Gentle Giant Moving Company

When O’Toole founded Gentle Giant Moving Company, his goal was to establish a company of unique quality and service, and to ultimately make every customer a customer for life. Gentle Giant draws heavily upon its resources within rowing communities and other athletic disciplines as the company has found that current and former athletes make some of the best movers.

Gentle Giant’s customer service has been recognized by many organizations and awards since its inception including:

• Better Business Bureau accredited company with an A+ rating.[3]
• Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce 'Small Business of the Year Award' winner 2002.[4]
• Better Business Bureau 'International Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics' winner 2006.[5]
• Boston Business Journal 'Innovator of the Year' award-winner 2008.[6]
• American Moving & Storage Association 'Mover of the Year' award-winner 2009.[7]
• Four-time Better Business Bureau 'Local Torch Award for Excellence' winner.[8]
• Nine-time Boston Magazine 'Best of Boston' award-winner.[9]
• Boston Magazine 'Best of Boston' Hall of Fame inductee.[10]
• Six-time Improper Bostonian 'Boston's Best' award-winner.[11]
• Five-time Angie's List 'Super Service' award-winner.[12]
• Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts 'Sustainable Business of the Year' award-winner 2020.[13]
• MetroWest Daily News 'Best Moving Company' award-finalist 2020 and 2021.[14]

Gentle Giant's employee-centric foundation has seen the company win several workplace awards including:

• The Wall Street Journal 'Top Small Workplaces Winner' 2007.[15]
• The Boston Globe 'Top Places to Work' award-winner 2008 and 2016.[16]
• Boston Business Journal 'Best Places to Work' award-winner 2006 and 2015.[17]
• Healthiest Employers Charlotte honoree 2020.[18]
• Healthiest Employers Philadelphia honoree 2020.
• Worksite Wellness Council of Massachusetts honoree 2018 and 2021.[19]
• Providence Business News 'Healthiest Employers of Rhode Island' award-winner 2020.[20]
• Charlotte Business Journal 'Healthiest Employers of Greater Charlotte Awards' winner 2020.[21]
• Healthiest Employers New York City finalist 2021.[22]

The Gentle Giant Charitable Foundation was founded in 2005 with the goal of strengthening the community involvement that has characterized Gentle Giant Moving Company throughout its 40 years in business.[23] It focuses on two issues central to the values and practices of the company: youth leadership development through athletics and education, and homelessness prevention.[24] Over the years the foundation has partnered with organizations throughout its various locations. These organizations include Girls on the Run, More than Words, Read to a Child, Second Chances, Household Goods, Horizons for Homeless Children, Boston Healthcare for the Homeless, Cambridge Housing Assistance Fund, and Move for Hunger.[25]

Gentle Giant’s partnership with Household Goods provides logistical support to housing assistance programs. As part of the alliance, Giants transport and assemble donated furniture and other household goods to the new homes of those who faced homelessness.[26] Additionally, the company’s work with Move for Hunger has become a core element of its charitable endeavors. In 2021 Gentle Giant was named Move for Hunger’s ‘Mover of the Year’ having transported more than 385,000 pounds of food, the equivalent of 320,000 meals, to the Greater Boston Food Bank.[27]

On top of its involvement with nonprofits, Gentle Giant also collaborates on several athletic events throughout its nationwide locations. Since 1997 the company has partnered with the Boston Marathon to provide operational support.[28] It has also provided logistical support to the Seattle and Charlotte, N.C. marathons.[29] The company is a sponsor of the Rock 'n' Roll Running Series in both Washington, DC and San Francisco where Gentle Giant crews provide voluntary moving and storage services on event days.[30] Additionally, the company's support of athletic events extends to the Wit You Ride, a Philadelphia-based bike race which raises funds and awareness for local families fighting childhood cancer, the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in the New York Metro area, and the Fat Salmon Open Water Swim Race in Seattle.[31]

Gentle Giant Moving Company has implemented various green initiatives since its foundation. Among these initiatives are; the exclusive use of biodegradable foam peanuts and oxo-biodegradable bubble wrap, reselling used boxes at discounted prices through its Top Box moving box service, providing moving boxes manufactured from 90% post-consumer recycled materials, and using Forest Stewardship Council-certified products for marketing materials.

Throughout the years Gentle Giant has been recognized for its efforts to become a green moving companies. The company’s sustainable initiatives, along with its annual voluntary work at the Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts’s Boston Local Food Festival earned it the ‘Sustainable Business of the Year’ award in 2020.[32] The company has also been recognized as a ‘Bike Friendly Business’ by the City of Boston and is an active member of the Climate Action Business Association.[33]

Gentle Giant was founded by Northeastern University rowers and has continued its tradition of supporting rowing. The company has provided funding for the Gentle Giant Rowing Club since its establishment in 2005. The club, located in Somerville, Massachusetts, was started by former Gentle Giant movers with the financial backing of Gentle Giant Moving Company. The rowing club gives city teens a chance to learn about and compete in the sport of rowing. Gentle Giant has also been a proud sponsor of Boston’s annual Head of the Charles Regatta since 2011, providing logistical support in the lead up to and following the regatta.

Many of Gentle Giant's employees are seasoned athletes, specifically in the sport of rowing. In the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, two former giants, Dan Walsh and Wyatt Allen, competed in the Men's Eight event, earning a bronze medal in the process.[34] Another former giant, Matt Muffelman, earned a seat in the Lightweight Men's Eight event in the 2008 World Rowing Championships, earning a gold medal.[34] Many other former giants have earned spots on various national teams, including 30 US National Team members, 10 foreign National Team members, and 14 Olympians. Amongst the Olympian athletes are Gentle Giant's resident crate builder Tom Kiefer who became an Olympic silver medalist in 1984.[34] In the company's history, it has employed over 400 rowers.[34]

In 2005, Gentle Giant was selected by Al Roker Productions to be featured in a 10-episode reality TV series on the Discovery Home Channel (now Destination America) called Make Your Move. This series documented the process of moving one's home or office and the experiences associated with it, from both the customer's perspective and the mover's perspective.

In the movie The Departed, Detective Sergeant Sullivan's girlfriend Madolyn used Gentle Giant boxes when she was packing her old apartment to move into Sullivan's apartment.

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