NO ONE WAY: When giving charitably, companies find the way that resonates best with them.

• Author: Taylor, Adva
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: GIVING GUIDE

As the holidays approach, many people's thoughts turn to charity. The needs in our community are many, from combating hunger and poverty to helping stray animals to keeping our environment clean to many, many more. There is no one way to give.

For local businesses, choosing how to give can be a personal and unique experience--and often one that stretches long beyond the usual holiday giving season.

A giving tradition

The Clyde Companies were founded in Springville, Utah over 90 years ago, and the Clyde family has not forgotten its roots. Love of community is what drives the companies' charitable giving, says Dave Kallas, director of communications for Clyde Companies.

"Our company and all of the subsidiary companies have adopted this motto of'Building a Better Community,'" says Kallas. "That works for us in the sense that we are primarily a construction company, but it's also a philosophy we try to live by. So the projects we do, and in our corporate giving, that's in the center to guide us."

Education, in particular, is part of the companies' giving "roadmap," says Kallas. The companies offer course instruction, scholarships, funding and support to Utah Valley University, Brigham Young University and Utah State University. At BYU, the relationship goes so far back that you can find the Clyde Engineering Building on its campus. A subsidiary company, W.W. Clyde & Co., has helped UVU build curriculum and offer field experience for the university's new Construction Management Division's Heavy Highway program.

As a family of construction companies, materials are another way the companies can give to the community. "We are active in both in financial giving and supporting the construction of new facilities, whether it's a baseball diamond or an engineering building," says Kallas, adding that the companies have given concrete to projects ranging from larger entities like Hogle Zoo to smaller ones like to a police officer's widow for a new patio. "We've chosen to support material products. A big portion of our business is ready-mix concrete, and we've donated that and financially as well."

The Clyde subsidiary companies all try to focus their charitable initiatives on their respective communities. Although the company is now headquartered in Orem, the Clyde family remains deeply involved in the Springville area. The chairman and CEO of the Clyde Companies, Wilford W. Clyde, grandson of founder W.W. Clyde, has been Springville's mayor since 2009...