12 Ideas for Corporate Volunteering

Looking for meaningful ways to engage your employees in the community and beyond? Consider a corporate volunteering initiative. Encouraging outreach can yield great results for both small and large companies.

What Is Corporate Volunteering?

Volunteering is one of the ways a company can commit to the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility, the idea by which “a company achieves a balance of economic, environmental and social imperatives, while at the same time addressing the expectations of shareholders and stakeholders.” More than just looking good on paper, promoting volunteerism shows a commitment to community needs and enhancing the overall well-being of each employee. Companies may provide regularly scheduled time off for group volunteering projects or other incentives to encourage individual engagement.

Benefits of Corporate Volunteering

Pursuing community service can offer benefits to those giving and those receiving.

• Provides positive motivation. Employees who seek meaning in their work can find motivation to stay engaged and set personal goals for their careers, encouraging retention and longevity.
• Helps develop empathy. Seeing the world through another person’s eyes is the best way to develop empathy, a vital skill for teamwork and leadership. Empathy contributes to improved relationships among employees and a better working environment.
• Enhances your company’s reputation. Many consumers and clients want to work with companies who care for more than just the bottom line. A regular practice of serving in the community will help attract those potential employees and customers whose values align.
• Promotes unity of purpose. Especially for projects where all employees participate, volunteering can promote unity and focus, and build relationships among team members outside the work setting. It can help define company culture to include philanthropy as a core value.

Ideas for Corporate Volunteering

Effective corporate volunteering initiatives, writes Julian Hayes II, “require intentionality and personalization. Employees should have the opportunity to tailor their volunteer experiences to align with their passions rather than solely focusing on organizational goals.” With that in mind, here are some ideas to both engage the whole group and give employees some leeway to pursue their passions:

1. Community Garden

Does your business have space to create a vegetable or flower garden to benefit the community? Even a small patch and some dedicated volunteers can flourish with native flowers to attract pollinators or full of vegetables that can be donated to food pantries or just given away at a farm stand. Stepping outside the office for gardening can be a welcome break to those with the passion for it, and the results can benefit the community.

2. Food Banks

Even if you’re not providing the donations, employees working at a food bank or community kitchen can be a great way to give regular time. In addition to volunteer shifts, your company could organize food drives.

3. School Backpack Lunch Program

Many elementary and middle schools provide food for children on weekends and are often looking for donations and time. Your company could adopt a school in the community or one where workers’ children attend.

4. Blood Drive

Consider hosting a blood drive with the local blood bank in your area. In addition to recruiting employees to donate, you could reach out to friends and family members. Blood drives often include incentives like gift cards or other swag and a canteen for after-donation snacks, both of which your company could provide.

5. Online Workshop

A free workshop is a way to tap into the skills and talents of your employees to share with community members. An accountancy firm, for example, could run a workshop about how to file a simple tax return.

6. Nonprofit Adoption

Lots of nonprofits rely on the service of regular volunteers. Your company could adopt a nonprofit with a committed number of volunteer hours. Nonprofits like a literacy center or an English language skills school can provide tutoring opportunities for a wide variety of employees.

7. Nonprofit Volunteering

The budgets of smaller nonprofits are often stretched thin, and employees end up wearing many hats. You could provide complimentary professional services like financial planning or project management to a local nonprofit.

8. Large Single Project

Charities like Habitat for Humanity are a great choice for a planned, single-day project that can involve everyone. This can be something that’s always on the yearly calendar and which employees expect and look forward to.

9. Creative Skills

If your company is made up of creatives, you could find a way to share those skills. You could donate a certain number of logo designs to nonprofits, for example, or provide banner or literature design for a charity event.

10. Mentorship

You could consider collaborating with the community college system to identify people who could benefit from business mentorship. Or the Small Business Administration has a program where people can volunteer their time to provide mentorship to people starting small businesses. Offer those in your company with management skills and help bolster small business entrepreneurs in your community.

11. Grant Fund

Your company could allocate a fund each year that provides grants according to employee applications. These could include donations to local nonprofits, a match for a donation drive, donations to someone starting a small business in your community, or scholarships for education or certificate classes related to your company’s field. 

12. Volunteer Time Off

This is a program where the employees decide where they want to spend their volunteer hours. You just provide the paid time off. Typically, there is an approval process where the employee submits the date and duration of the volunteer shift, but the more generous the company policy, the more likely employees will take advantage of it. This is a great way to involve remote workers in the initiative since they can participate in the communities in which they live.

Corporate volunteering isn’t a one-size-fits-all endeavor. You may need to try a few initiatives to see what works best for your company. Finding ways to give back to the community can inspire unity and goodwill as part of the company culture.