Tech Citizenship

Fennessey

Music and medicine combine in one of the primary recipients of the charity efforts of Cambridge-based marketing and web technology firm Four Mangos Inc. In the past year, the company has narrowed its charitable efforts to a select set of charities, including the Longwood Symphony Orchestra, a group founded in 1982 by a handful of medical students and physicians that performs to help raise funds for the Boston area’s medically under-served.

Working with a smaller group of charities is a new strategy for Four Mangos, said president Neil Fennessey.

“Before, we would cast a fairly wide net and worked with organizations that were either introduced to us through a project or that we came across through a friend of a friend,” Fennessey said. “Now we have become more strategic by focusing on those organizations that promote the arts and sciences as well as those that benefit health and wellness.”

The inspiration for which organizations to support doesn’t come from far away, Fennessey said. The company’s employees (“Mangos” in his vernacular) often find that inspiration in their own clients.

“Most of the work we perform for nonprofits is intermingled between other standard client projects,” Fennesssey said. “As a result, the Mangos look at it as an opportunity to switch up their project work a bit. In addition the projects tend to be opportunities to expand our creative horizons.”

While the breadth of the charities Four Mangos supports may have narrowed, the depth hasn’t changed, and Fennessey sees more of a need to keep that level of support going as the economy continues to sour.

Citizenship Facts

Four Mangos Inc.

Total cash contributions in New England in 2007: None

Number of volunteer hours in New England in 2007: 80

In-kind contributions of equipment and services in New England in 2007: $100,000

Principal recipients of charitable activities in 2007: Longwood Symphony Orchestra; Museum of Arts and Design (NYC); and about a half dozen smaller organizations throughout the year.

Interesting philanthropic activities: Four Mangos sponsored a concert for the Longwood Symphony Orchestra, complete with a magical flying couch, at the Hatch Shell.

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