Dimo's Purposeful Passions

Dimo's exists to be a force for good in Chicago. As an organization, we have a commitment to give back to our community and foster a symbiotic relationship with those impacted by our business. A give and take between a business and it’s environment is crucial to create a well-functioning and long-lasting enterprise. To make good on this commitment, Dimo's takes components typical of normal for-profit corporations, namely profit maximization, and combines them with portions of a not-for-profit entity, such as societal improvement.

Though the business remains for-profit, we operate with not-for-profit ideals as part of our DNA. And in order to focus our efforts in this realm of our business, we selected three causes that we have identified both based on the needs of our city as well as the collective interests of our stakeholders. We call these causes our Purposeful Passions, and they are the arts, education and bicycle advocacy.

We support our passions through a variety of programs and community partnerships, with an emphasis on hands on involvement and a commitment to long-term success. We also place great importance on catering to each of the distinct neighborhoods surrounding our brick and mortar locations, and we have store-level positions dedicated to incorporating our Purposeful Passions into our donation programs, events, and hyperlocal collaborations. This store-level initiative exists to strengthen our direct impact on our community members, and allows us to not lose sight of our grassroots approach as we continue to grow.

And growth is also an important element to our success. We know that as our business continues to expand, we are also able to increase our support for our Purposeful Passions. With this in mind, the typical goals of a for-profit are still an integral part of our success: bringing in revenue, expanding the business, and creating jobs. This sort of philanthropy is one hundred percent scalable, sustainable, and grows in conjunction with our business.

We believe that in order to be a force for good in Chicago, we must first be a force for good in the neighborhoods we call home. By focusing on these three causes we can harness our creativity, ambitions and ideas towards a collective purpose as a company. We rely on our neighbors and community members as part of the dialogue, and we seek their input as a gage for our success. We are realistic in our goals and know that we cannot alone change the trajectory, but we above all else hope to stand as an example and inspire others to stand up and do good for their communities and neighbors.

Passion In Action

Education - Education is a crucial component of our company. Our focus on education reaches from the very public issues faced by our city’s public school system, down to the level of training given to each of our employees. We believe that if we can help create fair, accessible educational opportunities, we can create a better future for generations beyond.  That’s why we’ve partnered with Robert Fulton Elementary School to offer annual field trips with students, sharing our knowledge of culinary arts, small business practices and sustainability. This program has been steadily growing since 2012, and we've watched partner class grow and learn from first grade through third grade. 

Bicycle Advocacy - Chicago demands a multi-faceted approach to transportation. For many people within the city, accessibility to cars, busses, and trains is often limited. We believe that cycling offers an accessible and healthy alternative. As frequent bikers, it’s our responsibility to help change the city infrastructure to better accommodate safe biking and bike lanes, making it a viable option for everyone. And because we’re a company that likes to put our pizza where our mouth is, we’ve converted our entire delivery service to bicyclists only. We also partner with awesome Chicago organizations like West Town Bikes and Active Transportation Alliance whenever possible to join forces and support their focused efforts to improve bicycle programming for the city.  

Art - Art for the sake of art is important. At Dimo’s, we practice our art every day when we create our deliciously offbeat pizzas; we believe everyone should have the same opportunity. Many of our employees and Crustomers are artists outside of their lives at Dimo’s, which is why we started our Artist of the Month program in our Six Corners location. This program allows local working artists to showcase and sell their work in our space and we never take any cut or commission. Additionally, we support all forms of art and art-based organizations through fundraisers, live events and workshops in our spaces.

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