Make Your Month-Long Plan:
Gather your resources and team to make sure everyone is on board and ready to bring their A-game. Depending on the size of your company and the systems you use, you can have a lot of different options on how to reach out. If you don’t have a corporate philanthropy software in place, reaching out through email or through your company’s intranet is more effective than posting a flyer. However, using a system built for organizing volunteering events is most recommended because it helps organize and manage the entire process from one portal. Whichever way you choose to reach out, make sure everyone feels included and can take part in this month-long event! Below are ideas and steps to check off your list as you plan your extravaganza.
- Determine the duration of your campaign: You can select one company-wide volunteering day or set up your campaign to last throughout National Volunteering Week (April 15 - April 21). Otherwise, promoting volunteering throughout the month on an individual level is great too! Each company is different, so make sure to determine the duration of your campaign based on what suits your culture.
- Find a volunteering platform: Figure out what charities, organizations or communities you want your volunteers to take on. Better yet, let them decide! The best way to engage your team is to let them pick the type of activity. You can do this company-wide or by department too.
- Gather volunteers: You don’t need a whole army, but make sure you have enough volunteers to accommodate whichever platform you choose. Encourage employees to share their participation with other members of their team! On average, 67% of employees were more likely to volunteer if their co-workers participated.
- Create an itinerary: Make sure you have the nitty-gritty details worked out in each event your company is taking part in. This includes: date, time, duration of event and how work hours should be handled.
- Provide an incentive: Whether it’s paid time out of the office for volunteering or a “Dollars for Doers” initiative, you’ll want to offer some sort of incentive to increase employee involvement.
- Mobile: Make sure that signing up for each of these volunteering events is easy and accessible to any employee. The simpler it is to get signed up, the more likely you are to get more employees involved. This is where having a corporate philanthropy system really becomes crucial!
Set Your Volunteers Up for Success:
Use National Volunteer Month to get your teammates involved in something that is worthwhile. Make sure when the time comes your volunteers are prepared to have an enjoyable experience so they want to participate again and again. Use these tips:
- Pre Event - Provide coffee, lunch and snacks if you choose to do a company-wide or department-wide volunteering event to keep your employees energized and feeling that added appreciation for their efforts.
- Post Event - Give Recognition: Show your volunteers that you appreciate their hard work for their community or charity, and that it doesn’t go unnoticed! Host a reception at the end of the week to commemorate the event and acknowledge participation. Make this a tradition to build traction throughout the company and watch participation skyrocket!
Share Your Volunteering Contributions:
There are multiple benefits and rewards when it comes to employee volunteering, so make sure to share their efforts! It’s a great way to get some major PR points and to bring in potential new talent for your business. In fact, 88% of HR executives believe volunteering has a positive impact on an organization’s reputation. Check out some ways you can share your impact with the world:
- Create a report: Share the facts and numbers behind the different impacts and events you took part in with the rest of the company and community.
- Make a recap video: Develop a heartwarming video that illustrates your employee volunteering event. You can even record volunteer work throughout the month or year to make a recap!
- Infographic: Putting together a stellar infographic can be beneficial for you, your team and the community to look at and see the progress and accomplishments your company has made through employee volunteering.
About Liz Bardetti:
Seasoned advertising and marketing professional with 15+ years experience, including work for Gatorade, Welch’s and most recently, CyberGrants. CyberGrants is the preferred CSR software provider to the best philanthropic corporations around the globe. Our clients represent over 50% of the Fortune 100 and nearly one-third of all corporate giving. In the last twelve months alone, CyberGrants helped 250 customers give $6.5 billion plus more than 50 million volunteer hours to over 400,000 non-profit organizations.
