A new resource on my web site:
Incorporating virtual volunteering into a corporate employee volunteer program
(a resource for businesses / for-profit companies)
Virtual volunteering – volunteers providing service via a computer, smart phone, tablet or other networked advice – presents a great opportunity for companies to expand their employee philanthropic offerings. Through virtual volunteering, some employees will choose to help organizations online that they are already helping onsite. Other employees who are unable to volunteer onsite at a nonprofit or school will choose to volunteer online because of the convenience. This resource reviews what your company needs to do, step-by-step, to launch or expand virtual volunteering as a part of your employee volunteering program.
Inspired by my recent webinar with Kaye Morgan-Curtis, of Newell Rubbermaid for VolunteerMatch: Virtual Volunteering: An Untapped Resource for Employee Engagement.
Ah. The Corporate Employee Volunteering program. CSR or BS?
We see it in the takeover of key leadership positions. We see it in the board membership of major not for profits. We see it in the changing of words and the meaning of words. The corporatisation of volunteering. It is happening and we are letting it happen. Check out a few major charities and their board members. Many come from the corporate world. Big banks. Other financial institutions. Other major corporations. We are told we need them for business acumen.
Corporations are an example of a good idea taken much too far. Capitalism, in and of itself, is not so bad, however when businesses become too large they begin to choke out all the competition, which leaves only a handful of people in charge of an entire industry. Corporations have successfully bought the government, lobby the government to restrict personal freedoms, will invade other countries through the use of the government for a resource, exploit labour both adult and child, put massive amounts of chemicals in our food, and last but not least find a way to scam the everyday common man or woman out of his/her money.
And yet we have fallen for the CSR bulldust – Corporate Social Responsibility – the wolf in sheep’s clothing. And I see no debate anywhere about the Corporate Volunteer. The Corporate volunteer is juxtaposition. Like the healthy Big Mac. It tastes ok but deep down you know it’s kinda bad.
People getting paid to volunteer by corporations is no more volunteering than a not for profit paying someone for their work.
Not for profit is being changed to ‘For purpose”. People working for charities are being made redundant because of “the bottom line” Meanwhile Exec pays in charities are going through the roof. Check out the salaries of the Execs of your major charities in your country. You will be shocked.
Corporate jargon is infecting us like a bad rash. Corporate volunteering is organisational engineering.
A point of clarification:
“People getting paid to volunteer by corporations is no more volunteering than a not for profit paying someone for their work.”
The board members of nonprofits are not paid. These are unpaid volunteers. In fact, many boards of directors require members to make a substantial financial gift annually to the nonprofit and to raise a particular amount of money each year.
In addition, most volunteers who participate in corporate volunteering schemes are UNPAID for their time of service to the nonprofit – they volunteer outside of work hours.
“In addition, most volunteers who participate in corporate volunteering schemes are UNPAID for their time of service to the nonprofit – they volunteer outside of work hours.”
Perhaps. In the United States. That is not the model here in Australia. So you are telling me that corporates encourage or “make” their employees volunteer? If they don’t agree are there consequence? Is there any peer pressure at their place of work to buy into their corporates CSR?
True , board members are not paid. But many come from a corporate background. indeed for many it is their so called CSR to sit on a NFP Board. Plus it looks good on the CV I guess.
Wow. You are making a lot of assumptions about corporations. Your language strongly implies that you don’t like folks from the corporate sector involved at all in the nonprofit sector.
“So you are telling me that corporates encourage or ‘make’ their employees volunteer?”
No. I never said nor implied that.
“If they don’t agree are there consequence? Is there any peer pressure at their place of work to buy into their corporates CSR?”
Corporate volunteering comes in a range of schemes: some corporations give employees 10, 20, even 40 hours of paid time off where they can volunteer with any nonprofit or public school of their choice. All the employee has to do is turn in paperwork, just like when they are going to take vacation, to say they are taking the time and what the name of the nonprofit or public school is. Sounds generous, but most employees at such companies never take that time off, and in surveys, they say they feel pressure NOT to take the time off from immediate supervisors. Other corporations organize group volunteering days, where, say, the entire IT department goes to a nonprofit and sets up or upgrades all the IT systems, or the entire facilities department goes to a homeless shelters and does a bunch of repairs (these two examples are ones I helped coordinate, one as a corporate volunteering coordinator and one as a manager at a nonprofit). Other corporations just encourage employees to volunteer outside of work hours, give them links to VolunteerMatch and that’s it.
Some corporations look at encouraging employees to volunteer as a good PR move. Some look at it as part of their obligation of being a part of a community. Some of it is done with a specific agenda. Sure, there are people that do it from a place of arrogance, some that do it from a place of wanting to dominate, and some do it because they truly care – you know, a lot like the people that choose to work at (or even start) nonprofits.
“True , board members are not paid. But many come from a corporate background. ”
And that’s a problem because? Boards must raise funds – that’s their primary role. They are the fiscal agent of the nonprofit. Some boards heavily influence program choices, some don’t. I’ve never worked at a nonprofit where a board member chose which programs the nonprofit would offer, what plays the nonprofit theater would perform, what clients the nonprofit would serve, etc. – and I don’t think I could work at such a nonprofit. But if you have a *specific* example of such, not just a generalization, you are welcome to share it in the comments.
If you want nonprofits to not involve corporations – no board roles, no volunteering, no donations – how do you propose nonprofits be funded?