As a citizen of one of the poorest states in a country still climbing out of a serious recession, Troy Dodd knows he and his employees are fortunate. Dodd is president and owner of Arkansas Rental & Sales in Little Rock, Ark., a Volvo Rents franchise that supports feeding the hungry via the Arkansas Food Bank Network as part of the Volvo Rents “Color for a Cause” campaign. “I remind myself and my employees that everybody's just about two paychecks behind these people,” says Dodd.

Initially, Dodd painted a Genie S-85 boomlift bright green and yellow with the message “This machine works for food” painted on the boom, and offered the machine for rent to local contractors with 10 percent of the rental revenue going to Operation More Care, an initiative to support the Arkansas Food Bank Network — a sum that will total nearly $5,000 by the end of the year.

“We wanted to give back to the community in a way that will touch people's lives almost immediately,” Dodd explains. “With the downfall of the economy and the unemployment rate as high as it has been in years, I felt that putting food on people's tables was the way our company should give back to the community. We are so blessed to have what we have when others have so little.”

Arkansas Rental & Sales has also encouraged employees to donate time to food drives and food bank events, and the company sends outside sales reps to visit customers — not on formal sales calls, but with food donation bags in hand to increase hunger awareness and bolster community involvement — an effort that results in an average 500-pound food donation each month.

“The whole concept of Color for a Cause and painting equipment is to make the general public aware and remind them of how lucky most of us are, and try to get the public to get more involved by networking together as a whole,” Dodd says.

Volvo Rents' Color for a Cause program originated with a handful of franchisees painting boom equipment pink in support of breast cancer awareness, but the company quickly realized that the program could create support for a wide variety of worthy charities.

“Many of our franchise owners and staff have family members and friends afflicted with various diseases and illnesses, so raising awareness and creating support for causes close to home became a priority for everyone involved,” says Michael Misetic, vice president, Fishman Public Relations for Volvo Rents. “Our franchises have been finding that their customers believe in, and back, the initiative. It's something that they are proud to be a part of. Equipment affiliated with the ‘Color for a Cause’ program is rented quickly. Customers have even paid a little more and/or waited to rent the charity-branded equipment. Why? Not only does the unique piece of machinery bring attention to their work site, but even more important to them is the visual representation of their involvement in support of the affiliated cause.”

Painting rental equipment to support a cause or charity is becoming a full-fledged industry trend with rental companies from coast to coast leading the way. Bud PeCoy, Mark Swedlund, Lucas Peed and Bob Conaway, partners in Fort Dodge, Iowa, construction equipment dealer and rental company Mid Country Machinery, painted their first charity-branded machines — two JLG Model 800s telescoping boomlifts — when they learned the wife of one of their customers suffered from breast cancer. Wanting to give back to the community, and finding breast cancer awareness a worthy cause, the partners purchased the two JLG boomlifts custom-ordered with pink paint and added them to their rental fleet. The Mid Country Machinery team added custom decals with its slogan “Reach High for the Cure” as well as licensed decals promoting Susan G. Komen for the Cure. In addition, the company signed an agreement with the Des Moines chapter of Susan G. Komen for the Cure to donate 10 percent of all rental revenue from the pink boomlifts for the duration of 54 months — a sum expected to total between $25,000 and $30,000.