There’s a number printed at the bottom of a newspaper page that caught my attention this week. $213,687.
If numbers could talk, this one would have a story to tell.
It appears beside the list of Cincinnati’s most giving companies. InfoTrust LLC via InfoTrust Foundation. Our first time on the list. And yes, $213K is a meaningful milestone. But let’s be honest. It’s not just about this amount. It’s about the kind of company we get to become in the process of reaching it.
A small data point can become a doorway into a larger truth. A higher purpose.
For us, that doorway is a dollar figure. And what stands behind this dollar figure on a single row in a local newspaper. A quiet signal of a much louder transformation.
The Reason Why
A couple of years ago, in front of the entire company, we made a very public commitment. We said out loud that our massive transformative purpose is to give $1M+ per year, while simultaneously creating real abundance for our team through employee ownership.
A few years ago I watched the movie 12 Strong. The commander hands Chris Hemsworth’s character a piece of the Twin Towers and says, “The most important thing you take into battle is the reason why.”
Purpose is not poetic fluff. It’s the engine that determines how people show up, how long they stay, and how deeply they care.
This week reminded me of that line all over again.
Ten Years in Tech Is a Lifetime
This afternoon I joined our engineering team to celebrate an upcoming release of our product. Nothing fancy. Just a team doing the work.
But here’s what struck me. Multiple people on that call have now been with us over 10 years. In technology, that’s practically an entire era. Ten years is long enough for tools to become obsolete, trends to reverse, and giants to collapse.
And yet, they stayed.
Why? I believe that we created a place where people don’t just clock in. They invest. They imprint. They become part of the story.
They stay because ownership is real.
They stay because purpose isn’t a slide deck or a virtual background on zoom.
They stay because they can feel that who we are becoming matters as much as what we build.
If These 213,000 Dollars Could Talk
What would these dollars say if they could speak?
They’d tell the story of families volunteering together at Basket Brigade.
They’d describe engineers writing code in the morning and reimaging laptops for the kids in our school district robotics league.
They’d recall our decision to make every employee an owner — not as a perk, but as a belief.
They’d whisper about moments where teammates showed up for each other in ways that compound into something bigger. Giving to each other so we can grow in the company that we are becoming.
Most of all, they’d reveal this truth.
We’re becoming a company that doesn’t give because we have excess. We give because it’s central to who we are — and who we aspire to be.
And they’d remind us of the sentence we committed to adding here:
It’s not just about this amount. It’s about the kind of company we get to become in the process. OUR SUCCESS IS SOMEONE ELSE’S MIRACLE.
Becoming the Company Worth Building
We’re not chasing donations as a metric. This number is not a percent of EBIT. It’s a reflection of an abundance mindset and our ability to say Yes.
We’re chasing a version of InfoTrust that reflects what we believe:
That generosity scales culture.
That ownership scales responsibility.
That purpose scales everything.
That giving creates growth.
And perhaps the most important insight is this.
When you hire people who care about giving, you attract people who care about each other.
That’s how a company becomes more than a workplace.
That’s how a company becomes a community.
So yes. We’re proud to make this list.
But the list is the footprint, not the destination.
The real story is the company we’re becoming — and the people who make it possible.
