If you’ve been around High 5 Plumbing for any length of time, you’ve probably heard about High 5 Plumbing Cares, their charitable giving program. High 5 Plumbing founders, Levi and Cassi Torres, started High 5 Plumbing Cares back in 2018, and since then, they’ve donated nearly $26,000 to 27 nonprofit organizations in the Denver metro area.

We sat down with Cassi and Levi to learn about how it all started.

The High 5 Plumbing Cares Story: Then & Now

What inspired you to start High 5 Plumbing Cares?

Levi: As a business and as individuals, we’re committed to our community in very tangible ways. That’s just a part of our character. We are who we are because of our neighbors and the customers who support our business, and it’s only right for us to give back. From day one of High 5 Plumbing, we’ve wanted to meet people’s needs—and not just as it relates to plumbing. We wanted to look out for their physical and emotional needs, too.

Learn more about the people and values behind High 5 Plumbing here: This Is Who We Are: Q&A with High 5 Plumbing.

Cassi: We attend Flatirons Community Church, and a few years ago, they rolled out an initiative around Christmastime to raise money to buy cars for single moms. They cast a vision that really brought our community together, and we raised enough to donate 16 vehicles to moms in need. We observed Flatiron’s process for a while and were really impressed. They made a point of saying that having good intentions is different than having an intentional plan.

Levi: We realized that at High 5 Plumbing, we had good intentions to give back and do good in our community. What we needed was an intentional plan that would connect us with the community every single month. So in March 2018, we established our charitable giving program, High 5 Plumbing Cares.

Our mission at High 5 Plumbing is to come together as more than individuals to create a positive impact on our team, our clients, and our community, one High 5 Plumbing at a time.

High 5 Plumbing Cares helps us fulfill that mission every day, and we’re grateful that it keeps us grounded and in touch with the needs and diverse experiences of our community.

What do you do through High 5 Plumbing Cares?

Cassi: Each month, we spotlight a Denver-area nonprofit organization. Our goal is simple: we share the nonprofit’s mission with our High 5 Plumbing community, including our team, our clients, and everyone who follows us on social media.

We focus our efforts on supporting, promoting, and sustaining these organizations that serve our community so well. Yes, we write a check at the end of the month, but that’s just the beginning of our relationship with these nonprofits. In fact, we make a point to revisit and re-feature these groups as High 5 Plumbing Cares Throwback Nonprofits.

Check out this awesome message of thanks from our October 2020 High 5 Plumbing Cares Throwback recipient, International Hearing Dog.

Levi: We also schedule quarterly team volunteer nights where we gather together to serve the month’s High 5 Plumbing Cares nonprofit hands-on. We even bring our kids along! In May of this year, our son and daughter joined us for a volunteer night with Kitchen One for One, and one of our plumbing technicians, Josh, even brought his son along, too!

We’ve also spearheaded clothing donation drives for Button and Zipper and Clothes to Kids of Denver.

Here are a few tangible ways we support our High 5 Plumbing Cares nonprofit recipients during a given month:

  • We provide every High 5 Plumbing client served during that particular month with info on the current High 5 Plumbing Cares nonprofit spotlight and our support of their mission, including printed materials like business cards and one-page fact sheets.
  • We promote the nonprofit on our blog, on the High 5 Plumbing Cares page, and on social media throughout the month.
  • Every time someone buys a hat or t-shirt from our High 5 Plumbing online shop, we donate $4 to that month’s featured nonprofit.
  • When a customer purchases a High 5 Plumbing Club Membership, we donate $10 to the month’s featured nonprofit.
  • We give back 1% of the revenue generated from the High 5 Plumbing Colorado truck during the month.
  • We deliver a donation check to the nonprofit at the end of the month.

What kinds of nonprofit organizations do you spotlight?

Cassi: We partner with a wide variety of nonprofits that

  • deliver healthy food to families in need,
  • serve kids and families living with autism,
  • train and place hearing dogs with people who are deaf and hard of hearing,
  • Provide children and families grieving a death loss with critical bereavement care,
  • and so much more!

Everyone is drawn to different nonprofits for all sorts of reasons, and the connection is often very personal. We’re always listening to our community for recommendations on new nonprofits to feature, and some of our relationships with past High 5 Plumbing Cares recipients have begun thanks to our High 5 Plumbing clients and team members!

How has High 5 Plumbing Cares impacted the Denver metro community?

Levi: The very first nonprofit we spotlighted back in March 2018 was Coal Creek Meals on Wheels (we’ve since partnered with them again as a High 5 Plumbing Cares throwback!). As of October 2020, we have donated a total of $25,910 to Denver-area nonprofits. We’ve championed the efforts of 27 organizations. And because we believe in making a long-term commitment to the nonprofits we support, we’ve featured five of the organizations for a second time during our “throwback nonprofit” months.

What motivates you to keep giving back through High 5 Plumbing Cares?

Levi: High 5 Plumbing Cares grew out of our personal values and beliefs. We are determined that business can and should be about more than padding the bottom line. We give back to our community reflexively because that’s just who we are as people.

But our commitment to giving back is also a collective belief. We feel a responsibility as a company to leverage every last one of our resources to build our community up because they’ve helped us build our business from the ground up. Without them, we wouldn’t have the ability to give back in the way that we do. We recognize that daily and strive to be good stewards of what we’ve been given through High 5 Plumbing. Our business provides us a platform and an audience to rally support for incredible nonprofit organizations all across the Denver metro area. We’re honored to have that opportunity, and we’re doing everything we can to make the most of it.

Cassi: And because we follow up with the nonprofits we spotlight, it’s always great to chart some of their progress and hear the success stories they’ve had, thank, in part, for their being spotlighted by High 5 Plumbing Cares.

Nominate Your Favorite Nonprofit

Do you love a local nonprofit? We want to hear about it!

If you’d like to nominate a nonprofit you care about, you can submit your nomination right here on the High 5 Plumbing Cares page. Simply scroll down to the bottom of the page and fill out the form that looks like this:

As always, thanks for your support of High 5 Plumbing Cares. We look forward to hearing about the organizations around town that you care about and would like us to spotlight!

High 5 Plumbing

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