Corporate Volunteering: Better for the World (OR) AND for the Business?

Volunteering. What kind of ideas does this word evoke?

I suggest the majority of us would think about local NGOs, student gap years and volunteering activities during retirement. Moreover, when thinking about international volunteering, wouldn’t we associate this quite naturally with lower-skilled activities, such as construction, farming or gardening, childcare and language teaching? In other words, we would tend to think about activities that involve NO profit and NO (or little) professional expertise. Indeed, where there is profit and professional expertise, we should be speaking about business, right?!

Well, what I have just described are stereotypical perceptions of volunteering, as the real picture is changing. Today, we can speak and read about corporate volunteering, skill-based volunteering and ‘experteering’, all of which are good/profitable for the business! Quite refreshing isn’t it?!

First of all, the notion of volunteering becomes compatible with business initiative. Indeed, companies are increasingly enrolling into global volunteering programs or creating their own corporate volunteering programs (such as Microsoft’s 4Afrika program, PepsiCorps), which provide employees with possibilities to go abroad and volunteer (with the employer sponsoring the event).

Secondly, volunteering goes beyond donating time, effort and compassion, as in the case of many social responsibility initiatives (e.g. food distribution/packaging or environment cleaning). While such activities are of great importance for all the parties involved, and I truly admire everyone who continues to engage in them , they usually do not draw on the professional skills and expertise of the volunteers. By contrast, skill-based volunteering does exactly that: volunteering opportunities are aligned with both business objectives (e.g. learn about a new market) and employee development objectives (e.g. improve leadership skills). In other words, employees go abroad to address a real need by volunteering their professional skills and expertise. That’s right, managers can volunteer too!

Thirdly, volunteering is not just about doing good, becoming a better person (personal development) and feeling good about it, it is also about professional development. In essence, skill-based volunteering, or ‘experteering’, makes a difference for others while also developing valuable skills in the volunteer itself along the way. In essence, when planned and executed well, why would volunteering projects be any different from developmental assignments, especially if these projects go beyond short stints abroad?

Finally, corporate volunteering is not just a good and highly humane thing to do, it is also a smart thing to do! As Mark Horoszowski, Co-founder of MovingWorlds.org, puts it, ‘there is very robust evidence that these programs create benefits for all stakeholders’. Studying the impact of such volunteering programs shows that there is a clear return on investment (also discussed in one of my older posts): volunteers develop their leadership skills, many advance their careers upon return, employee engagement and motivation increases, and the business feels tangible results.

All in all, corporate volunteering seems to build a strong case: every business can address real social issues and contribute their bit to making the world a better place, while also making their business a better place, with better people all along!