Corporate Volunteerism: Challenging Times Drive New Investments
You won’t be surprised to hear that another set of indicators from the Conference Board point downward for 2009. Corporate philanthropy will dive this year – thirty-five percent of companies surveyed by the Conference Board said they would make fewer grants this year and another twenty-two percent are considering reductions.
However, there is also good news for causenation. In this time of need, companies and individuals are embracing volunteerism. Forty-five percent of companies in the Conference Board survey say that they will be increasing resources dedicated toward corporate volunteerism. USA Today reported this week that applications are soaring at government-funded service programs like Peace Corps, Teach for America and Americorps. Buoyed by the President’s call to action and uncertainty in job market, community service is coming of age again.
Alan Solomont, chairman of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees the main government-funded service programs says, “there’s a convergence of a great need for citizen service and a great appetite by Americans for service. It will do the kinds of things for this generation and this country that military service did for the Greatest Generation.”
Corporate America has a huge opportunity to be a catalyst for this movement and to facilitate the engagement of its millions of employee-citizens – not just as “service for service sake,” but also to boost much needed morale and provide rich leadership and personal development experiences.
- First, we must take our employee volunteer initiatives to new levels – apply our skills as well as our muscle; ensure and measure social impact; and connect our activities with business imperatives.
- Second, we must be advocates for the bi-partisan Serve America Act, making service opportunities available for hundreds of thousands of Americans to take action on our most pressing community needs. Visit Service Nation for more information.
- Also, keep an eye on the Incentive to Serve Tax Act, which would provide companies with a tax credit equal to twenty-five of compensation paid to an employee who performs at least 160 hours of a specified charitable service during work hours.
We are passionate about corporate engagement, and you’ll see us blog a lot about these issues.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 at 11:46 am and is filed under Volunteerism, point of view, trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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March 10th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
We are seeing this increased level of employee morale, engagement and personal development at ARAMARK. Not only are we meeting real and relevent community needs, but our community involvement program meets strategic business goals.
In an article by Michael Mink in the March 3 addition of Investor’s Business Daily, ARAMARK vice president of Corporate Affairs, Rick Martella, echoes this sentiment, stating “With its community signature program ARAMARK Building Community, that supports community centers, the company saw that 92% of its employees who participated said they were proud of the commitment, with 90% saying they would volunteer again.”
Bev Dribin
Vice President Community Relations
ARAMARK
March 13th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Thanks, Mark. This study is very fascinating and I agree with all your points. Employee volunteerism is a win-win for employees and employers – both a cost-effective tool to connect with and retain talent in this difficult time, and an opportunity for individuals to engage in volunteer service when many, including myself, are rethinking what’s most important in our lives.
I add a fourth challenge to the business sector, which is to understand how an influx of corporate volunteers into the community will impact nonprofit organizations. Many nonprofits, already burdened with increased demand and decreased donations, will be tasked to find “meaningful” opportunities for eager volunteers. However, without the resources and staffing to create, manage and evaluate such programs, we run the risk of – as you aptly put it – creating “service for service sake.”
Alyson Genovese
CSR/Employee Engagement Professional
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:25 am
causenation » Blog Archive » National Service - Just Do It! says:[...] releated news, our recent causenation post on corporate volunteerism talks about the increasing corporate enthusiasm for service and new investments businesses are [...]