InfoTrust has been on Ad Age’s Best Places to Work list four of the past five years, but staying there got harder last year. 

As clients canceled or delayed projects in March and the second quarter, CEO Alex Yastrebenetsky made a “No Layoffs” pledge through July 1, enlisting other small companies to do likewise. It was just one of the reasons InfoTrust was ranked No. 2 among companies with 200 or fewer employees in the Ad Age Best Places to Work list for 2021.

“We realized the best way to deal with [the pandemic] was to focus on giving first,” Yastrebenetsky says. The pledge was part of that, but InfoTrust went further by donating 25% of profits to charity, including the Bethany House homeless shelter for families in Cincinnati. The company assembled employee teams that each got $5,000 to donate to charities that included a clinic in India and a shelter in Sri Lanka. And employees volunteered to provide résumé writing and analytics “upskilling” for others in the marketing industry who did get laid off, says Chase Young, marketing manager.

Despite the early spring business dip, InfoTrust ended up expecting full-year revenue to grow 50%, says Yastrebenetsky. “The question becomes ‘Are we giving because we’re growing, or are we growing because we’re giving?’”