Viewing volunteerism in a new light

Here is the good news: The spirit of volunteerism is catching on in the corporate sector. The most recent Corporate Giving Survey by the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre showed that the number of volunteer hours per employee has climbed by 8 per cent.

While employee volunteering programmes are the most preferred type of corporate giving among companies here, they typically consist only of a single model — activities that place volunteers in direct service to their beneficiaries or causes.

There is another form of volunteering that is not only equally meaningful, but also often more effective and critical to the charities.

Known as skills-based volunteering, this involves companies and employees using their main expertise and talent to help. How do we encourage this to make corporate giving more meaningful?

A MORE MEANINGFUL WAY TO VOLUNTEER

There are a number of reasons for the rise in volunteerism among corporations and their employees.

Apart from the obvious charitable intent, many companies believe that involving their employees in a common activity in aid of a worthy cause also helps strengthen staff bonding and boost morale.

Such activities include visiting the residents of a nursing home, cleaning up the beach or providing beneficiaries access to services they otherwise would not have had.

At the same time, companies are also becoming more discerning about the efficacy of their philanthropy — many want to advance beyond traditional avenues of giving and believe that donating their time and effort makes more of a lasting impact than simply writing a cheque.

Some companies give their employees official time off for voluntary work. Others have policies that encourage their staff to form groups that identify meaningful causes to volunteer and organise activities to cater for them.

It is wonderful and encouraging to know that companies are now more involved in the causes they care about.

But companies can certainly do more in skills-based volunteering, which is the most logical form of corporate volunteering.

Imagine a banker with a list of high- net-worth clients being asked to wash dishes at a nursing home. While that is a good way to help, would not the nursing home stand to gain so much more if the banker and his company apply their resources and talent to organise a fund-raising initiative for the home?

Or, how about a copywriter and designer who clear cages at an animal shelter as volunteers? It would probably be more meaningful and rewarding if both combine their talents to design a compelling advocacy campaign to raise awareness for the shelter.

Skills-based volunteering is both logical and practical. Many non-profit organisations (NPOs) and charities, by the very nature of their enterprise, lack the financial resources to employ staff with a diverse range of expertise.

Not only does such a contribution help the NPOs keep their cost structure lean by saving on hiring vendors, it creates a more meaningful volunteering experience for the employees who have volunteered with them.

It also presents a great knock-on potential for the NPO’s growth.

For companies who support charitable programmes financially (and this remains an absolutely important means of giving), they tend to be more inclined to donate to the charities that possess the same governance standards they would assess any other organisation by — namely, proper infrastructure, accountability, transparency and public awareness.

So, for these NPOs, securing the financial support of a corporate donor is often a chicken-and-egg scenario. To prove they will be good stewards of the donation, they often need professional expertise that they cannot afford. But in order to afford such expertise at market rates, they need the donation.

By availing the professional expertise of their staff to the NPOs, companies that are committed to a meaningful corporate social responsibility ethos are, in fact, fulfilling the real needs of the NPOs, and are helping to set the stage for their sustainable growth.

After all, if clients value the companies for the specific professional services they provide, would not the beneficiaries of the charities stand to gain more for the same reasons?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Joel Chua is head of advocacy at the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre.