The Donor Engagement and Events team carefully evaluates venues and vendors in accordance with event needs, UCS policies, budget, and social responsibility considerations outlined below.
While these priorities are at the forefront of our planning, final vendor and venue selections are determined by a combination of these factors and pricing, availability, logistics, and other considerations.
Event principles
We strive to minimize costs wherever we can. We work with our venues and vendors to maximize our budget by packaging services and scaling back where we can while providing an event experience aligned with the organization's professionalism.
We ensure the venues and vendors selected for events operate ethically. Our team checks for labor disputes, strikes, and other indicators of unethical conduct. We also prioritize vendors with notable certifications like the Green Business certification provided by the California Green Business Network.
We strive to work with venues and vendors who share our commitment to sustainability. While many venues and vendors have “green” talking points, we work to ensure these are not greenwashing efforts but rather actionable commitments.
We look for venues and vendors that are locally owned and operated and/or support local businesses and prioritize those that have internal initiatives that benefit local organizations, such as food banks or other nonprofit organizations.
We prioritize contracting with and elevating BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and woman-owned vendors and venues whenever feasible. It is crucial to us that UCS’s commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion is seen internally and in how we work with external partners.
We consider the venue locations to ensure sustainable transportation options. When possible, we opt for easily walkable venues and prioritize proximity to public transit and bikes.
We ensure all venues are ADA-compliant and able to accommodate accessibility requests. Once a venue is secured, we work with the point of contact to ensure the event flow is wheelchair accessible and easily navigable.
Our standard is to always provide vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, and non-alcoholic options at all events. We also offer event registrants the opportunity to disclose any other dietary restrictions and always work to accommodate those needs. We prioritize vendors that work with local food sources and strive to find vendors that have organic and sustainable farming practices.
We always check the calendar to ensure that our events do not fall on any major religious observances that would preclude invitees from attending our events. We invite attendees to make us aware of any accommodations of food or setting that will support any individual religious observances.
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