Last month, the city of Fargo, North Dakota and it’s neighbor Moorhead, Minnesota experienced a devastating flood as two late season blizzards hit the region. The resulting melting snow caused record flooding of the Red River (New York Times).

In this time of need, 2Checkout, through the Social Responsibility Task Force, is collecting clothes for the Red Cross to distribute to the people currently living in shelters We urge you to help by visiting the Red Cross site and making a donation.

For Earth Day, I want to talk a little about 2Checkout’s “Green Initiative”. We have made becoming a “greener” company an important focus this year. Not only is this good for the environment, it is also good business as many of the small steps a company can take will ultimately reduce costs and make the business more efficient.

“Adopting environmentally-friendly and energy efficient business practices provides numerous benefits to new business owners looking to control costs, attract customers, and become socially responsible.” -business.gov

Most of the steps we have taken since January have been rather small changes, but a series of small steps can make a huge difference. Some of the changes for our ‘Green Initiative” are:
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Recently, several of us at 2Checkout had the first meeting of our Social Responsibility Task Force. The purpose of this committee is to determine where, when, and how corporate charitable initiatives should be applied. As this was the first meeting, many of the members are currently researching existing initiatives. There was also some discussion about the possibility of expanding donations on a more global level.

We would also like to expand our volunteerism and encourage individual time commitments to a variety of programs. We have also discussed partnering with some of our many vendors who are already using their businesses as a means to raise funds for causes that are important to them. We are looking closely at the idea of expanding our scholarship program, as well as focusing on programs that repair older computers to give to those in need.

To help with expanding our donations, we would like to know what causes are important to you and what you view locally or internationally as a “worthy cause”? Post your ideas here or send me an email at bion@2co.com.

It’s official! 2Checkout has been selected as one of the Best Employers in Ohio by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) – Ohio State Council and Best Companies Group.

The entire list and numeric ranking of the 20 Best Employers in Ohio will officially be released to the press in April. 2Checkout received notification of the award yesterday morning and we are happy to say we made the list.

Best Companies Group and SHRM-Ohio worked in conjunction to develop a list of criteria enabling their panel of analysts to measure local companies competing for the honor. Measurement tools included a 72-question employee engagement and satisfaction survey and a detailed employer benefits and policies questionnaire designed to capture crucial information about each company’s policies, practices, and demographic makeup. Companies were judged on their leadership and planning, corporate culture, communications, work environment, training and development, employee/supervisor relationships, and pay and benefits, among other criteria.

Focusing our energies internally on the recruitment and retention of highly qualified Ohio-based talent while providing our employees an excellent work environment is just one more way 2Checkout is working for you!

One day last May, we offered free vendor accounts to anyone signing up in a non-US currency. It was such a success, we’ve decided to do it again, but this time, we’re opening it up to everyone, regardless of currency.

To claim your free account, just sign up any time between 12:00AM and 11:59PM Eastern Time on Monday, February 16th. We’ll refund all signups made during this time, within the next week.

This is a great opportunity for small businesses and those in emerging markets to get started in ecommerce and save $49 USD at the same time.