Skills-based volunteerism a win-win for firms and non-profits

The writer of “Companies, and workers themselves, can benefit from corporate volunteerism” (July 5) offered a view similar to that of the Centre for Non-Profit Leadership (CNPL), a part of the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC). In fact, where the commitment is mutual, both corporates and non-profits stand to gain from the exchange of experiences, especially at a strategic level.

When done as an organisation, volunteering not only helps team members bond, but also inculcates values of empathy and stewardship when it is done right. The issues and challenges faced by non-profits are often complex and require more than a handout or seasonal help.

Corporates are an important part of the equation in creating good social impact. After all, they do not exist outside of communities.

Staff volunteering has become an expectation for younger job seekers. And non-profits here are now looking at tapping the expertise and experiences of corporates to help them with strategic planning, resource optimisation or operational management.

One good way for corporates to give back is via “skills-based volunteering”. The CNPL facilitates such skills-based help for employees who desire to give back at a leadership or professional level. Our programmes such as BoardMatch and ExpertMatch are designed to ease and facilitate better on-boarding for mature professionals who want to be involved in leadership or advisory roles.

The CNPL’s core focus is on leadership capacity-building within the non-profit sector. The sector will definitely benefit from a lot more cross-sectoral conversations and collaborations, as the environment becomes more dynamic and accessible to the public.

As the potential benefits of leadership volunteering become more apparent, private non-profit partnerships will increase both in numbers and engagement, and so will the need for more structured processes to integrate corporate volunteers into non-profit leadership roles.

The CNPL, as the leadership capacity-building arm of the NVPC, will be introducing more leadership experiences that target professionals who want to give back their expertise and experience.