(Seattle, April 24, 2026) – DLR Group, a global integrated employee-owned design firm, has shared the results of its second annual Day of Giving, an initiative that this year coincided with the firm’s 60th anniversary. Teams across the United States contributed 5,700+ volunteer hours in support of causes aligned with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. Efforts ranged from weeding, mulching, and planting at the largest urban farm in San Francisco, to furnishing homes for families transitioning out of homelessness in Chicago. From April 6 through April 10, participants in 33 offices gave their time and energy to more than 60 organizations, making a meaningful impact across their local communities.

Day of Giving anchors DLR Group’s broader community impact program. In 2025, DLR Group employee owners collectively volunteered more than 19,000 hours and donated more than two million dollars, including $970,000 donated to support access to quality education, and $240,000 donated to art and cultural institutions.

For its 2026 Day of Giving initiative, DLR Group joined forces with local organizations to address housing and food security as well as environmental stewardship, bringing positive energy, teamwork, and a commitment to giving back to each local effort.

DLR Group’s Chicago studio volunteered with Digs with Dignity, a non-profit organization working to break the cycle of homelessness by furnishing homes with creative, custom designs using sustainable, upcycled solutions. One DLR Group team refurbished furniture, selected items for upcoming home renovations, and organized the warehouse to keep operations running smoothly, while another team at the Chicago office assembled 100 wellness kits with essential care items to donate to Volunteers of America Illinois community centers.

In Los Angeles, DLR Group volunteers partnered with A Sense of Home to stage and furnish homes for families displaced by the recent Palisades fires – an especially meaningful effort, as the design firm is also collaborating with Los Angeles Unified School District and the community to rebuild and reimagine Palisades Charter High School since the Palisades Fire destroyed approximately 30% of the classrooms.

In Houston, employee owners dedicated their time and talents to Kids’ Meals, an organization dedicated to ending childhood hunger in Houston, where 1 in 4 preschool-aged children live unsure of their next meal. The team decorated 500 6-pound brown bags with drawings and words of encouragement, then bagged over 8,000 lunches to be delivered to preschool-aged children facing food insecurity.

In Denver, 83 employee owners contributed a combined 260 hours of service across the week to various organizations. Their efforts included spreading 6,000 pounds of mulch and removing 300 pounds of trash from local parks and the riverwalk with Denver Parks Trust, and supporting The Urban Farm’s mission by organizing the scrap yard, completing landscaping work, and planting over 2,000 crops that will be harvested and donated to support youth in the local community.

Other environmentally focused efforts took place in Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, and Tucson. In Portland, employee owners partnered with Portland Parks and Recreation to remove invasive English ivy from Forest Park, protecting habitat for hundreds of native wildlife and plant species across the 5,200-acre-urban forest. In San Francisco, 40 employee owners volunteered 150+ hours at Alemany Farm – the city’s largest agricultural site – supporting food sovereignty and an annual harvest of thousands of pounds of food. The Seattle office installed 585 native trees and shrubs along the Snoqualmie River through Stewardship Partners’ Adopt-a-Buffer program, bolstering fish and wildlife habitat, erosion control, and carbon storage. In Tucson, employees used traditional Hohokam planting techniques to plant more than a dozen agave plants that will help feed bat pollinators. Their efforts supported The Agave Heritage Festival at Mission Garden, a living agricultural museum whose festival celebrates 4,000+ years of desert farming and sustainability.

Other DLR Group offices partnered with housing and environment focused organizations such as the nationally recognized non-profit organization Feed My Starving Children in Dallas; the non-profit housing organization Habitat for Humanity, in Charlotte, Colorado Springs, and Phoenix; and Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a national non-profit organization with hundreds of local chapters dedicated to building and delivering bunk beds to children who are sleeping on the floor, couches, or in other inadequate situations. A team from DLR Group’s Phoenix office dedicated hours to sawing, sanding, nailing, and staining – building 75 bunk beds for the children.

Aligned with the “Ignite Volunteerism” theme of National Volunteer Week 2026 – observed April 19-25 – DLR Group’s Day of Giving gave employee owners the opportunity to ignite positive change and build community resilience through hands-on volunteer efforts supporting environmental causes and neighbors in need. The initiative has grown since the inaugural 2025 Day of Giving, when teams across the United States contributed 5,500 volunteer hours to more than 40 organizations.