The Covid pandemic saw volunteering numbers drop, with many long-term volunteers not returning. Since then, the volunteering landscape has altered in some ways, and many community organisations have had to change the way they work with volunteers. To appeal to new demands of corporates, volunteer involving organisations now offer one-time volunteering opportunities for groups throughout the year, such as groups of corporate employee volunteers.
Corporate Volunteering for team-based days may seem like it presents a lot more work for community organisations in comparison with individual volunteering. However there are benefits for the organisation that they may not have previous considered: achieving larger amounts of work in a shorter time, employees coming back and volunteering personally, fostering relationships with corporates and more.
Many businesses, as part of their corporate social responsibility, offer staff annual corporate volunteering days to their employees. Companies may have designated staff who manage their corporate volunteering activities, may partner with an external agency such as Volunteering Queensland to manage their program, or may encourage staff members to seek their own volunteering experiences.
If you don’t have a corporate volunteering program or corporate social responsibility program in your business, you might wonder where to start.
First, chat with your team
There are a few things to consider when determining where your team of employees should volunteer.
Type of volunteering: discuss with your team about what types of community organisations they would like to support and which align with your business. Consider what types of volunteering your staff want to do – outdoor labour, deskwork, craft?
Days and times: every volunteer involving organisation is different, however, most are generally looking for volunteer groups of between 5 and 20 for a half to full day during the week. Once you have shortlisted some options give them a call to discuss how your team can help. If you have a group too large for one organisation, consider splitting the days into two or supporting multiple organisations.
Costs involved: volunteer involving organisations are often not-for-profits that rely on funding and donations. Some require a nominated financial contribution for your staff to volunteer, which might cover staff time to perform inductions and supervision, materials such as PPE, painting materials or groceries.
Other things to keep in mind are whether the volunteer involving organisation requires training to be completed prior to the day of volunteering, whether volunteers need blue or yellow cards or Covid vaccinations.
How to find a corporate volunteering opportunity
Following are some ideas to help you source corporate volunteering experiences:
- Search www.volunteeringqld.org.au/roles/ with the filter ‘Good for’ for ‘Groups of 10 or more’.
- Think about the types of organisations that you might like to support, perhaps that are close to your heart, and do a web search. Often organisations that offer corporate volunteering have more information on their website.
Examples include visiting seniors at an aged care facility, cooking meals for the food insecure, picking up rubbish, weeding and planting a nature reserve, and painting and maintenance crisis accommodation just to name a few.
- Visit social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram and search hashtags for #corporatevolunteering or #csr to find some posts and get ideas of where others have volunteered their staff.
What if an organisation doesn’t appear to offer corporate volunteering?
Just because you can’t find corporate volunteering information on their website does not mean that they wouldn’t benefit from assistance from you and your team. Call them and discuss what team size, time and skills you have to offer. You may be their first corporate volunteering team and great things can come of this in the future.
Considerations:
- Ensure that both your organisation and the volunteer involving organisation you plan to volunteer with have appropriate insurance.
- Allow time for the community organisation to book a corporate volunteering event – it can take a lot of planning for them to accommodate your group.
There are many Volunteering Queensland members that offer corporate volunteering opportunities to corporates for one-off experiences which you can view on our Volunteering Queensland website.
If you are still not sure where to start and would like Volunteering Queensland to do the heavy lifting, please contact corporate@volunteeringqld.org.au