Cheryl Osborn wore a wetsuit to work one day this November.
The founder and owner of Irvine-based Casco Contractors LLC was the prime target for a dunking at the company’s 7th Annual Beer for Bucks fundraiser.
Her employees and subcontractors didn’t sandbag her either.
“27 times” she was plunked into the dunk tank.
“I figured a lot of people would love the chance to dunk me,” she told the Business Journal.
That event raised $90,000 to help charities including Colette’s Children’s Home and the Make-a-Wish Orange County and the Inland Empire foundation.
The company, which also has fundraisers such as Chili Cook-Offs, over the years has supported a variety of nonprofits like Laura’s House, Habitat for Humanity and Girls Inc.
Casco Contractors says it integrates philanthropy “into its very core culture.”
The 55-person firm gave more than $130,000 in cash donations to local groups over the past year, in addition to other forms of giving.
“It’s really important for companies to lead by example,” Osborn said.
Kitchen Table Founder
In 2000, Osborn, who was then a new mother, founded Casco Contractors at her kitchen table.
Osborn created the trademarked “Countdown to Zero” approach, an incentive-based program that rewards teams for completing projects “with zero items remaining on the punch list,” Casco’s website says.
Twenty years later, the company has grown into one of Southern California’s largest tenant-improvement companies. It has helped build offices for a wide range of notable local companies, from Chipotle to KBS Realty to Inari Medical.
She is the sole owner of Casco, which this year ranks No. 11 on the Business Journal’s annual list of women-owned businesses and No. 7 on tenant-improvement contractors.
Where to Start
Osborn, who credits her parents with being “very charitable,” often introduces her employees to charities, which made seven presentations to them this year.
“A lot of employees don’t really know where to start,” Osborn said. “They see my leadership team and I care about giving to charity.”
Each employee receives a one-day paid volunteer day. The employee discusses at the company’s monthly meetings what charity they volunteered for and why they selected that one.
Casco also holds Red Cross blood drives quarterly and has a Green Task Force that comes up with ideas such as beach walk cleanups.
Duct-Tape Boats
When the company hosts a team-building competition at its annual company meeting, the winning team picks the charity that the company will support that year.
This year, it held a boat scavenger hunt held at Newport Dunes where teams had to make boats out of cardboard and duct tape and then sail them.
The winning charity this year was Colette’s Children’s Home, a Huntington Beach nonprofit that helps homeless women and mothers and their children reach self-sufficiency.
It also annually supports the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
“I had several friends who had kids make a wish—I saw how impactful it was,” Osborn said.
“I’ve always wanted to help people. I tend to select charities about women and children.”
