For many individuals, volunteering is a way of life — a desire to give back to your community and those in need. April is National Volunteer Month and marks a perfect time to examine ways to incorporate volunteerism into your regular business practices; whether on an individual, group or companywide level.
Below are a number of examples of ways you can make a dedication to volunteering part of your overall business model and encourage employee participation:
1. Look Within Your Customers and Clients for Opportunities — One of the best ‘low hanging fruit’ ways to find an organization to support is examining those you may already be working with. For example, you may provide custodial services or financial consulting to a chapter of the Boys & Girls Club in your market. But, have you ever examined ways to further support the organization? Take a look at your roster of clients, customers and associates and learn a bit about what they might do. Snapp & Associates proudly lists the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) San Diego as a client and routinely provides financial support as well as sharing volunteer opportunities for employees such as working their outreach and special event programs.
2. Seek “Out of the Box” Support and Volunteering Opportunities — One factor sometimes limiting volunteer participation is a lack of desire to do yet another 5K or attend one more fundraising auction, etc. Get employees on board by identifying some opportunities that are more fun and engaging. Snapp team members routinely support the Boys to Men mentoring organization by participating in the annual “100 Wave Challenge” — committing to surf 100 consecutive waves on a designated day and encouraging friends and loved ones to sponsor their waves. Look around your market for opportunities unique to your neighborhood — Join the Make-A-Wish Trailblazer Challenge if you are in a mountainous or hilly zone; Signing up for an Earth Day creek cleanup is a great way to get everyone active, outside and interacting.
3. Sign up for Opportunities to Support the Supporters — Your employees may not feel confident in surfing 100 waves or answering calls on a mental health warm line. However, there are numerous ways to continue to support other volunteers. If your office is participating in a fundraising 5K walk but you physically can’t complete the course, find out if volunteers are needed to stuff goodie bags, hand out snacks or even serve as an event photographer. Whenever a volunteer opportunity is presented to your team, be sure to list all the different ways everyone can volunteer — You will likely end up with a larger overall turnout.
4. Encourage Employees to Support Their Favorite Causes Individually as Well — Offering employees time off (without digging in to PTO or floating holidays) to volunteer in support of an organization close to their heart should be part of your overall employee benefit package. One consideration is making a specific mention of a number of hours that will be granted for time off each year to support volunteer efforts — And using that specific benefit in job offers and recruiting. Attracting talent that is committed to helping others almost universally leads to candidates with a propensity towards supporting and uplifting others.
5. Look at Your Inventory — and Spread it Around! — If your business stores a lot of inventory or does seasonal purchasing, look at ways to volunteer as a company by donating unused or overstock inventory to organizations in need. Do you have cabinets full random cables and wires? Check to see if the local high school computer or robotics club could use them. Even equipment you may not think is of use can be helpful. Those leftover tarps from when you repaired your roof last year? They might make a perfect gift to an animal rescue organization that needs to protect pens from the elements. When thinking about corporate volunteering, don’t forget to think how your stuff, not just your people can be of service!
6. Highlight Your Volunteering Employees Externally — April (and all year round) is a great time to honor and highlight those employees that have volunteered their time in the past year. Use your social media accounts to share photos of group or individual volunteer efforts and make sure to tag and provide information on the organizations you have been supporting — Not only does this give you a chance to recognize employee efforts but your posting and tagging further enhances the community organization’s social presence and SEO standing — A double boost for your efforts!
7. Match Volunteers With Mentors — As part of the new employee/onboarding process, make part of the initial orientation a discussion of any specific passion projects or community areas of interest. Once the new employee is situated in their role, institute a mentorship/matching program where you facilitate an introduction between employees with similar volunteer passions to generate opportunities for joint participation in events or team collaboration.
8. Identify “Third Party Benefit” Opportunities — One of the ways companies can make volunteering part of their corporate culture is figuring out ways to take existing programs and events and turn them into third party beneficiary opportunities — Meaning your company creates or holds an event that has either a participatory element (hiking group) or fundraising component (annual dinner that might have an auction) and designate a third party community group as the beneficiary. For example, harness the power of your employee hiking group and agree to schedule one of your hikes for a coastal cleanup day or name a local children’s reading program the beneficiary for your annual basket auction at the company holiday party. Using ways to maximize programs and efforts already underway for a greater community impact is an excellent way to engage employees all year long!
