contact form.

Wendy Komancheck with biography

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