by Bright Ewuru | May 3, 2023 | Articles
Corporate philanthropy is on the rise—and one of the most popular segments of this growing social responsbility is skills-based volunteerism. Nestled at the crosswalk of corporate philanthropy and human resources, skills-based volunteerism identifies professional capacity and how it can be leveraged for the general good.
According to the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, by 2016, more than 50% of companies had started channelling the expertise of their employees to nonprofits.
What’s more, this study shows that 94% of millennials want to use their skills for social good. In other words, we’re only going to see this positive trend grow.
Skills-based volunteering is a strategic form of corporate philanthropy that involves the employees of a company or other business enterprise donating their professional skills and experience to gratuitously assist and support nonprofit organisations.
This skills-based volunteering definition clearly highlights its difference from regular employee volunteering. Under traditional volunteer programs, employees like marketing professionals, IT specialists and legal practitioners can get involved in random general charitable projects such as cleaning the surroundings, providing infrastructure or handing out supplies to the needy.
However, skills-based volunteerism emphasises the donation of specialised job-related skills to enhance the operational efficiency of nonprofits or boost the impact of their projects.
Some skills-based volunteering examples include
The reason why skills-based volunteerism seems so successful and rewarding is that it’s chock-full of advantages.
To begin with, skills-based volunteering enhances your brand’s reputation. It demonstrates corporate social responsibility on your brand’s part. With corporate social responsibility comes good corporate citizenship, a factor that keeps you in everyone’s good books.
It also increases performance organisation-wide in various ways. It’s an efficient employee engagement tool that boosts your team’s mental health. Volunteering has been reported to lead to general life satisfaction, decreased stress levels and better health. Also, working as a team on projects bigger than themselves breeds a sense of connectivity and better workplace culture.
The outcome is an optimal spirit in your employees, making them more productive.
Also, it presents an excellent professional development opportunity to your team, helping them sharpen their professional and soft skills. When dealing with the processes of the nonprofit, they’ll encounter challenges they might not face in your company. These challenges will help them hone their work and interpersonal/leadership skills such as communication, collaboration and empathy.
Skills-based volunteering yields networking opportunities for you, your organisation and your employees. In the process of helping the nonprofit and interacting with new people, new partnerships and friendships can be formed.
Above all else, it helps your organisation contribute to charitable projects. By assisting nonprofits, you’re indirectly supporting their projects. This leads to a greater and more sustainable impact.
Certain steps are necessary for a winning skills-based volunteering program. Here are some best practices.
The first step to running an impactful skills-based volunteering program is to identify nonprofits that have values and a mission similar to those of your company. Alignment in these areas is crucial for a seamless partnership. This filtering process helps you narrow your scope to only like-minded nonprofits.
Communicate with any potential nonprofit to find out what their present needs are; this will uncover the various ways your business can assist. With a good idea of how you’d like to support, the next step is to gauge your company’s ability to do so.
Identify your organisation’s standing in terms of finance and manpower. This is crucial because it guarantees a thorough and robust skills-based volunteering program.
Your skills-based volunteerism program should have a specific duration. Whether it will run for days, weeks, months or years, the span should be clearly defined.
It’s also important to specify what you hope to accomplish with the program. It could be to enhance employee engagement or build your brand reputation. Identifying the goals early on guides you in designing the program and gives you an idea of what you should look out for during and after the program.
The donation of professional skills is the core of skills-based volunteerism. For your program to be effective, you must harness the job-related expertise of your workforce. Whether it’s in the field of data analysis, finance management or public relations, ensure they implement their competencies in areas where the charitable organisation needs them.
For efficiency, it’s essential to optimise your team’s operations as they provide their expertise. An ideal way to nail this is to prioritise flexibility. Allow your employees to work remotely or implement a hybrid model. Also, operate a task-based system as opposed to a time-based system.
Flexibility boosts productivity and enables them to give their best to both your business and the volunteer efforts at the same time. Harnessing technology is also crucial – it streamlines the operations necessary for supporting the nonprofit. Many companies now offer paid time off for volunteering; this goes a long way in providing time and space for your employees to make a difference.
Your skills-based volunteerism program cycle will come to an end. At this stage, it’s essential to evaluate the program to find out how it fared and whether you achieved your goals. This will uncover the areas where you excelled as well as things that need more work. The learning opportunity ensures that subsequent programs turn out better.
Skills-based volunteerism is a win for all parties involved. It presents the ideal opportunity for nonprofits to enjoy professional expertise while your organisation enjoys multiple benefits such as enhanced skills and greater employee performance. Implement these practices for a thriving skills-based volunteering program.
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