Impact of Skills-Based Volunteering

To understand the impact of skills-based volunteering, let's start with the fact that social responsibility has gained a lot of traction in the corporate and nonprofit industries. The recent years have seen a consistent prominence in how the corporate world has embraced corporate social responsibility and volunteerism to give back and help communities. These include traditional philanthropic actions as well as emerging ways to influence change.One clear and effective way to promote social responsibility while providing an avenue for employees to share their expertise with others in the community is through skills-based volunteering. Skills-Based Volunteering (SBV) is becoming increasingly important because it can leverage each employee's skills and strengths in creating a positive impact on the world.

What is Skills-Based Volunteering?

Skills-Based Volunteering is a rapidly-growing citizenship program wherein corporate employees use their specialized skills to volunteer and help a nonprofit implement its program and mission. Companies have a gold mine of team members with specialized skills to deliver voluntary work across different industries. When you leverage your employees' abilities, talents, resources, and networks for volunteer work, you optimize your company's overall social impact.

What is the impact?

As a positive agent for employee growth, company financial stability, and better brand recognition, skills-based volunteerism has long-term benefits for the nonprofits, volunteers, and companies they represent.

1. Employee Engagement and Satisfaction: Skills-Based Volunteering is a perfect merger for individual purpose and passion. Skills-based volunteerism empowers professionals to help better the world while honing their skills and building their networks. Aside from deepening employee's commitment to their respective organization, volunteering is a fun and productive way for them to learn about themselves and the communities they serve. Volunteerism allows employees to use their specialized skills and expertise in driving a positive social change.
2. Business Success: Companies and organizations that invest in skills-based volunteer events provide a more meaningful and lasting experience to their employees and the nonprofit sector. Having a solid SBV program and implementation fosters a strong workplace culture that drives diversity, engagement, productivity, and efficiency into your organization. Powerful community partnerships and investing in your community also lead to deeper brand recognition and awareness.
3. Nonprofit Needs are Effectively Addressed: Nonprofits often face the challenge of a lean overhead cost on workforce and talent resources to provide more considerable funds to programs that directly impact the communities they serve. This funding constraint de-prioritizes other beneficial initiatives and disrupts their overall mission to better the communities. Skills-based volunteering provides social sectors and nonprofits with professionals and skilled talents to help them on a pro-bono basis. Skills-based volunteerism effectively addresses the challenge of having access to people with specialized skills to help them without any additional cost.

From strategy to design to implementation of skills-based volunteering, we're here to support you. Get in touch with us today to learn about skills-based volunteer opportunities and programs for your company!