Benefits
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Be
a volunteer
The
Healh Benefits of Volunteering
Benefits
of Volunteering
4
Personal Benefits of Volunteering in Your
Community
5
Surprising Benefits Of
Volunteering
The
Business Case for Employee Volunteer & Skills Giving
Programs
OHS
Youth Volunteer Program
Youth
Volunteer Corps
Red
Cross Youth Volunteers
Resources: Youth
Volunteers
WWF Youth
Volunteer Internship Programme
UN Youth
Volunteers
Starting
a club or extra curricular activity -
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Know
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of Expression: IB
Student
Organizations: IGDA
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Organizations: IGDA-AR
Student
Government: JFBA
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Drug Testing - Extracurricular Activity Participants**
JFCIA
Be a
volunteer
You've seen people in need on the news after a hurricane,
earthquake, or other disaster. Perhaps you've walked past
homeless people who are living on the streets. Or maybe
you've been to an animal shelter and wished you could give
every pet a home.
So what can you do to help people (or
animals) who need it? The answer is
volunteer!
Volunteering means spending some of
your free time helping others. You may volunteer to help
other people, such as the families who lost their homes
after a natural disaster. But you can also volunteer to
protect animals, the environment, or any other cause that
you care about.
Help Yourself by Helping
Others
Volunteering helps others, but it can
also help you, too. If you're upset about something that's
happened like a hurricane or other disaster
doing something about it can be a great way to cope with
your feelings.
Volunteering also lets you see your
own life in new ways. Sometimes it's easy to worry about
stuff like grades or get annoyed because you don't have the
most expensive sneakers or the newest computer game.
Volunteering lets you spend some time focusing on others for
a while.
Lots of people and kids
find that they really enjoy volunteering. Volunteer
experiences often put you in a different environment and
expose you to people and situations that you wouldn't have
come across in your regular life. For instance, you might
learn that just on the edge of your town are some kids who
really need winter clothes.
It feels good to be able to meet a
need like that. You'll know that, thanks to you, some kids
have warm coats, hats, mittens, and boots. So whether it's
winter clothes, food for the hungry, or homes for unwanted
pets, doing volunteer work means one very important thing:
You make a difference in the world.
So where do you start?
Getting Started
Some of you may already know about
volunteering and service through 4H, Boy Scouts, or Girl
Scouts. Religious organizations, like churches, synagogues,
and mosques, also organize volunteer and charity
work.
School is another good place to start
if you're looking for volunteer ideas. Ask a teacher, school
counselor, or librarian for ideas. Your local parks
department also might have some suggestions for how kids can
volunteer.
Some places want volunteers who are 12
or even older, depending on the job. Often kids start
volunteering by working alongside their parents. For
instance, you might be too young to prepare food at a soup
kitchen, but if your parents volunteer there you might be
able to go along and pitch in.
One girl who sent us an email said she
helps out at a soup kitchen by playing cards with the
homeless people who eat there. "It's nice to see them
smile," said Sammy, 13.
Things to Do With Parents or Family
Members
Volunteering is a great way to have
fun with your family. Talk to your parents, brothers, or
sisters and see what they might be interested in doing. Find
something you all agree on.
Here are some ideas for things you can
do as a family or with a group that has adult
supervision:
- Clean up a park or along a
river.
- Plant trees or flowers in your
local community.
- Serve food at a homeless
shelter.
- Deliver meals to people who are
elderly or ill at home.
- Clean up a school or other public
building.
- Count wildlife or plants for
environmental groups.
Invent Your Own
Opportunity
Kids also can come up with their own
ways to raise money or provide needed services. Here are
some ideas:
- Make and sell products and donate
the money to charity. Carly, 11, and her sister Molly,
13, raised almost $10,000 for the American Cancer Society
by selling honey at farmer's markets and
fairs.
- Collect or earn money for charity.
Talia, 10, trick-or-treated for donations to Hurricane
Katrina victims; Kyra, 11 donated the money she made
pet-sitting to a local animal shelter.
- Start your own charity group.
Three sisters, ages 8, 11, and 14, started Project
Backpack to help kids who were evacuated after hurricanes
Rita and Katrina.
Some schools now require kids to spend
some time in service to others. Why? Because grown-ups hope
kids will become caring people who see the value in giving
of their time, talents, and resources (like money, toys, or
clothes they might donate). Volunteering gives kids a taste
of responsibility because people are depending on them for
something important.
Volunteering also can help kids learn
important stuff about themselves like what kinds of
things they're best at and enjoy the most. A volunteer job
can even help some kids decide what they want to do when
they grow up. So what are you waiting for? Make a plan to
start volunteering today!
Source: kidshealth.org/en/kids/volunteering.html
The Healh
Benefits of Volunteering
For people living with a disability or older adults who
live alone, maintaining a feeling of connectedness with the
community is important. It helps prevent feelings of
loneliness, isolation and depression. One way to help stay
connected is through volunteer service. In recent years, the
National Service Organization has linked the number of hours
volunteered with positive health benefits. The more hours a
person volunteers in a year, the more likely they are to
stay mentally, emotionally and physically fit.
How volunteering improves
health
The Health Benefits of Volunteering
report showed just how important donating your time to help
others can be:
1. Volunteers have higher rates of
personal satisfaction and lower rates of
depression.
2. Giving back to the community
increases self-esteem which in turn helps to improve
self-worth and happiness.
3. Volunteers live longer. That
includes volunteers who live with a chronic or serious
illness. These volunteers say they receive as great or
greater benefit from their volunteer work than they do from
medical interventions.
4. States with the highest rates of
volunteerism also have the lowest mortality rates and fewest
incidents of heart disease.
5. Volunteering as little as four
hours a month can have a positive impact on your
health.
Finding volunteer work if you have
a disability
There are lots of volunteer
opportunities to help those living with a disability or
older adults who need some extra support. But how can you
find meaningful opportunities if you have a disability or
you are an older adult? Here are a few resources that can
help:
1. VolunteerMatch.org.
This organization helps volunteers and non-profit
organizations connect. You can search for local
opportunities or virtual volunteer jobs. The site has 29
different categories of volunteer positions ranging from
Hunger to Disaster Relief. Each projects description
outlines what the responsibilities are and how many hours a
week/month they need help.
2. Create the Good. This AARP
initiative matches volunteers with local community based
organizations. They also have Volunteer from Home
opportunities that make it easier for those living with a
disability or an older adult who may not have transportation
to help out.
3. United Way. Each local United Way
agency maintains a list of area non-profits that need help
with special projects or support on a long-term basis. You
can visit their main site to find your local United Way
affiliates volunteer opportunities list.
If you would like to learn more about
the benefits of volunteering, visit the Corporation for
National and Community Service.
Source: acmcare.org/health-benefits-volunteering/
Benefits
of Volunteering
Why volunteer?
- Volunteering is a great way to get
work experience! You learn new skills by trying new
jobs.
- You might find something you'd
like to do for a living, or discover what you would not
want to do.
- Better yet, you can meet people
who can give you guidance and possibly help you to find a
paid job later on.
- Some volunteer opportunities
involve travel across Canada or to other
countries.
- Employers will be impressed that
you took the initiative to learn new things.
- You can learn how a charitable
organization works.
- Best of all, you will be taking
action to promote what you think is important and
probably be helping someone else along the
way.
- Be the change that you
seek!
Benefits of
Volunteering
If you're one of the 13.3 million
Canadians who volunteer, you may already know that
volunteering is as beneficial to you as it is to the causes
you care the most about. If not, here are ten reasons to
volunteer:
1. Volunteering is good for your
mental health. According to Doing Good is Good for You, 2013
Health and Volunteering Study, volunteering helps people
manage and lower their stress levels. 94 per cent of those
surveyed reported that volunteering also improves their
mood. Volunteers also scored higher than non-volunteers on
emotional well-being measures including overall satisfaction
with life.
2. Volunteering is good for your
physical health. This same study showed that 80 per cent of
volunteers feel that they have greater control over their
health. Volunteers tend to be more engaged health care
consumers who make better informed decisions about their
health. Volunteering also keeps you active and has been
shown to reduce chronic pain and heart disease
symptoms.
3. Volunteering is good for your
self-confidence. Want to feel better about yourself and what
you can do? Want to feel more satisfied with your life?
Volunteering can boost all of the above and instill a
greater sense of pride and identity.
4. Volunteering can fight depression.
Social isolation is a risk factor for depression.
Volunteering helps you to develop relationships and a
support system, both of which can help you overcome
obstacles and fight depression.
5. Volunteering expands your social
network. Volunteering can help you make new friends and
expand your social network. One of the best ways to make new
friends and strengthen existing relationships is to commit
to a shared activity together. Volunteering also strengthens
your ties to the community and gives you the opportunity to
practice and develop your social skills, since you are
meeting regularly with a group of people with common
interests.
6. Volunteering can help you develop
new skills. From interpersonal skills to teamwork, time
management, organizational and other professional skills,
volunteers must often acquire new skill sets as part of
their volunteer work. These are also valuable to
employers.
7. Volunteering can help you put
existing skills to work. Many volunteers appreciate being
able to contribute their talents in a meaningful manner.
Whether you have business skills the organization needs or
have a unique talent that needs an outlet, volunteering is a
great way to put your existing skills to work.
8. Volunteering can advance your
career. 71 per cent of the Doing Good is Good for You
respondents felt that volunteering provided them with
networking opportunities and job-related contacts and 49 per
cent of new volunteers said that volunteering had helped
them in the paid job market.
9. Volunteering can expose you to new
career options. Volunteering is a great way to try out
different job roles and industries. Many people have found
their true calling after volunteering.
10. Volunteering can make a difference
in causes that are important to you. In addition,
volunteering can help you to contribute to causes that are
close to your heart. Whether you've lost a loved one to a
devastating disease or have been moved to do something to
ease the pain and suffering of others, your volunteer work
can improve the lives of others while simultaneously
delivering all of the above benefits.
Who needs
volunteers?
- Hospitals
- Charities
- Clubs
- Overseas development
organizations
- Music and arts
festivals
- Sporting leagues and
events
- Children's camps
- Libraries
- Environmental
organizations
- Crisis lines and peer counselling
organizations
- Human rights
organizations
- Religious
organizations
- Political campaigns
- Government agencies (local,
provincial, federal)
What are some of the things a
volunteer can do?
- Coach a team.
- Read to children.
- Raise money for charity (fight
diseases, reduce poverty, help the sick and injured,
etc.).
- Care for the elderly.
- Feed the hungry.
- Provide counselling and
support.
- Run errands and do
deliveries.
- Gather and analyze
data.
- Raise awareness of important
issues.
- Do clean-up and repairs in the
community.
- Build houses or playground
equipment.
- Care for animals.
- Stage concerts, plays and other
cultural events.
- Protect the
environment.
- Plant trees.
- Help-out with a political
campaign.
Where can you find volunteer
opportunities?
- View our community opportunities
here
- Call a service club.
- Visit a hospital.
- Ask family, friends and neighbours
what they recommend.
- Join an organization whose
activities you support.
Links, Articles and
Videos
- Volunteerism -- best platform for
personal and professional development: Tuan Nguyen at
TEDxUOttawa
- Volunteering: a local view:
Alistair Volunteering at TEDxExeter
How to pick an organization to
volunteer for
Volunteering has been shown to be as
beneficial to volunteers as it is to the beneficiaries of
all that hard work, but where do you start? In order to reap
the most benefits and feel truly satisfied, you need to find
a good fit. Use the tips below to find a meaningful
volunteer opportunity.
Where to begin
- Start with some soul-searching and
a self-assessment. What are you passionate about? Who do
you want to help?
- For some, the answer is obvious;
for others, it's hard to focus. For example, if a family
member has been affected by disease, you may be
passionate about volunteering for an organization
dedicated to finding a cure. On the other hand, you could
be passionate about the plight of disaster victims, the
environment, or abused animals.
- It gets easier once you pick a
cause, but you will still need to choose an organization
among many. One way to narrow the field is to decide
whether you want to get involved at the local, national,
or international level.
- From there, it's time to start
researching the various organizations that
match.
Source: www.volunteerairdrie.ca/volunteering_benefits.htm
4 Personal Benefits
of Volunteering in Your Community
Nonprofit organizations depend on the giving nature of
volunteers. But volunteers often reap satisfaction and
benefits of volunteering by becoming involved in their
communities. Not sure how volunteering can be a personal
benefit to you? Here are four reasons to give a little time
to a nonprofit organization every week.
1. Growth
By volunteering with an ongoing
program, volunteers see growth and change. Whether working
with children who are learning to read or adults who are
developing trust with their peers, volunteers can actually
watch growth among their clients over time. This reinforces
the volunteer's own sense of worthiness and vitality in the
program.
2. Enrichment
There's nothing more fulfilling than
realizing how much of an impact a volunteer can make.
Volunteers working together to build a children's playground
or low-cost housing for needy families can later visit these
sites and see how the project has enriched the neighborhood.
Just a few hours of helping can turn into a lifetime of
opportunity, which is one of the greatest benefits of
volunteering.
3. Learning
Volunteer opportunities often allow
people to try new activities or learn new skills. For
example, when an accountant volunteers to help cook a
holiday dinner at a homeless shelter, he walks away with not
only a few cooking tips, but also knowledge of how to keep
food at a safe temperature and how to serve large
groups.
4. Friendships
When like-minded people get together,
friendships are formed. After working on a volunteer project
for a few weeks, it's not uncommon for volunteers to
exchange phone numbers or social media information. By
giving just a few hours a week, lifetime friendships may be
established.
Ready to get involved? Check out
United Way's call to action for one million volunteer
readers, tutors and mentors. It's a great way to get started
locally and help a student succeed. Take the pledge
today!
Source: www.unitedway.org/blog/4-personal-benefits-of-volunteering-in-your-community
5
Surprising Benefits Of
Volunteering
The power of volunteering has
been documented for the last 2,500+ years, however a slew of
recent research is shedding even more light onto its
surprising benefits. Science now proves what great leaders
and philosophers have known for years:
One of the great
ironies of life is this: He or she who serves almost
always benefits more than he or she who is served.
Gordon Hinckle
Here are five surprising benefits
of volunteering:
1. Volunteering time makes you feel
like you have more time. Wharton professor Cassie Mogilner
wrote in the Harvard Business Review that her research found
those who volunteer their time feel like they have more of
it. This is similar to other research showing that people
who donate to charity feel wealthier.
Said Mogliner: The results show
that giving your time to others can make you feel more
time affluent and less time-constrained than
wasting your time, spending it on yourself, or even getting
a windfall of free time.
2. Volunteering your skills helps you
develop new skills. In my experience, skills-based
volunteering is an excellent opportunity to develop talents
to help you get ahead in your career. In fact, an article in
Stanford Social Innovation Review called skills-based
volunteering overseas the next executive training
ground.
At MovingWorlds, weve found that
skills development in technical and leadership-related areas
is the primary reason corporations invest in international
skills-based volunteering programs.
3. Volunteering your body helps you
have a healthier body. A Corporation for National &
Community Service report noted: Research demonstrates
that volunteering leads to better health
those who
volunteer have lower mortality rates, greater functional
ability, and lower rates of depression later in life than
those who do not volunteer.
The fact that volunteering has been
proven to make you healthier is reason enough to engage in
pro bono activities. For more information on this, read
Can Volunteering Lower Your Risk of Heart
Disease?
4. Volunteering your experience helps
build your experience. We consistently see this with highly
skilled professionals like investment bankers and business
consultants. Also, volunteering in a new industry will give
you knowledge to help you switch fields. And if you want to
move from the corporate world to the nonprofit sector,
volunteering first can help prove your
commitment.
Beyond our own research, The New York
Times, The Wall Street Journal and Next Avenue have
published articles about how volunteering can help you earn
your next job.
As the Journal wrote: According
to the survey of 202 human-resource executives, skilled
volunteer work such as helping a nonprofit with its
finances makes job applicants look more appealing to
hiring manager.
Here are some tips to add your
volunteering experience to your resumé and LinkedIn
profile.
5. Volunteering your love makes you
feel more love. Admittedly, love is a hard thing to measure.
But when researchers at the London School of Economics
examined the relationship between volunteering and measures
of happiness, they found the more people volunteered, the
happier they were. Volunteering builds empathy, strengthens
social bonds and makes you smile all factors that
increase the feeling of love.
How to Find Volunteering
Opportunities
So how can you get started
volunteering? Its remarkably easy. Post your
intentions on Facebook and/or LinkedIn to get connected to
an organization in your network. You can also use
LinkedIns For Good program, Catchafire or
VolunteerMatch to find local opportunities and
MovingWorlds.org to find international skills-based
volunteer projects.
Service to others is
the rent you pay for your room here on earth. -
Muhammad Ali
Mark Horoszowski is a Next Avenue
contributor and the co-founder and CEO of MovingWorlds.org,
a global platform helping people volunteer their skills
around the world whose mission is to support social impact
organizations that are solving last-mile challenges and have
great potential to create jobs.
Source: www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2015/03/19/5-surprising-benefits-of-volunteering/#51f1e2187c76
The Business
Case for Employee Volunteer & Skills Giving
Programs
What if I told you that having an employee volunteer program
could potentially save you money say $1,000 to $6,000
per employee. Would you start one? Or if you have one, would
you take it more seriously?
The average employee turnover rate of
all U.S. industries is 15.1%. In some cases, this turnover
is healthy for your organization because youre losing
low performers (i.e. problem staff or those not willing to
improve) and this can positively impact everything from
employee engagement to productivity and profits. But what if
the employees leaving your organization are top
performers?
Replacing top performers can cause
service disruptions for your customers and requires a
substantial amount of financing, extensive training,
employee workload balancing, and handling cultural shifts.
None of that sounds good, but how exactly does it impact
your companys bottom line? Well, for jobs paying
$75,000 a year or less (which is about 9 in 10 U.S.
workers), the typical cost of turnover is 20% of the
employees salary. For top-level employees it can cost
closer to 150% of the employees salary. But lets
focus on employees that make $75,000 or less. For each of
those employees leaving your organization, its costing
you about $15,000.
Increased Employee Engagement Helps
Reduce Turnover
A PwC study revealed, Employees
most committed to their organizations put in 57 percent more
effort on the joband are 87 percent less likely to
resignthan employees who consider themselves
disengaged. According to Gallups research,
companies with engaged workforces have higher earnings per
share (EPS):
- Work units in the top 25% of
Gallups Q12 Client Database have significantly
higher productivity, profitability, and customer ratings,
less turnover and absenteeism, and fewer safety incidents
than those in the bottom 25%.
- Organizations with an average of
9.3 engaged employees for every actively disengaged
employee in 2010-2011 experienced 147% higher earnings
per share (EPS) compared with their competition in
2011-2012. In contrast, those with an average of 2.6
engaged employees for every actively disengaged employee
experienced 2% lower EPS compared with their competition
during that same time period.
So where do employee volunteer and
skills giving programs factor in? Its an excellent,
relatively low-cost way to engage and retain
employees.
Keep Employees By Engaging Them
Through Volunteerism
Employees quit their jobs for many
reasons (salary and benefits topping the list), but the
majority of reasons are actually something employers can
control. HumanResources.about.com sites the following as 10
critical reasons why employees quit their job (in no special
order):
- Bad or nonexistent relationship
with boss
- Bored and unchallenged by the work
itself
- Lack of relationships/friendship
with co-workers
- Opportunities to use skills and
abilities
- Contribution of work to the
organizations business goals
- Autonomy and
independence
- Meaningfulness of work
- Organizations financial
stability
- Overall corporate
culture
- Managements recognition of
employee job performance
- Instituting an employee volunteer
and skills giving program can help your organization
address all ten of these.
Camaraderie
(addressing #1 and 3 from list
above)
Organizing group days of service
provide co-workers (and their bosses) an opportunity to work
together and get to know each other outside the walls of the
workplace. There is no corporate hierarchy when it comes to
hands-on volunteer activities like filling afterschool snack
bags for low-income children or building a house with
Habitat for Humanity. Such activities permit employees from
different departments and different levels of seniority the
chance to share experiences together and interact on a
deeper level, resulting in stronger relationships when they
return to the office. In UnitedHealth Groups 2013
Health and Volunteering Study, 64 percent of employees
who currently volunteer said that volunteering with work
colleagues strengthened their
relationships.
Corporate Culture & Meaningful
Work
(addressing #2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9
from list above)
Its well known that employees
want to work for companies that care. In fact, Cone Research
found that 79% of people prefer to work for a socially
responsible company. When strategically integrated with your
companys business goals and values, involving
employees in a mix of volunteer work, skills giving,
workplace giving programs, and matching gift opportunities
gives employees a sense of purpose, and makes them feel more
connected to the community and your company-wide social
responsibility efforts.
Additionally, volunteer programs
particularly those with pro bono and skills giving
opportunities - provide a meaningful way for employees to
put their abilities to use, and give them a chance to grow
and develop professional skills. Online giving and volunteer
management tools like America's Charities powered by
Causecast, make it easy for companies and their employees to
connect their skills with nonprofit needs and volunteer
opportunities. According to a Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT
Survey, 91 percent of surveyed corporate human
resources executives believe that pro bono service would add
value to training and development programs, and 90 percent
agree that contributing business skills and expertise to a
nonprofit can be an effective way to develop leadership
skills.
All of this effectively reinforces
beliefs and behaviors most valued by your company, empowers
employees to grow and do things for which they are most
passionate, infuses pride and loyalty in employees, and
contributes to a stronger, more skilled
workforce.
Employee Recognition &
Financial Stability
(addressing #8 and 10 from list
above)
Based on results from the
State
of the American Workplace report,
Gallup estimates that actively disengaged employees (about
70% of American workers) cost the U.S. between $450 billion
to $550 billion each year in lost productivity. They are
more likely to steal from their companies, negatively
influence their coworkers, miss workdays, and drive
customers away.
Engaged employees are happier,
healthier, and perform at a higher level. UnitedHealth
Groups 2013 Health
and Volunteering Study
indicates that People who volunteer report that they
feel better emotionally, mentally and physically, and
research from the University
of Georgia Terry College of Business
shows that employee volunteering is linked to greater
workplace productivity and satisfaction. Jessica Rodell,
author of the research, says, Overwhelmingly employees
who volunteered gave more time and effort to their jobs,
were more willing to help out their colleagues, talked more
positively about their companies and were less likely to do
detrimental things like cyberloaf or waste time on the
job.
When employees perform well and
contribute to business goals, this gives management more
reason to recognize those employees efforts. In the
Millennial Impact Report, More than half (53%) of
respondents said having their passions and talents
recognized and addressed is their top reason for remaining
at their current company. When companies recognize
employees for good work, it reinforces that behavior and
sets the foundation for a pattern of positive performance in
the future. A case study of an employee recognition program
established by The Walt Disney World Resort showed a
15% increase in staff satisfaction with their day-to-day
recognition by their immediate supervisors. These results
correlated highly with high guest-satisfaction scores, which
showed a strong intent to return, and therefore directly
flowed to increased profitability.
Monetizing
Volunteerism
There are a variety of ways to
structure an employee volunteer program and a wide range of
volunteer activities to offer, including day of service
events, ongoing volunteer opportunities throughout the year,
skills giving and pro bono services. Choosing the right mix
ultimately depends on what your employee interests and
company goals are, as well as what type of support
nonprofits need. I wont delve into that right now, but
some good resources to look at are HandsOn Networks
guide, Developing
Excellence in Workplace Volunteer
Programs
and LGB Associates report, Balancing
Pro Bono Supply and Demand: Challenges and Solutions from
the Nonprofit Point of View.
When it comes to measuring employee
volunteer and skills giving programs, companies typically
track things like the number of hours volunteered, employee
participation rates, types of services delivered and to
whom, and employee values such as satisfaction and skill
development. But did you know volunteer time can be
monetized?
Volunteerism is a difficult concept to
monetize because the myriad ways volunteers contribute are
not always measurable. But in looking at what is
quantifiable, Independent Sector estimates, an hour of
volunteer time in 2013 was worth $22.55 per hour. Derived
from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics database of
job functions and mean wages, this calculation is a way to
assign a monetary value to the time your employees donate.
So if 50 of your employees each volunteer 8 hours to a
nonprofit throughout the course of a year, instead of
reporting that your company volunteered 400 hours, you can
share that your companys volunteerism provided
approximately $8,856 worth of volunteer time to that
nonprofit. Thats a significant business contribution
to the community, and a value your Board and other important
stakeholders are more likely to comprehend and
appreciate.
Investing in Employee Volunteer
& Skills Giving Programs is Good Business
Sense
Lets go back to our example of
the company with 50 employees and an average of 5 employees
leaving each year (a 10% turnover rate). According to
VolunteerMatch, The most successful Employee Volunteer
Programs (EVPs) invest an average of $179 per employee
per year in employee engagement. VolunteerMatch notes,
That data includes some of the biggest companies in
the world. The range for investment by excellent EVPs is
actually $18 to $800 per employee per year. Eighteen dollars
per year could be doable, even for a small mom-and-pop
outfit. Another thing to remember: most companies spend far
more than $179 per employee on training costs this
type of engagement both reinforces and supplements employee
development.
This means, for the company with 50
employees, it would cost a total of $900 to $8,950 a year to
implement an employee volunteer program for all employees
combined. Thats a pretty low cost to absorb when you
consider that it would cost the company roughly $15,000 to
replace just one of those employees ($75,000 to replace
five).
Employee volunteer and skills giving
programs have steadily been moving towards the center of
many corporations' social responsibility initiatives over
the last decade. This surge in interest in volunteerism
coincides with the dire need many nonprofits have for
support. However, only 59% of companies surveyed in
CECPs 2014
Giving in Numbers report,
provided paid-release time volunteer programs in 2013 (up
from 51% in 2010), and 50% of companies provided pro bono
service programs in 2013 (up from 34% in 2010). While these
trends are certainly encouraging, it shows there are still a
significant number of companies missing out on the benefits
of employee volunteer programs.
More than ever, charities are better
positioned and interested in partnering with companies and
engaging with corporate employees. However, as a survey
respondent stated in Americas Charities
2014
Snapshot Report: Rising Tide of
Expectations,
Companies shouldnt look at their work with nonprofits
as transactional events but rather as building a
relationship with a trusted go to partner that
is working to achieve mutual goals. Through employee
volunteer and skills giving programs, companies have the
opportunity to help build nonprofit capacity and empower
employees to give their time and talent. And all of this is
good for the companys employee retention and bottom
line.
Sarah Ford is Associate
Marketing Manager at Americas Charities, a
mission-driven organization that connects public and
private sector employers with charities to engage
employees in greater giving. Since 1980, America's
Charities has been at the forefront of workplace giving's
transformation from paper pledges to digital
platforms, from giving to engagement, from traditional
fall campaigns to year-round opportunities inside and
outside the walls of the workplace.
Our experience combined with an
accountable and transparent process has resulted in the
distribution of more than $650 Million to over 10,000
charities addressing a range of causes including
education, human rights, hunger, poverty, research,
animals, veterans, disaster relief and health
services.
Source: www.charities.org/news/business-case-employee-volunteer-skills-giving-programs?gclid=Cj0KEQjw4J-6BRD3h_KIoqijwvkBEiQAfcPiBYgIFgKg92z4pAtYD8P11QNDu6HzDoVdLH92h7nPqgwaAqrs8P8HAQ
©2007-2023,
www.TheCitizensWhoCare.org/volunteer-benefits.html
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